Book Description
The most recent archaeological discoveries and a host of dramatic illustrations illuminate royal life at the court of the ancient Maya.
Maya artistic expression during the second half of the first millennium reached the highest peaks of opulence and cultural refinement in the New World. Living in a tropical rain forest, supported by a society of astonishing wealth and complexity, the ancient Maya kings and queens commissioned extraordinary works of art and architecture in order to memorialize themselves and to ensure their place in history.
Seated on thrones of jaguar pelt, rulers contemplated the social, religious, and political affairs of their kingdom while a coterie of dwarves, hunchbacks, scribes, singers, actors, fan bearers, and drummers catered to their every need. Supplicants of lordly favor brought lavish gifts and tribute, cloth and shells, beads and cacao. From one generation to another, nobles began to take on additional titles, providing an ever more refined notion of courtly rights and responsibilities, rankings and rituals.
Published to accompany a touring exhibition, this groundbreaking book gathers together the latest research into Maya civilization and hundreds of illustrations to illuminate their achievements. Nowhere is this more spectacularly revealed than at Palenque, but the courtly world becomes more tangible to us too from works found at Tonina, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, and Copan, among other places. Ceramic censers, stucco heads, jade masks, terra-cotta figurines, incised wood boxes, great carved limestone lintels—the range of objects is astounding, and they have been drawn together from major collections in the Americas, Europe, and Australia. 328 illustrations, 233 in color.
With contributions by: Guillermo Bernal Romero • Michael D. Coe • Martha Cuevas García • Beatriz de la Fuente • Héctor L. Escobedo • Roberto García Moll • Arnoldo González Cruz • Stephen D. Houston • Roberto López Bravo • Diana Magaloni • Julia C. Miller • Alfonso Morales • Merle Greene Robertson • David Stuart • Teresa Uriarte
Customer Reviews:
Mayan Art -- expected and not.......2004-10-21
I have had the great luck of being near San Francisco and thus being able to go to the Palace of the Legion of Honor and its show on Art of the Mayan Court. To say this show was staggering is something of an understatement. I have seen art shows on Magritte, Degas, Dali, Tutankhamen, the Celts, various Chinese exhibits and the like and I can say that this was probably my second favourite show, right after Treasures of Early Irish Art where I was able to see the Book of Kells, the Ardagh Chalice and the Tara Brooch.
Here was able to see works rather less known, but of such fascination and splendour that I have trouble trying to describe them. Luckily, this book exists.
The book not only has marvelous colour photos of the items from the exhibit, including many detail plates, but also in situ photos, especially of Palanque, the primary focus of the exhibit. On top of this the text of this book is incredibly helpful for those of us (most!) who know little or nothing of the various Mayan courts, their art, their mythology, and their history. No, this is not a complete history, though there are many excellent books on that topic that have been written since the decoding of the Mayan language (especially since the great leap in understanding since the early 1980s). Instead, this book provides basic understanding of the art and the context in which it was created.
This is a beautiful book, lovely to hold, well-bound, and full of great wonder. To leaf through it is to glimpse through the smoking mirror of Mayan folklore, receiving prophetic statements not always clearly stated, but intriguing nonetheless. To read the book is to glimpse behind that mirror and begin, somewhat, to understand a lost yet awesome culture.
Look, read, enjoy.
A Wonderful Achievement!.......2004-04-05
Mary Ellen Miller and Simon Martin build upon their previous triumphs with this excellent volume.
Mary Ellen collaborated with the legendary Linda Schele to co-curate The Blood of Kings exhibition and produce an exquisite catalogue in 1986. The exhibition was one of the seminal events in allowing the public, avocationals and their fellow scholars to witness the grandeur and magnificence of ancient Maya culture and science. Their groundbreaking research into concepts of Maya kingship, history, daily life, and Linda's work on the decipherment of the ancient Maya hieroglyphic writing system were brought together in that excellent catalogue.
In 2000, Simon (who has published extensively on Maya epigraphy and culture) co-authored Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens with Nikolai Grube. This work is one of the most readable, detailed and well organized volumes on Maya history to date.
