10 Best Poker Books 2026 | Must-Read Strategy Books for Every Level

Modern poker study setup featuring poker strategy books, chips, playing cards, and a notebook on a desk, representing learning and improving poker skills.

If looking to improve your poker game, poker books offer learning at your own pace. No matter what you’re looking to improve, there’s a book for you. The Book of Poker Tells is a great option for live players who are looking for an extra edge, The Mental Game of Poker helps you focus your mindset at the tables, and The Mathematics of Poker is a great starting point for beginners who are trying to learn the math behind the game.

To help you take your game to the next level, we’ve sourced 10 highly regarded poker books that span various levels of play and aspects of poker. Each one of the books listed below has been read and recommended by our team of experts, who have verified their quality.

Best Poker Books at a Glance

Book	Author	Best For	Level
The Theory of Poker	David Sklansky	Beginners who want to learn the fundamentals of the game.	Beginner
Super/System: A Course in Power Poker	Doyle Brunson	Beginners who want to learn the fundamentals of No Limit Hold’em and players who want to learn other poker variants.	Intermediate
Harrington on Hold’em	Dan Harrington	New and intermediate players who want to improve their poker strategy.	Intermediate
The Mental Game of Poker	Jared Tendler and Barry Carter	Players who are looking to improve their tilt control and better understand the psychology of the game.	Intermediate
The Complete Poker Workout	Jonathan Little	Experienced tournament players who want to hone their skills and stay sharp while away from the tables.	Intermediate/Expert
The Psychology of Poker	Alan Schoonmaker	Live and low-stakes players who want to increase their win-rates by exploiting their opponents.	Intermediate
GTO Poker Simplified	Dara O’Kearney and Barry Carter	Players with a strong understanding of poker strategy who want to take their game to the next level.	Expert
Caro’s Book of Poker Tells	Mike Caro	Live poker players who want to improve their win-rate by exploiting tells and body language.	Beginner/Intermediate
The Math of Poker	Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman	Intermediate players who want to gain a deeper understanding of the math behind the game and learn how to use it to make practical decisions at the table.	Expert
The Endgame Poker Strategy	Dara O’Kearney	Tournament players who want to improve their late-stage results, as well as get a better understanding of ICM and how it affects their strategy.	Expert

1. The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky

David Sklansky is one of the most respected authors in the poker space; his book, The Theory of Poker, may have been published in 1999, but it still holds up to this day. With a focus on new players, The Theory of Poker covers the fundamentals of poker, such as pot odds, implied odds, and pot value, as well as skills like reading your opponents’ actions and optimizing your starting hand strategy.

Topics Covered:
- Pot Odds
- Effective Odds
- Implied/Reverse Implied Odds
- The Importance of Bluffing
- Fundamentals of Poker Theory
Best For: Beginners who want to learn the fundamentals of the game.
Why You Should Read It: The Theory of Poker covers all of the basic topics you need to learn to have a solid poker strategy. It uses examples of how to use these theories in-game, directly helping you become a better player.

2. Super/System: A Course in Power Poker by Doyle Brunson

Two decades before Sklansky’s essential poker foundation book was released, the two-time 1976 and 1977 WSOP Main Event winner Doyle Brunson wrote the bible on poker strategy called Super/System: A Course in Power Poker.

The book covers a variety of games, including Texas Hold’em, Stud, Draw poker, and 2-7 Lowball, providing in-depth strategies for each game. While the Hold’em sections would be considered basic by today’s standards, at the time it was groundbreaking. The strategies outlined by Brunson and his contributors inspired the next generation of players, and is considered by many to be the most important poker book ever written.

What it Covers:
- Basic Hold’em Strategy
- Draw Poker Strategy
- 7-Card Stud Strategy
- Lowball Poker Strategy
Best For: Beginners who want to learn the fundamentals of No Limit Hold’em and players who want to learn other poker variants.

Why Read It: Super System is a great starting point for many of the most popular poker games. It provides a well-explained breakdown of the fundamentals of poker strategy and highlights how your strategy should change when playing different variants.

