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Super/System
Super/System is one of the most famous and seminal books about how to play poker.
History and title
Super/System was primarily written by Doyle Brunson who, at the time of publication in 1979 (ISBN 1580420818), had won the main event of the World Series of Poker in 1976 and 1977. The book was one of the first comprehensive books on strategies for various poker games. Many notable poker players and tournament champions contributed sections.
The title of the book was originally How I Made Over $1,000,000 Playing Poker. The title is also sometimes written as Super System, sans slash; Doyle Brunson's Super System; or Super/System: A Course in Power Poker.
Contents
The book begins with a biographical sketch of Doyle Brunson and then quickly discusses general poker strategy. General strategy includes controlling emotion, watching competitors play, reasoning out play, and other similar tips that benefit all forms of poker play.
The sections of the book dedicated to strategy were divvied up as follows:
- Draw poker written by Mike Caro. Amongst other things, Caro writes in detail about tells, how to gain information about an opponents hand based on how they act. He is regarded as an expert on poker psychology and behavior, and would later go on to write his own seminal book on tells.
- Seven-card stud written by Chip Reese
- Lowball written by Joey Hawthorne and Doyle Brunson
- Seven-card stud high-low split (with no qualifier for low) by David Sklansky
- Limit Texas hold 'em by Bobby Baldwin
- No-limit Texas hold 'em by Doyle Brunson
Finally, there is a comprehensive list of probability and statistics calculated by Mike Caro. In addition to raw numbers, many scenarios are investigated and common questions are answered.
Influence
Many of todays top poker players, young and old, swear by Super/System. Although 25 years have passed since the original publication, it still contains relevant strategies and statistics. Brunson himself believes that because the book has been so influential, it probably cost him more money than he was paid for writing it.
Many of the poker variants are played differently today, and there are many new variants that are not covered in Super/System, so the book has been superseded in some areas. A newly written edition titled Super System 2 was published in October 2004 (ISBN 1580421369).