These authors' continuation of building strength of their presentation through multidisciplinary collaboration makes their current volume, Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, a huge success.
The pages show their individual and shared strengths and skills as art historian, artist, epigrapher, as well as writing with a thorough grasp of their entire subject matter. Each, having collaborated with many colleagues in the vanguard of Maya studies, brings the comprehensive sum of the latest knowledge into this work.
One suspects that many comparisons will rightly be made to The Blood of Kings, and doing so seems a great compliment to this current work and the authors. Just as the 1986 exhibition and catalogue presented many very famous art objects and placed them into historical and cultural context in Maya history, the collection presented here may surpass the former one in terms of the variety and most of all the timeliness in which many objects are exhibited. Some of the highlighted objects of the current collection have only been excavated in the past decade. In particular, the exquisite platform tablet from Palenque Temple 21 has only come to light during INAH excavations in the past 5 years. It's presence in this collection is indeed remarkable. Additionally, the many beautiful pieces from Tonina have only been placed in that site's new regional museum and been available to the public in the past 5 years as well.
The value of this volume is greatly increased by the addition of detailed descriptions of the art objects, their context, and especially translations of the hieroglyphic writing, where present. The advances made in the writing system's decipherment in the past 20 years make the objects even more accessible to both students of Maya history and culture, and non-Mayanists as well. The beauty and quality of the photographic images and line drawings are especially impressive.
Anyone who has taken an interest in large art exhibitions of objects housed in such world-wide institutions has to stand in awe of this collection coming together. Those of use familiar with the art of Mesoamerica and the Maya world have looked forward to an exhibition of this type and scope in the U.S. for many years. It is a great tribute to the talents (and undoubtedly the great diplomacy) of Mary Ellen, Simon and the other curators to bring these objects into one great show. The catalogue that they have produced is not only a visual joy to linger over, but will be a valuable reference work for many years.
Having been elated with this catalogue, I cannot wait to travel to either (or both) Washington DC and San Francisco to view the collection first hand.
Book Description
This book celebrates the 200th anniversary of the historic Boston Athenaeum, one of this country's earliest and most prestigious repositories of books, paintings, sculpture, engravings, maps, photographs, manuscripts, decorative arts, and other artifacts of history and design. Acquired Tastes is the first in-depth, scholarly study of the Boston Athenaeum's collections and the manner in which they were gathered from the early nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries. These topics are expanded and brought into sharper focus in fully-illustrated catalogue entries on a wide variety of objects that represent the breadth of the Athenaeum's holdings.
From its founding in 1807, the Boston Athenaeum's primary mission has been to provide collections that stimulate study, discussion, and debate on all topics of interest to the enquiring mind. In the Enlightenment of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries--the historic period that saw the founding of the Boston Athenaeum and similar organizations--it was believed that intellectual endeavors more easily germinated and thrived in an atmosphere that was spacious, comfortable, quiet, and aesthetically pleasing. Here, books and manuscripts could be preserved, logically organized, and made accessible, and utilitarian objects could be logically grouped with didactic ones for comparison and discussion. In this setting, too, fine examples of paintings, sculpture, drawings, and engravings fulfilled their traditional purposes of education and inspiration and--together with those from the world of science--stimulated imaginations, im proved morals, and refined aesthetic tastes. Celebrate the Boston Athenaeum's 2007 bi-centennial with this lavish tribute, published in conjunction with one of the most ambitious Athenaeum exhibitions ever mounted.
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Boston Athenaeum Art Exhibition Index 1827-1874
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
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The Boston Athenaeum Collection: Pre-Twentieth-Century American and European Painting and Sculpture (The Boston Athenaeum Collection)
Jonathan P. Harding , and
Harry L. Katz
Manufacturer: Boston Athenaeum
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Book Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.
Book Description
A delightfully evil gift, How to Be a Villain is a step-by-step guide to joining the forces of darkness. Because, though villains may never win, they sure have more fun, hatching master plans for world domination, smoothing their dastardly tights. Neil Zawacki answers all the most urgent questions: Should I go with a black or red theme? Do I invest in an army of winged monkeys or ninja warriors? And just where will I put the evil hideout? Whether readers choose to pursue a career as a Criminal Mastermind, Mad Scientist, Corporate Bastard, or just a Wanna-be Evil Genius, they are sure to find plenty of tips for jumpstarting any evil enterprise. Cheaper than attending the annual bad guy conference and way more fun than being good, How to Be a Villain is guaranteed to elicit deep-throated evil laughs across the land.
