Poker Book Reviews

A bit late getting this up, but just posted a review of Zen and the Art of Poker, by Larry Phillips. While the idea of 'Zen' might summon up images of mysticism or above the clouds hippie thinking, this is actually a good book that teaches you how to understand your own mindset while playing poker.

Poker is a complex game that involves a lot of logical elements, such as math, odds, analytics and reasoning - but it all rests upon a good, solid emotional foundation. It's pretty common among beginning players, as well as experienced players (we're looking at you, Helmuth) to have problems controlling their emotion during a game. While not everyone may jump out of their chair in an outburst, even steaming in silence can cause you to throw away bets here and there that eventually add up. This is why mastering your own thought process and controlling your emotions can lead to a level of 'zen' that is optimal for your analytical side. I don't think it's any coincidence that one of the most dangerous players, Daniel Negraneu, has the nickname of "Iceman" for his ability to maintain an exact constant heart rate throughout an entire session of poker.

If anyone is interested in a previous poker article I wrote about understanding and controlling tilt, it can also be found here. Excuse some of the formatting issues with the page, as areas of the site are still going a face lift.

Thanks to Blatman25 for writing this review!