3. Harrington on Hold’em Series by Dan Harrington

At one time the definitive collection of poker books on No Limit Hold’em ever written, Dan Harrington, nicknamed ‘Action’, not only won the 1995 World Series of Poker Main Event but also reached many final tables around that time. Check out his monumental victory 30 years ago here:

During the 90s, “Action” Dan Harrington was considered to be one of the best tournament players in the world. Almost 10 years after winning the 1995 World Series of Poker Main Event, Dan released the first volume of the “Harrington on Hold’em” series.

We recommend reading the entire series in order as the books escalate in complexity. Starting off with basic strategy concepts like playing styles and starting hand requirements, you’re able to create a solid foundation for your poker game and then build on it with more advanced strategies like “M-Ratio.”

What it Covers:
- Starting Hand Ranges
- Bluffing
- Squeeze Plays
- Tournament Inflection Points
- Short-Handed Play
- Heads-up Play
Best For: Beginners and intermediate players who want to improve their poker strategy.

Why Read It: What sets apart the Harrington on Hold’em series is that it encourages you to think about the game rather than just telling you the answers. The first two books regularly prompt you to think about how you would play the hand, and the third volume is full of real-world examples where you can use the knowledge you’ve learned in the previous editions.

4. The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler and Barry Carter

The mental aspects of poker are often overlooked, but are arguably as important as your strategy.

To help with this particular aspect of the game, Jared Tendler and Barry Carter address the unique cognitive challenges of poker by providing you with a variety of methods to increase your mental strength while you play. Focusing on ways to protect yourself from mental burnout, this book is one of the best ever written on tilt control, confidence, motivation, and coping with variance, and more.

What it Covers:
- The Psychology of Expertise
- Goal-Setting in Poker
- Understanding Self-Control
- Motivation Techniques
- Improving Concentration
- Increasing Self-Confidence
Best For: Players who are looking to improve their tilt control and better understand the psychology of the game.

Why Read It: The Mental Game of Poker shines a light on the aspects of the game that are rarely talked about. It provides actionable advice that you can use to improve your mental state at the tables, and by extension, improve your performance.

5. The Complete Poker Workout by Jonathan Little

The Complete Poker Workout by Johnathan Little

The Complete Poker Workout is one of the best ways to practice your poker skills short of playing in an actual game. The book is filled with 100 examples of poker hands that are designed to test a variety of skills, including bluffing, value betting, and preflop play. There are more than 300 question and answer segments where you’re encouraged to think about what you’d do in that situation, along with detailed answers from Little.

What it Covers:
- 100 Real-World Hand Scenarios
- Value Betting
- Bluffing
- Check-Raising
Best For: Experienced tournament players who want to hone their skills and stay sharp while away from the tables.

Why Read It: It’s a great way to learn and implement a wide variety of poker concepts while away from the table. The question and answer format lets you practice your decision-making in a low-risk environment, making it easier for you to execute your strategy when you come to play a real money game.

6. The Psychology of Poker by Alan N. Schoonmaker

While “GTO” is the hot new thing in poker, knowing how to exploit your opponent’s weaknesses has never gone out of fashion. Especially in low-stakes games, being able to recognise your opponent’s leaks and adjust your strategy to exploit them is the best way to maximise your win rate.

The Psychology of Poker helps you do that by explaining how to recognise different categories of opponents, the psychology of these players, and how best to play against them. Schoonmaker’s book has been hailed as “the only poker book exclusively dealing with how to play against different types of opponents,” and is a must-read for anyone who wants to

What it Covers:
- Recognising Opponent Player Types
- How to Play in Different Poker Games
- Strategies for Exploiting Different Player Types
Best For: Live and low-stakes players who want to increase their win-rates by exploiting their opponents.
Why Read It: The Psychology of Poker is one of the few books that gives practical advice on how to deal with different players at the table. While other books deal in vagaries, this book provides specific metrics and examples that you can use to identify player types as well as in-depth instructions on how to adjust your strategy to improve your win rate.

