Tournaments Books

A good overview of tournaments (mass combats) and jousts (one-on-one combats) in medieval Europe from its origins to the early 14th century. The book primarily discussses England and northern France, and the early tournaments, before they evolved into a more elaborate joust-centric form. It includes some nice historical details and some interesting discussions of finance and tactics.

For armchair historians, the book is assumes you are passingly familiar with the major historical figures and political disputes.

This pop-up book from 1968 was great for its era. The illustrations are fun, the pop-ups are varied, and the story is funny (but very sexist). Random House had several "Dimensional Books" at the time. They called them "Pop-Ups" and "Magic Motion." My version of this book has an ad in the back for eight other books.

The book has nine spreads, seven of which have a dimensional element. The pop-ups are mostly pull-the-tab types; five pull-the-tabs, one flip-the-flap, and one pop-up. The magic trick is accomplished with the tab pull. While the engineering is basic given what we have in the 2000s, it is fun for the era it is from. The tabs cause elements to slide, flip to the side or down, louver, or pop out and up.

The story is about a king, King Awkward, who likes magic but isn't good at it. He decides to let whoever can come up with the best magic trick have his daughter in marriage. A Hindu, Merlin, an Arab, and a Turk all present a trick. Then a serf who loves the princess makes all the other magicians disappear. The new couple live in the Land of Hocus-Pocus and live happily ever after.

Story: Albert G Miller
Design: Paul Taylor
Paper engineer: Tor Lokvig

First, some of you may be interested in how this new expanded edition compares to the previous edition. I don't have the previous edition, but in this new expanded edition, there are viii + 346 pages, including the 8-page index. The principal new portion is Part Five: "Additional No-Limit Hold'em Concepts" which runs from page 214 to page 282. The rear cover flatly states that this edition "contains over 100 pages of updated material."

Having read about 1/3 of the text so far, my conclusion is that this book will be helpful to those who are beginner-to-intermediate tournament players, but who are already familiar with the basics of No-Limit Hold'Em (NLHE). This volume contains many useful hand examples, but it is not loaded down with irrelevant mathematics of the "if you have this and he has that or that or that, and he then does this X% of the time, then you should bet Y% of the pot" etc. In other words, this book focuses more on effective strategies at different parts of the tournament rather than on the supercilious "I'm a math genius and you're not" writing that characterizes the NLHE: Theory and Practice volume, also by Sklanksy and Miller.

There is advice on what to do if you want to maximize your expected gain, or what to do if you want to maximize your chance of winning outright with expected gain be darned. Several alternative suggestions are presented on how to play certain hands depending on stack size, stage of the tournament, etc. The advice strikes a balance between being specific and general in nature.

Part Four: "Hand Quizzes" runs from page 156 to page 211. Unfortunately, only 11 out of the 50 hand quizzes are specifically concerned with No-Limit Hold'Em, although maybe another 9 or 10 questions concern Limit Hold'Em. The rest concern Omaha and Hi-Low and Stud and other uninteresting forms of poker.

There are a few typos and inadvertent grammatical errors, but not enough to be too annoying.

If you are already an experienced NLHE tournament player, then you probably don't need this volume.

This book was immensely important for my studies in the theorectical basis of honour. It was also extremely important as it looks at honour in modern ( as opposed to traditional or 3rd world) societies and as such challenges the notion that honour and honour crimes are a "cultural hangover" or "weed" of traditional ( and mediterranean/middle eastern) cultures.

I liked this book. I'm surprised because usually I'm not a big fan of "straight" fiction. This is a story of a boy and his father, the competition between two fly-fishers and two families. The telling is written well with all the main plot of the competition for 'Trout King' tied in well with the subplots of a boy and his love and loss of love for fishing and the strains of two families. Pickhardt writes well and is at ease with the
story he's telling. I give this book an A. Not a favorite or highly recommended but it does it's job, to tell the story, and it does it well.

Altho' this book was originally published quite awhile ago, with the amazing resurgence of game shows, the tips outlined in it are still valid and potentially lucrative.

For anyone interested in making it through the screening process...and getting to the point of actually becoming a contestant on a game show, this book provides some solid information from someone who speaks from experience, as a TV game show winner himself.

This book is an interesting overview of openings that range from the slightly unusual (Budapest Gambit) to some of the most hilariously awful openings in existence. The book is a lot of fun, and there is a fair amount of light analysis, whose quality ranges from good to not-so-good. The authors would have been a little more charming had they saved their political commentary for some other book, but that's a minor flaw. Considering that co-author Schiller's other books are uniformly wretched, this book comes as a pleasant surprise. The only major omission is the Douchenberg Gambit (1.c4, b5!?).