Customer Reviews:
Mildly Amusing & Entertaining.......2007-08-18
I wasn't sure what I was getting after I ordered this book. It's in hardback and cute but not applicable at all. You see, I dream of being an evil overlord like Ming the Merciless or Dr. Victor Von Doom. I thought I'd learn how to go about it but the book is all tongue-in-cheek. Sadly I'm not. 8^) While not a sociopath, I am a psychopath in that I aspire to be a ruthless dictator and hoped this book might give me some food for thought.
The price is right for entertainment. Easy to read. H*ll I read it while riding on a business trip with some co-workers. They were sorely disappointed too as they all wanted to be my evil henchmen and kill me off once I had achieved the real power and success I dreamt of.
It's entertaining, amusing, thoughtful and fun to read but nothing in here is usable. I'll just have to stick with the Art of War, The Art of Warfare, the Prince and 48 Laws of Power....for now.
A HIT FOR WRITERS!.......2007-07-09
I was given this book as a birthday gift from someone who wasn't sure if the book was strictly fun or if the book was intended to help writers craft their villains. I'm still not sure, but I laughed the whole way through. The book covers every aspect of villainy from how to dress, what occupations to choose and where to locate your evil lair.
While reading this book, I was developing characters for my new novel and so I enjoyed the outrageous ideas even more. The book is written with a clean sense of humor appropriate even for kids, and it's silly enough that they'll get a few good laughs. There are a number of movie and book spoofs within the pages that you won't get if you haven't seen some classic movies, but for adults it's a gas.
I highly recommend this to anyone who loves stories. An excellent gift for the writer on your list.
CJ West
Author, Taking Stock, Sin And Vengeance
Moohahaha...Don't Read This Book If You Wear WHITE!.......2007-07-07
NOT FOR GOOD GUYS! This is a very amusing snarky look at all there is to being Evil, just like in the movies! Have you ever wanted evil minions? Get your answers here. What kind of costume should you adopt? This book lists out choices and possible strategies for all manner of issues. And there are others in this same series. The future is the children, so get this book for a kids TODAY.
boring.......2007-04-23
after i got it, i wished i hadn't purchased it. the book isn't as funny as i expected
Excellent!.......2007-04-13
I can't say how much I love this book! I highly recommend it to anyone who has even the slightest hint of dark humor taste. The book was in perfect condition.
Average customer rating:
- Tight, tight, tight: much better than the movie
- "Natural Born Killers" Original Screenplay Review
- Sometimes it can drag,but this is a great script.
- NATURAL BORN BORING
- Incredibly disappointing
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Natural Born Killers: The Original Screenplay
Quentin Tarantino
Manufacturer: Grove Press
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True Romance: The Screenplay
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PULP FICTION
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Death Proof: A Screenplay
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Jackie Brown: A ScreenPlay
ASIN: 0802134483
Release Date: 2000-06-07 |
Book Description
Natural Born Killers is a disturbing and brilliant indictment of violence in the media and American celebrity culture. Mickey and Mallory Knox, outlaw lovers on the run, go on a killing spree of startling viciousness -- and find themselves transformed into cult celebrities by the tabloid media. The film, directed by Oliver Stone, departed significantly from Tarantino's original screenplay, so much so that Tarantino removed his name from the screenplay credits. Now available in America for the first time, the original screenplay offers fans and film buffs of all stripes the opportunity to compare Tarantino's original vision with Stone's version of the story of Mickey and Mallory.
Customer Reviews:
Tight, tight, tight: much better than the movie.......2005-10-04
I've always wondered why people read plays but not movie scripts, and after reading "Natural Born Killers," I wonder that even more.
This is a great script for a movie that could have been excellent if Quentin Tarantino, the script's author, had directed the movie himself. I don't know WHAT Oliver Stone was trying to do.