7. GTO Poker Simplified by Dara O’Kearney and Barry Carter

GTO Poker Simplified offers a practical guide to understanding Game Theory Optimal (GTO) poker, breaking down complex concepts into easy-to-grasp strategies. It focuses on essential GTO principles like range advantage, balancing your range, bet sizing, blockers and adapting to opponent tendencies. Dara O’Kearney’s tournament expertise and Barry Carter’s clear explanations make this book ideal for intermediate players who want to understand the concepts of GTO play without the heavy mathematical theory.

What it Covers:
- An Explanation of GTO
- Value Betting
- Range Advantage
- Blockers
- Board Coverage
- Street-by-Street GTO Analysis
Best For: Players with a strong understanding of poker strategy who want to take their game to the next level.
Why Read It? The book offers an approachable introduction to GTO, covering important strategies like blockers and range advantage in an easy-to-understand way. It’s able to break down the math without going into too much detail, and provides useful heuristics that you can use at the tables.

8. Caro’s Book of Poker Tells by Mike Caro

Mike Caro’s Book of Poker Tells is a comprehensive guide to interpreting opponents’ non-verbal cues, such as body language, facial expressions, and betting patterns. Caro categorizes and analyzes these “tells,” offering practical advice on how to read your opponents, as well as how to control your own behavior to avoid revealing information.

What it Covers:
- How to Spot Poker Real and False Tells
- What These Poker Tells Mean
- How to Adjust Your Game
Best For: Live poker players who want to improve their win-rate by exploiting tells and body language.
Why Read It: Caro’s Book of Poker Tells is one of the most comprehensive books on the subject, breaking down how to spot common tells, as well as how to differentiate them from false tells. We really like that it uses photo examples that you can use to practice what you’ve learned.

While “Caro’s Book of Poker Tells” focuses on live play, modern players also need expertise in reading poker tells in online games, such as timing patterns and betting behaviors.s.

9. The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman (2006)

The Math of Poker by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman

Math is arguably the key component of poker and this book provides a superb baseline for many of the game’s decisions. It provides you with an excellent breakdown of the math behind poker, then uses that information to explain how and why you should use it to adjust your strategy. Arguably it’s one of poker’s best advanced strategy books based on how it combines the theory and practical elements of the game.

What is Covers: A continuation of the mathematical approach to poker introduced in their earlier work. This book delves deeper into mathematical analysis, covering topics like expected value, variance, and optimal play.
Best For: Intermediate players who want to gain a deeper understanding of the math behind the game and learn how to use it to make practical decisions at the table.

Why Read It: The Mathematics of Poker has an exhaustive breakdown of the math you need to understand to become an expert poker player. The math is explained clearly, and uses an answer/solution format to help you think about the game for yourself.

10. The Endgame Poker Strategy by Jonathan Little

ICM is a complicated tournament concept that many don’t have a strong grasp on, but The Endgame Poker Strategy by Dara O’Kearney does an excellent job of breaking down the complexities of ICM using real-world examples. The book helps you understand what ICM is, why it’s important, and how to integrate it into your decision-making at the tables, helping you make stronger decisions when it matters most.

What it Covers:
- Bubble Play
- Short-Stacked Late Game Tournaments
- Deep-Stacked Late Game Tournaments
- ICM
Best For: Tournament players who want to improve their late-stage results, as well as get a better understanding of ICM and how it affects their strategy.
Why Read It: Knowing how to play in the latter stages of tournaments is required to be a winning player, and this book breaks down the most important concept in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. It uses real examples and provides actionable advice that you can use during your own tournament sessions.

The Best Poker Books

Reading each of the 10 best poker books will give you a solid foundation for understanding the game’s strategies, utilizing the math, and exploiting the psychological aspects of poker. From mastering tournaments to some incredible cash game strategies, reading these poker books will help you understand poker theory and improve your practical decision making at the tables. However, reading isn’t the only part of the equation; you have to practice, and you can test your newly-found skills at some of the best online poker sites in the US.

Jordan started writing about poker in late 2020 after discovering he could combine his passion for explaining things with his favorite game. He continues to stay on top of the newest poker theory and the latest goings on in the poker world to deliver top-quality content. While poker is his biggest passion, he also closely follows soccer, snooker, and F1.