Best Poker Books of All Time

Excelling at No-Limit Hold’em is a sensation in poker publishing. Renowned poker professional and author Jonathan Little brings together 17 of the greatest no-limit experts in the world to discuss all aspects of the game. These experts include superstars such as Phil Hellmuth, Chris Moneymaker, Mike Sexton and Jared Tendler.

If you want to excel at the game you’ll need to buy this book, study Alex’s method and work hard – but you don’t need talent. Alex’s method focuses on understanding generic poker situations and not specific hands. As a highly experienced teacher, he expresses his ideas in simple, easy-to-understand language.

Similar to Gus Hansen’s “Every Hand Revealed”, this book chronicles the amazing story of Qui Nguyen’s dominating victory at the 2016 WSOP Final Table. Over 170 hands are intimately reviewed by Qui and his poker advisor (and founder of Advanced Poker Training) Steve Blay.

Ed Miller is known for providing great poker literature, and this book lives up to that reputation. You can learn all sort of fundamentals from other books, but this one will develop your skills far beyond the basics. If you're looking to take your poker game to the next level, this is the book for you. It is certainly a "must own."

I'll be the first to say it: this book is old. However, don't let that fool you. The content provided by Dan Harrington, one of the undisputed leaders in poker books, is simply fantastic. This book has long been called the best book for learning about tournament poker, and for good reason. If you're struggling with tournaments, this is the choice for you.

Recommended by 2013 WSOP One Drop champion Tony Gregg and 2012 WSOP Main Event chamption Greg Merson, this book offers insight like no other. In poker, you can't always win, and sometimes when you play, your mind isn't in it. Learning how to deal with the mental aspects of the game is often one of the hardest parts when trying to improve your play. Let Tendler and Carter help you sharpen your mind and make sure you're always playing your A game.

Most great poker players play all the time. They're grinders. Ashton Cartwright compiles the knowledge of more than two dozen pros from across the world into his book. It's full of insight on the career of a pro poker player, what it takes, and how it's different than playing as an amateur. This isn't full of hand histories or pot odds, but rather the lifestyle of a pro. It's a good read that's a little different from the more conventional poker book.

Two heavyweights in poker literature come together to cut through the noise and bring you only what matters. This book starts with specific hands to show you the difference between amateur thinking and professional thinking. Then, it gives you a series of missions to practice and hone your skills. Stop making mistakes in your game and really improve with this book.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about poker books is that they're dry and hard to read. This one's different. Gus Hansen condenses tons of valuable knowledge, but presents it in an almost conversational tone. After recording information and thoughts about hands while in the middle of a tournament, Hansen goes back to explain it all in this book. His fresh thoughts give insight that you've never read in a poker book. This will help you improve your game and bring your profits through the roof.

There is no player more legendary than Doyle Brunson, and there is no book more legendary than Super System.  Although some of the sections of this book are outdated, Doyle’s section on No-Limit cash games is still as relevant today as ever.  His playing style, now commonplace among players everywhere, was a carefully guarded secret up until this book’s publication.  He taught an entire generation of players – in fact, he received criticism from many of the poker elite for revealing too much!

In the world of famous poker books, this one is second only to Super System.  Mike Caro reveals all of his personal secrets for reading players that made him rich at the poker table.  Body language, betting flair, speaking tells, and even “Pokerclack” – it’s all in there (seriously, I here pokerclack almost every time I play, that tip alone was worth the price of the book).  If you play live poker, you’ve got to have this book.  If you only play online, it won’t help you out too much.

No list of poker books would be complete without this one.  Even though it focuses on limit poker, and many of the examples aren’t even Hold’em, the concepts discussed in this book give you the foundations needed to beat any poker game.  I reference this book on a regular basis when I think I need a refresher on the concepts surrounding different plays, such as bluffing, semi-bluffing, slowplaying, etc.  This book also provides the best discussion of position in any book on the market.  But don’t think this is light reading.  Sklansky is a theorist and you can expect to need to re-read a single chapter several times to get the full value from this book.  Do it.