One of the most popular books of recent years, How Can He Fold? arrived in 2019 to great acclaim and remains a hugely popular book to this day. Written by Grant Denison and Jonathan Levy, this book examines poker by way of looking at several often high-profile and certainly dramatic hands.

Analysing the action, the book definitely comes under the ‘self-help’ section of poker books, aiming to improve the player who is reading about the hands. Denison and Levy are very good at breaking down each hand, taking you through the methodology of each player and guiding you as how you yourself could have played the hand differently or even better.

The best thing about this book, however, is not the analysis of poker hands, but the way the book is written. There is a great chemistry between the two authors, and it’s a little like sitting next to two intelligent, witty individuals arguing about what makes the hands interesting and the players within them so successful.

There are some really good hand choices, too, and enough to suggest that plenty of others are out there too that could be used in future volumes. One of the best things about the book is that not all the hands are too recent as to come across as similar. After all, the way we play poker changes all the time and is always evolving. There’s a great hand from the 2010 National Heads Up Championship, where Phil Hellmuth is put to the test on a call for his tournament life and another one where Phil Ivey and Isaac Haxton clash on the bubble of a Super High Roller event.