Lou Krieger wrote 11 poker books, but while others were better known, perhaps the best for beginners will always be 52 Great Poker Tips.
Sadly, Lou Krieger passed away just a few years ago, but his poker legacy will live on. Having grown up in Brooklyn, Krieger learned the game literally at his father’s knee as he watched his Pa and his friends play poker on Thursday nights in their home game.
When he would leave New York, Krieger moved right across the country to Long Beach in California. While he was a popular poker player and writer, it was never his sole profession. Krieger was in utilities, but was able to supplement his regular income with money made from passing on his unique understanding of poker.
52 Great Poker Tips is not a book geared towards the regular player. It’s the perfect book to provide for beginners to the game so that they can learn how to get better at it at their own pace. While that may seem simplistic in an age of poker where solvers and game theory optimal play jostle for business among the elite players – indeed, just yesterday, Kane Kalas released a course specifically around Short Deck poker – the layman’s poker book has become a rare thing.
What Krieger managed to do in all of his books, such as Poker for Dummies or even Gambling for Dummies, was to make the indecipherable look like a clear pathway to profit, enjoyment and above all, the growing of a passion. Lou Krieger was passionate to a fault about poker, but while he wrote extensively on the subject, he was a sponge to the game too, able to soak it all in at the table then translate it into digestible literary volumes for his many readers.
Lou Krieger had the unique ability to be able to warm a whole room of people at a poker lecture or new venue, but also make anyone feel that he was their friend in a one-on-one conversation.
A true professional, Krieger always delivered, and obsessively so. He was a stickler for editing his work, as proud of the filtering process as he was the original draw on the tap. For a long time, Krieger was the voice behind the popular show ‘Keep Flopping Aces’, a precursor to the myriad poker podcasts and documentaries on offer now.
In lending his voice to poker broadcasting, Krieger’s popularity suggested that this might have been a transition he made permanently, being such a natural. Tragically, Krieger passed to cancer in December of 2012, prompting his family to inform fans of his passing in a truly amusing way on social media including this statement:
“He wanted everyone to know that he did not go peacefully in his sleep but fighting like hell. He was surrounded by his family. We know he would want everyone to keep floppin’ aces. He will be missed by all that knew him. Poker has lost a star.”
Poker undoubtedly lost a star almost seven years ago, but as you’ll know if you’ve read any of Krieger’s work, his books will live on forever. You can still access his blogs, podcasts and much more at his website which remains live.
If you know someone who is just getting into the game, you could do a lot worse than buying the 52 Great Poker Tips.
