“Tournament Killer Poker by the Numbers” (TKPBN) has been a very interesting read. This particular book is not for the meek or casual poker player. You absolutely must be a student of the game and very comfortable with mathematical calculations in order to absorb this text. The author, Tony Guerrera, makes a point of letting the reader know that you can “skip” over the math if you are feeling overwhelmed. What he does not tell the reader is that every single page of the book is inundated with math.

So what is there to skip?

TKPBN is geared toward No Limit poker tournaments. The concepts are far from the survivalist nature that you may have encountered in other books. Instead this book teaches you about edges and when it is to your advantage to either take the marginal edge or wait for a better spot when you have a more significant edge on your opponent.

Tony Guerrera covers almost every kind of scenario you can imagine. He discusses short stacked play, tournament structure, probabilities, Independent Chip Modeling (ICM) and a new concept called n-UP. Despite all of the technical jargon and constant calculations Guerrera still manages to get his point across in a way that can be understood. He also takes a few known concepts such as tournament survival and finishing in the top three and extrapolates on how to get there mathematically.

Overall, I give this book a 7 as only the most dedicated will likely find it useful. This book is for advanced poker players only.