The script, in case you don't know, is the story of a husband and wife with an insane past that go on a love-fuelled, almost invincible killing rampage across the country. Their crimes are senseless and random, and the media (and the public) LOVES them. It's the bizarre story of their killing sprees, their romance, their capture, and their escape, and...well, I don't want to give too much away.
The script follows an incredibly cool format, of being mostly an hour-long TV special about the two killers, intertwined with the people making the TV special and interviewing the killers themselves, intertwined with flashbacks.
It could have been an amazing movie, but instead we got a weird, cartoonish mess that exudes barely any of the well-developed themes, tight action, and believable characters (individuals and mobs) that Quentin Tarantino actually wrote.
Read the script, and skip the movie--that's what I say. Read the script, and hope that maybe someday Tarantino will remake the movie himself, the right way, the way it should have been.
"Natural Born Killers" Original Screenplay Review.......2005-07-18
There are people who seem to either enjoy Stone's movie and hate Quentin's screenplay or vice versa. Fact is I enjoyed both. Quentin Tarantino's original screenplay for "Natural Born Killers" is far different from the nightmarish acid trap that it became once Oliver Stone got his hands on it. Stone's film is far more epic and sadistic though Quentin's version isn't exactly a day at Disney World either. Much of Quentin's work is used in the film version though the way the story is told is so completely different than it was clearly conceived. The opening diner sequence is nearly the exact same as presented in the film though this is really the only one of Mickey and Mallory's murder spree sequences that Quentin intended to include (aside from the court room murder which was "deleted" from Stone's cut). Following that, the script takes a much different approach with it being told almost entirely in a documentary style with Wayne Gale (played in the film by Robert Downey) acting as the central character. Jack Scagnetti, who was a sadistic crooked cop in Stone's "NBK", is far less brutal in this one and is not positioned as a longtime rival of the murderous couple but more as a veteran cop being sold into hauling the two killers to the asylum. While the character of Dewight McClusky (played by Tommy Lee Jones in the movie) was a character in this script as well, his role is decreased and most of his action was written for a character named Wurlitzer, who didn't make Stone's version. The majority of the first half of the filmed "Killers" was not a part of the original Tarantino story and most of the social commentary was also absent. If you're a Tarantino fan or someone who would like a different take on the "NBK" story, this is an intruiging read.
Sometimes it can drag,but this is a great script........2004-06-18
I rented the movie directed by Oliver Stone due to the fact that Quentin Tarantino's name was on the story credits and I knew that Oliver Stone among others had messed with his script and Tarantino had removed his name from the screenwriting credits but I wanted to see it anyways.I thought the movie sucked,I hated it.So I bought the original script to see how the movie could've been and this is a great script.There's no mention of how the cinematography should look.There's no sexually abusive sitcom father,nor indian guy.This is how the film should have been.The movie is virtually just a big TV special by Wayne Gale who was played in the movie by Robert Downey Jr. The story is amazingly different.The opening scene is the same though.The story is basically Mickey and Mallory Knox in jail while Mickey is being interviewed by Wayne Gale.That's it.Buy this script.Burn the movie.Enjoy
NATURAL BORN BORING.......2004-04-23
A man who has not lived a life cannot tell a real story. Tarentino's films are universally and fundamentally boring for anyone who has ever lived a real life and not just fantasized about having one. His dipictions of violence eminate from his own personal lack of sexual energy. Sadly, teenage males without girlfriends seem to like these slammed together video games that are being called brilliant, and continue to support the trash factory that generates this type of hyper garbage. It's especially sad when a true film afficienado understands the brilliance of all of the original pictures which he doggedly ripped off and claimed the scenes for his own. If one more person calls this sad, pathetic, lack of a man a genious, I will become even more sick of him. Please get a life and buy a real movie.
