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Veteran Card Player columnist and poker book author Bob Ciaffone's Improve Your Poker is aimed at helping players not only improve their game but out think and excel against tough competition. In the introduction to his 220-page "no fluff" book, Ciaffone suggests that "If you want to become a top poker player, better get your assistance from somebody who already is where you are trying to go." There's no doubt that Ciaffone has "been there, done that" as a successful professional player, and is highly respected as a poker coach by many of the game's top practitioners. Improve Your Poker records the cumulative wisdom of "The Coach" (as Ciaffone is appropriately nicknamed), who has been playing poker for 25 years in cardrooms and backrooms from Las Vegas to Dallas to Katmandu. The 10 chapters in Improve Your Poker are a combination of Ciaffone's earlier writings, customized and adapted for this book, and new material written especially for those players who seriously wish to improve their poker skills. Hold'em, Omaha, seven-card stud, and Omaha high-low are analyzed in four chapters devoted to specific strategies for each game. Other sections discuss in depth such topics as reading opponents, deception, bluffing, and tournaments (Ciaffone placed third in the championship event at the World Series of Poker in 1987 and has several other tournament notches on his belt). In his opening chapter, "General Concepts," The Coach guides you through several strategic concepts that you must master to become a top player. His advice is solid and practical. For example, he suggests that you "integrate your game ... to make it internally consistent. Many poker players seem to use betting strategies that don't blend smoothly with each other. ... Every strategy in late-round betting should be keyed to your style of play in early betting. By integrating your game properly, you can maximize your poker profits." Ciaffone then goes on to show you exactly how to perfect your betting style. Of special interest to players who want to move up in the ranks is his chapter titled "Big Bet Poker," an important discussion of concepts and strategies for pot-limit and no-limit poker games. Big-bet poker differs in character from limit-bet poker in that it has an "intensified emphasis on skills such as exploitation of position, bold play, and accurately reading the opponent." Because he believes that skilled players have such an overlay in big-bet poker, Ciaffone wonders why more of them don't forsake limit games in favor of pot-limit or no-limit play, where skill apparently is far more important than luck. Luckily, Ciaffone puts his money where his mouth is by writing several significant segments on winning big-bet strategies. For example in drawing important differences between hand evaluation in limit and no-limit hold'em play, Ciaffone remarks, "Flopping top pair is a worthy goal at limit play. At no-limit play, when there is a lot of money on the table in proportion to the blinds, top pair can often cost you more than you can win with it." He goes on to explain that, "If big money goes into the pot, the only thing your top pair can beat is a draw. The goal in no-limit is to build a hand that can double up your whole stack." With so many limit hold'em players currently taking the plunge into no-limit hold'em, which is becoming more and more popular as a tournament staple, The Coach's advice on no-limit play is especially timely and useful. "Ciaffone has a reputation for putting into print valuable poker information that should be classified as top secret," Dan Harrington, the 1995 World Champion, said "and he really outdid himself this time." After reading my first review of Improve Your Poker when the book was published two years ago, several top-notch players have thanked me for recommending it to them, so I believe that you can take Harrington's endorsement to heart. And if you take Ciaffone's well-written, professional advice to heart, you undoubtedly will improve your game -- and your bottom line results along with it.