More about soup for books

This morning I posted a quick note about the Gambler's Book Store offering free poker books in exchange for a donation of a can of soup for local food banks. I stopped by there on my way home (it's only a few blocks from where I live) to see what was going on.

I didn't really think they would have it wide open to any poker book; they'd go out of business too fast if they tried that. (Heck, I'd rush to Albertson's, buy a case of soup, then clean out the bookstore's poker shelf!) They had arranged on the counter maybe eight different titles one could choose from, mostly about poker, but also one on keno and one on baseball handicapping. They all appeared to be older books.

I had brought two cans of good ol' Campbell's (one tomato and one chicken noodle--can't go wrong with those), and exchanged them for the two volumes shown above. The former is a collection of essays, rants, stories, and observations about playing poker in Vegas--a lot like a blog turned into a book, though done back in 1992. Stated price was $16.95. The second is one of Mike Caro's oldest volumes, published in 1984. It's mostly about home-game variations of poker, about which very little solid strategy writing has been done, so I thought it would make an interesting addition to the library. Besides, pretty much anything written by Caro will be a worthwhile read, IMHO. Stated price was $5.95.

While I was there, I thought it would be nice to thank the propietor for running the food-bank promotion by actually purchasing something, so I bought one other book (all poker books are currently on sale at 15% off): Winning Omaha 8 Poker, by Mark Tenner and Lou Krieger (2003)--an autographed copy, even. I still feel somewhat lost during the Omaha section of my almost daily HORSE sit-and-go tournaments. Moreover, Krieger has several times ventured his opinion that O/8 is one of the most profitable, beatable games there is these days, because so many hold'em players have no idea how to adjust their play to it. (See, e.g., here.) A solid introduction/foundation seems called for. (A new edition is in the works, if you don't mind waiting a bit.)