Incredibly disappointing.......2002-09-16
This is, quite frankly, one of the most boring scripts I have ever read. The only reason I finished it was that I was such a huge fan of the movie. It is vastly inferior to Oliver Stone's version of the film, and far from portraying the charatcters as "monsters," it portrays them as two-dimensional cartoons. There is no development for any of these characters, and there is no reason given that Mickey and Mallory would even care about each other. Their relationship isn't even really hinted at. One of the truly great things about Stone's film was the way that Mickey and Mallory were portrayed in the middle, from when they actually were married to when they were finally arrested, especially in the scene with the Indian. Tarantino's script lacks any subtlety, contrary to what another reviewer stated. What Oliver Stone created from this script was a mesmerizing film about thhe allure and addiction to violence in our culture. What Tarantino envisioned was a juvenile mishmash of unappealing characters without even a reason to exist. (What the Hell was the point of Wayne Gale's assistant having no tongue?) Anyway, I hope that Tarantino continues to move on from this very amateur script, and never tries to make his own version, as I'm sure he won't. I hope he at least realizes that this script was NOT that good.
Book Description
With many new photos and an updated introduction,
The Day John Met Paul, a critically-acclaimed Beatles book, re-appears in a visually stunning second edition. The book is an hour-by-hour account of the fateful day the two founding Beatles met in July 1957. But it is much more than that: it's a spellbinding story of how fate brought together two men who would radically change the face of popular music, from its look and feel to its sound. Jim O'Donnell, a veteran rock music writer, spent eight years researching
The Day John Met Paul. Published in 1996 and translated into several languages, the book was widely praised for its blend of accurate reporting and colorful storytelling. Long out of print, but revered among Beatles fans, the new printing enlivens the text with many well-chosen photos of the Liverpool landmarks--from Strawberry Field to Penny Lane--that played a role in the Beatles' lives and works.
The Day John Met Paul chronicles the first Day in the Life of the Beatles--a day that changed the musical world.
Customer Reviews:
Review.......2007-07-14
I own about 320 books about the Beatles, and this book is in my top 5 favorites. Why? It is a very unusual Beatle-related book. This book took years to research and it pays off. I felt like I had relived the day that they actually met. It is just fascinating to read as the hours count down to the very moment that the two meet at the fete.
Please remember: This book is just about one small slice of Beatle lore.
If you have all the esential Beatle books, then this will be a nice variation for you.
Customer Reviews:
Puff piece padded out to book length . . . .......2005-11-20
. . . filled with forced references to numerous Beatles songs. Real empty fanboy stuff. Why do the Beatles have the worst biographers and commentators, while Elvis Presley gets Peter Guralnick and Greil Marcus?
Cradle of Anglo Rock History.......2005-05-17
In addition to having delightful photographs, this book is about the Cradle of Anglo Rock History, the inception of the Beatles. The cover photo was taken on Saturday, July 6, 1957 (just seven years to the day before the Beatles' first movie "A Hard Day's Night" hit the theaters, Monday, July 6, 1964) of the then-nearly 17-year-old John Lennon with his band, the Quarrymen. The Quarrymen took their name after their school, Quarry Bank High. Paul McCartney, then 15, was one of the boys in the audience who met John during this period and their musical union proved to be quite cataclysmic, indeed.
This author has researched the subject well. Not only are dates and places accurate, but so are the historical descriptions of Liverpool, a sea port town in the North of England. Readers get a sense of England and the world at large in the late 1950s when skiffle bands captured the hearts and ears of the young British audiences and how these skiffle bands would, in turn, influence the world's greatest band, the Beatles!
This is a must-have for all avid Beatle fans and historians in general will appreciate this book for its richly detailed, well reseached history of the times and place.
And God Saw That It Was Very, Very Good.......2005-03-11
It was an extraordinary day placed within the framework of an ordinary day. How could it be remotely plausible that the two greatest composers of rock music lived under the same Mersey sky and would not experience separate artistic lives but would navigate their Sturm und Drang collaboration into uncharted waters accessed by ever greater exploration into industry standards.
O'Donnell's book does a masterful job of ticking off the minutiae of a day that seemed destined to be distinguished only because of its banality. It would probably be lunacy to declare the tale is related from God's vantage point-- but a reader could have a tough time ignoring the smugness of retrospective omniscience as the day unfolds with the world giving off nary a ripple as our rock and roll heroes mingle amongst the beings of an unsuspecting world.
