World Poker Tour DVD Great Learning Tool; Triple Crown Handicapper Helpful

17 March 2004

By Howard Schwartz

Besides providing some exciting poker viewing, The World Poker Tour (Season One Collection) ($99.99 for eight DVSs/13 episodes) is one of the best teaching tools ever for the person who dreams of making it big on the poker tournament circuit. Gambler's Book Club has this teaching tool/great gift item in stock now.

The first every poker tour involved about $10 million in cash.

The strength of the collection, narrated by Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, is in its ability to teach you which two cards are worth holding in big stakes tournament play; pinpointing timely bluffs; isolating "tells" and emphasizing the importance of position and knowledge of your opponent's habits and type of play. They also provide some insight into psychological ploys; establishing "table persona" (conservative; unpredictable; brooding, dark glasses to hide your emotions; occasional maniac play).

You'll get a chance to compare different styles of play by international, world class individuals, many of who have played at Binion's World Series of Poker including previous champions like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Gun Hansen, Phil Ivey, Layne Flack and top women players like Jennifer Harman.

The tour begins with play at Bellagio in Las Vegas, then moves to the Bicycle Casino; moving later to locales like Casino Europa; Aviation Club de France; the Reno Hilton. Total running time for the collection is 1,200 minutes which includes footage not shown on the Travel Channel where the tour originally ran.

On the horse racing front, two new books for 2004 are the Triple Crown Handicapper (97 pages, 8x11 spiralbound, $29.95), which should prepare serious handicappers for betting the Kentucky Derby (May 1) Preakness (May 15) and the Belmont Stakes (June 5).

This book is for those who look for trends, patterns, some common denominator in the three big races, such as how often favorites have won ; running styles; number of races as two-year-olds or three year-olds; money earned; number of days between last Derby prep and first Saturday in May; workout analysis; Beyer patterns; trainer records in the Derby; post position angles. This is an enormous time-saver and a solid, specialized reference.

Jay and Mike Helm of City Miner Books have produced a Turf Trainer Guide (2004) (99 pages, 8x11 spiralbound, $35). The book references every known turf winner at the top 40 tracks in the U.S. from Jan. 2002 to Dec. 2003. It covers the major circuits in California, New York, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia.

Beneath each trainer's name, each of his turf winners is listed by year, class, track, distance, jockey, owner, sire, odds and important changes - such as coming off a layoff or claim, switches in distance and jockey, shipping in, dirt-to-turf, blinkers and first-time lasix. The guide identifies who the go-to price jockey for each trainer is, as well as who his sharp turf owners and sires are.

World Poker Tour DVD Great Learning Tool; Triple Crown Handicapper Helpful is republished from Online.CasinoCity.com.