Positively Crap Street: Fat, Drunk And Irish Is No Way To Go Through Life, Jim

READ MORE: Dan Harrington, James McManus, Poker, The Origin Of Species

Okay, so maybe James “McMisogynist” McManus wasn’t drunk when he hammered out his latest piece for The New York Times, but he may as well have been. He deigns to give eminent scientist Charles Darwin a nickname like “Galapagos Chaz” in his opener (we’d have went with something hipper, like “The Origin” or “The Missing Link,” or maybe swerved towards the esoteric and just dubbed him, “The Cambrian Explosion”), and channels ancient Incan warriors in the very next paragraph.

We’ll ease up on Jimmy Mac just a bit - after the jump…

LOOKS LIKE WE GOT OURSELVES A READER

Thankfully, McManus doesn’t stray long before landing squarely on target - reviewing Harrington on Hold ‘Em

Writing in the tradition of Mr. Sklansky’s definitive “Theory of Poker,” Mr. Harrington deftly unpacks the math and logic of no-limit tournament strategy. It helps that Bill Robertie, a chess and backgammon expert who wrote the book with Mr. Harrington, has also written several first-rate gaming primers. Together they have found clear language, equations and diagrams to explain highly complex and sometimes counterintuitive concepts - folding before the flop with pocket aces, for example, or the subtle relationship between bluffing (betting with a weak hand) and slow-playing (not betting with a strong hand).

Harrington on Hold ‘Em is actually going to be remembered as the first great instructional text of the new poker boom, and it’s nice to see McManus put down the Bushmills long enough to give it a good read.

The Conquistador Defense [New York Times]
Previously: Positively Crap Street: James McMisogynist vs. Al Can’t Hang [Oddjack]
Previously: Positively Crap Street: Bloggers Sound Off On Latest McManus Column [Oddjack]
Previously: Positively Crap Street Part 2: Blogger Flames McManus [Oddjack]