O'Donnell takes artistic liberties as he portrays what might have been going through the minds of Lennon and McCartney--understandably so, as this precisely underscores the point that even the two protagonists were not caught up in any notion that it was anything but the day of a church fete in a depressed city in the north of England. Why would two British schoolboys recognize the birth date of a musical revolution within the first utterances of "h'llo"?
Few would argue God's involvement in the formation of rock bands. But, Boy Howsy!, he was having quite the day, what with two more blokes named John and Paul set in motion to go into all the world...
The Birth Of A Legendary Team.......2004-01-02
In the all-time gallery of Beatles photographs, there are several that have achieved iconic status. The one on the cover of this book is probably the earliest. It was taken on July 6th, 1957, and shows John Lennon and his original group, the Quarrymen, performing at the St. Peter's Parish Church Garden Fete. Among those watching the performance was a young man who would be introduced to Lennon later that day. It was one of those meetings that changed history, because that young man was Paul McCartney.
For all that's been written about the Beatles, it's amazing how much of their history has been obscured. The year of the Lennon-McCartney meeting has been variously published as 1955 and 1956, in addition to the correct 1957. In this volume, O'Donnell gets the year right--and a lot more. "The Day John Met Paul" is a vivid, hour-by-hour recreation of that momentous day in music history. O'Donnell's exhaustive research also allows the reader to understand the city of Liverpool, the skiffle music craze, and all the other elements of the world of 1957 that came together to create the Beatles. O'Donnell pulls this all together with a spellbinding storytelling technique. "The Day John Met Paul" is a must for anyone who wants a better understanding of the birth of the Beatles.--William C. Hall
A wonderful gem.......2002-02-06
I couldn't stop reading once I started this gem, and of the many Beatles books, I'd rate this as one of the best. For pure literary artistry, it ranks high: the descriptions are vivid and bring you completely into that fateful day (one moment stands out in which the Quarrymen go on their second, evening, show and a minute into the set, a rare Liverpool lightning storm sweeps through the town, knocking out the power, leaving John and his bandmates in darkness for a moment...
the proverbial, but in this instance real, "lightning flash" of greater things to come?!)
Definitely recommended to any Beatles fan.
Amazon.com
In this follow-up to his first Poker Essays book, poker expert Mason Malmuth shares new insights that separate good players from great players. His bite-sized essays contain illuminating anecdotes and examples of great and terrible play. As in his first book, he offers the categories of general concepts, technical ideas, structure, strategic ideas and card room play. Included this time is a section on erroneous concepts that's worth careful reading and a section of humorous true stories titled "Something Silly." Poker beginners may get lost in here, but if you're a competent player looking to master the game, Malmuth is an excellent mentor.
Book Description
Success at poker does not come easy. However, poker can be extremely rewarding since it will allow you a degree of freedom that virtually no other profession can offer. Yet, very few people ever achieve this level of competence even though many try. The reason for this is that very few players are able to master all the skills that a top poker professional needs. Some are unwilling to make the effort — "these players usually come to gamble" — and others who try are not quite able to grasp the depth of sophistication that is required.
This text contains those essays that this author wrote from 1991 through early 1996. Topics covered include: General Concepts, Technical Ideas, Structure, Strategic Ideas, In the Cardrooms, Quizzes, Erroneous Concepts, and Something Silly. In addition, advice is offered on handling rushes, moving up, poker skills, simulations, maximizing your expectation, betting when first to act on the river, whether limit hold'em should have two or three betting levels, playing the overs, adjusting to the big ante, how to play well, low-limit hold'em, how many hands you should play early in a tournament, chopping the blinds, cardroom theory, and much more.
As with the original Poker Essays, this book is designed to make the reader do a great deal of thinking about the game. In fact, very few readers will agree with everything this text offers, but the information provided should help most people become better poker players.
Customer Reviews:
Also still very much worth reading.......2006-10-11
This second collection of Malmuth's essays was also first published in book form in 1996, which means some of the material is definitely dated; nonetheless this book is still very much worth reading mainly because of Malmuth's expertise and thoroughly professional approach to all things poker.
