A Girl’s Guide to Poker: A book for Beginners to Intermediates by Amanda Botfeld is a guide to winning at poker, especially in tournaments. I was a little worried that a pink-covered guide was going to be all Math is hard! but it was mostly using women’s names instead of men’s for the example players.

Most of the book is about improving your poker skills, mixed with the author’s personal stories. I especially liked her story about winning her first tournament.   This is a pretty quick read, with short chapters, like reading a string of blog posts. If you understand the basic rules of the game, but consider poker something you do with your hands while you drink and chat with friends, this is book is your solid advice for joining tournaments or just winning more regularly. 

I particularly liked the section on practice. Of course, we learn by playing against skilled, experienced players, but Botfeld mentions that there’s a lot to learn from playing newbies too. It’s true, a new player who isn’t making the smartest moves can really throw experienced players off. You make guesses based on the cards you’ve seen, and if your opponent is playing poorly, you guess wrong.

A Girl’s Guide to Poker is a solid guide for anyone who’s interested in poker doing better at poker night or entering poker tournaments. It’s also an interesting look at the competitive poker world.