How do you know when an older poker book is still worth reading?

I think a lot of the older books that are well known are probably outdated today, with a lot of learning about the game having happened after the likes of Libratus and Pluribus showed the game is 'solved'.

While specific and specialized books with no contemporaries written in the last couple years like Poker Satellite Strategy or Reading Poker Tells probably have aged well, more generic poker advice books have not aged well in the solver era.

The general player pool has gotten FAR more sophisticated, with even the least experienced recs possibly having hundreds or even thousands of hours of watching a poker streamer talk through their reasoning. This quality and quantity of media is a fairly recent phenomenon. The era of a tight aggressive player being the ideal money printer is long over. Nosebleed games are prefect examples of this. The top players now resemble hyper aggressive psychos far more than the trappy tight players of the 2000s or even 2010s. Donking was once a mortal sin, while now it is often solver approved. Betting to 'retain the lead' was another common trope that is now often punting if one isn't considering range advantages.

While most of the advice in older books might still be helpful to the newbie player who is just spewing and had very obvious leaks, a lot of it is outdated, so how can you tell what older books are still worth reading for strategy?

I suppose it depends how old.
I wouldn't recommend old pokerbooks for newbies, that will give them the wrong idea about today's poker.
But if you gained some knowledge and skill there can definetly be still some helpful things in older books even though many stuff has to be disregarded considering how poker evolved

Books are kind of an outdated format in itself. Training videos or even interactive courses are far more modern ways to learn poker strategy. And for that reason alone I would definitely recommend people to take the free CC 30-day course before spending money on any book. That course is perhaps also not completely up to date, since its already 6 years old, but the strategies and concepts presented are still enough to beat micro and low stakes tournaments.

i think most of the old books are great, and a fine starting/learning point for 90% of people . if you're really a strong player and past that 'tight is right' level then study some of the more advanced theory .

fundiver199 said:

Books are kind of an outdated format in itself. Training videos or even interactive courses are far more modern ways to learn poker strategy. And for that reason alone I would definitely recommend people to take the free CC 30-day course before spending money on any book. That course is perhaps also not completely up to date, since its already 6 years old, but the strategies and concepts presented are still enough to beat micro and low stakes tournaments.

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Perhaps, books have been outdated since the advent of video but that hasn't stopped most course sellers from repackaging the same information easily available in books for 100 times the price. I know the CC one is free, but as a general rule courses tend to be quite expensive.

The CC course is mostly general NLHE focused, so is not specific like the books I listed. The workbook is a nice companion to the videos though. Often courses don't have a workbook or the workbook is ripped off of other resources which is usually a bad sign lol