Just for the fun of it I will take a more critical approach in this review than I did in my review of his first collection.
In an essay entitled, "Is It Better to Be Lucky or Good?" Malmuth ventures that he would rather be lucky. This recalls the old rounder's dictum, usually voiced after a bad run of cards, "I'd rather be lucky than good." Of course the rounders always said that because they figured they already WERE good. Malmuth's somewhat quizzical take is really an excuse to comment on variance and short term luck in poker. The statement "...if you are lucky, you will probably win, and if you are unlucky, the probability is high that you will lose" (p. 33) is actually something of a tautology in that the very concept of being lucky implies winning, while being unlucky implies losing. Malmuth's main point is luck is always a statement about past events. Since each poker hand is an independent event, there is no way of knowing whether one will be "lucky" in the next hand. Lucky people HAVE BEEN lucky. Whether they will continue to be lucky is an open question.
It's good here to recall another old rounder's dictum, "I play results." What this means is that when a player has been winning and there is a question as to whether that player has been lucky or good, and you don't have enough evidence to be sure, the judicious course is to assume that the player is good--that is, to base your evaluation of the player on his or her results, not the possible prejudicial reports from other players. Many losers whine about their luck, which means that they often think that the players beating them are just lucky when in fact the losers are getting outplayed.
In the essay, "Is a Point Count Worthwhile?" Malmuth argues rather convincingly that such schemes are questionable in hold'em, highly questionable in stud, and possibly of some very limited value in Omaha. The main point he makes is that because point counts don't take into consideration position or the tendencies of the other players, or in stud, information from exposed cards, they can be misleading because the value of your hand changes with the changing circumstances. As Malmuth explains, K9o is a better hand on the button than say T9s if nobody has entered the pot, but not as good if there are several callers already in. By most point count systems they would be about equal in ranking.
I developed a point count system many years ago. What I learned (and I think this is something that both Sklansky and Malmuth have missed) is that a point count system can help the beginning player as a guide and as a study aide. Sklansky arranged starting hold'em hands into groups as a guide. Sklansky's system required the player to commit to memory which hands to open or raise with in which position. I believe a point count system would make the learning curve less steep. A simple one for hold'em is A = 13, K = 12...etc; suited = 4; connected no gap = 5, one gap = 3, etc; pair = 14. Thus AKs = 39; T9o = 22, and so on. (My system was a little more sophisticated, but not much more valuable than this.)
Some differences between this and Malmuth's first collection include more essays on Omaha and Omaha eight or better, and more essays on "great players" and what makes them great or not so great. Similarities include the continuing discussion of which game is more difficult, seven card stud or hold'em, and why Malmuth believes that limit hold'em is more complex than no limit hold'em.
There are the usual quizzes and well-meaning lectures to poker room staff, dealers and professionals for which Malmuth is well known and appreciated.
I want to close with a couple of quibbles on the quizzes (if you will):
Malmuth writes, "If hold'em was not played with community cards, that is, if everyone received their own flop independent of everyone else, then it would be correct to play almost every hand." (p. 245) This is obviously false (and probably just careless phrasing by Malmuth). This would be similar to seven card stud with a bet before third street. Again obviously playing any two cards would not be wise just as playing any two cards in antiquated five card stud would not be wise.
On page 247 he writes that "a small pair...in a many-handed pot...will not win as often as a random two cards." This is also incorrect. Even 22 is more likely to win than a random set of two cards, the average of which is something like the "computer hand" of Q7o.
Finally, I was surprised to read that Malmuth's "guess" is that AA will win in low limit games "approximately one-third of the time." Trust me, I have the stats: pocket rockets in any game--even micro limits--will win more than fifty percent of the time. If you raise with them every time I can promise that at the 2/4 to the 30/60 level they will win at least 70% of the time, and if you go to the river and call every bet regardless of the action, they will win at least 75% of the time! A cold computer simulation of simply dealing out the cards verses nine players will show AA winning about a third of the time, which is what I imagine Malmuth had in mind.
Bottom line: again a must for the professional player and a pleasure to read for all serious players.
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The Official Star Trek Trivia Book
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