I just wanted to say this, because I wanted to get the PC version but accidentilly got this instead, as their was no warning to what it was(Apparently, they have enlarged the cover shot though). However, I did look through it. While there are so many levels it can cover the endless stratgies for each one(look on the wep for those) it does give some of the major tips and secrets of the levels. Seems to be pretty good overall.

It is always a bit suspect, reading a player's coverage of his own game, but with Alekhine this is probably groundless. Particularly because in this book, Aleikhine's opponent, the Dutch Euwe is so well represented, with notes to the games coming from both sides, giving a particular insight into the psyche of both players. A master when it comes to written chess, this book covers his titanic comeback after losing the world title to Euwe in 1935. Alekhine's tremendous preparation, studying Euwe's technique carefully before hand, all of which culminated in a stunning and above all an elegant victory, is thrilling to watch. An ideal read for the chess enthusiast.

Open is an exceptional book that takes the reader literally behind the ropes at Bethpage. Starting as a wild idea to host the Open on a public course, Feinstein is able to capture the years, months and days leading up to the 2002 Open. The book takes into account the extra security, parking, and such that comes with a major sporting event just months removed from 9/11. I enjoyed the in-depth profiles of the individuals responsible for putting on the show. The stores about close calls and how pairings are made. The book is definetly not your typical recount of a shot by shot golf tournament but rather a masterpiece for those of us that are as intrigued about how the USGA puts on championship versus who wins it. I recommend it to anyone who would is interested in the business side of sports especially golf.

"Tiger Woods called it the greatest championship he has played. The 2002 open was unlike any other because it fell only 8 months after 9/11."

Imagine trying to put on an open only 8 months after 9/11. This is what happened to David Fay. David Fay is the main character in this book and he is the person in charge of all the opens. In this book OPEN By: John Feinstein it tells how David Fay's Dream came true. He's dream was to make Bethpage Black an open. This dream came to him in 1995 and in 2002 it came true, with the help of many others like Craig Currier (superintendent) Mary Lopuszynski (sales) and many other important characters. David Fay is about to figure out all these problems because there is nothing that will get in his way of making Bethpage an open. So don't you think he will follow through? Well find out.

This book is non-fiction and reads very smooth. John Feinstein did a good job of using very specific details so pay close attention. This book does not only teach you about golf it teaches you good life lessons that are unforgettable. I think this book is best suited for sports readers who want a good book to read and they will not put it down. The good thing about this book is that it makes you pay attention the bad thing is that it jumps around a little bit. The life skills this book will teach you really helped my out look on life being under thirteen and this book really deserves a try. So read it and post your own review and I think that review will be a positive one.

One of the more disappointing books by John Feinstein. He acts like the people putting on the 2002 U.S. Open were working on a cure for cancer. But seriously if the people described have all the abilities that Feinstein accredits them with, why aren't they doing something more meaningful than putting on a Golf Tournament. ALSO since I am a Huge Tiger Woods fan the usual Feinstein bashing of Tiger is not appreciated. One thing that surprised me is that NBC dictates pairings and starting times. If David Fay has all the integrity that Feinstein gives him credit for, he should not allow NBC to be so selective.
Also, I remeber watching this event on the tube. And Feinstein does not capture the enthusiasm that New Yorkers displayed for Phil Mickelson. The Book does not mention that he was called "The Mick."
The only question was how low to rate this book. Though unscientific 3 stars "feels" right.

Typical Feinstein ("A Season on the Brink" excepted). Quick, gossipy, superficial, fawning, etc., etc. This book is about the 2002 U.S. Open Golf Championship at the Bethpage Black Golf Course, a New York State Park course on Long Island. The subtitle, "Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black," is used here as a figure of speech, meaning "behind the scenes." ("Inside the ropes" is normally used in the context of a professional golf tournament to refer to the actual playing area itself -- spectators are separated from the golfers, caddies, officials, and other chosen few by thin ropes that tell the spectators how close they can get to the action.) Feinstein's purpose is to give the reader a look at the unfolding of a golf tournament from its conception to its completion. We see U.S Golf Association (the organization that conducts the tournament) leaders in action and learn something about the logistics of putting on a golf tournament (e.g., 4,850 people willing to volunteer their time so that the professional golfers and U.S.G.A. can have a huge payday), about random qualifiers and random competitors, and about the resurrection of the Black golf course. Yet the book does not fulfill its promise. My guess is that Feinstein's indebted to too many golf people for both his past and anticipated future lifestyle to offer the kind of critical insights and analysis I had hoped for.

Being from Long Island, I understand the story behind the US Open. I was also able to go to the Open on the Saturday and get a feel for the event. As such I really appreciated this book because it is hard to build such an event in the public course like Bethpage. It is a testament to the USGA on how organized they are and all of the event preplanning they do. I thought it was a different and insightful look at the Open