Book review: Beyond Traps- The Anatomy of Poker Success By James McKenna

Author: Simon Dexter

According to James McKenna’s third book dealing with the vagaries of poker, the game actually consists of two separate entities: fish and fishermen. As we know, the fish are generally newcomers whose knowledge of the game could hardly be described as extensive, or else they’re older hands who never bothered to learn the game’s techniques. By contrast, fishermen are players who watch the fish, learn how they swim before baiting hooks and casting their nets to catch them one by one.
As a qualified therapist, McKenna knows about the human psyche; as a poker player, he knows how to put that knowledge to work. This accounts for his assertion that successful players should do more than merely identify another player’s habits - they should also learn to identify their own habits. This allows them to amend their table persona and thus establish an effective smokescreen. McKenna offers some tips for readers to ensure they can undertake their own self-examination to discover what type of poker person they are. It’s fascinating material.
McKenna’s theory is that once a person understands what drives him, he will be able to either use those attributes to become a better player or eliminate them in order that his progress is not hindered. .
Of course, there’s more: to become an effective fisherman, the player must also understand what type of fish are in his waters in order that he may prepare the correct bait. This is where McKenna is outstanding – advising readers on the different forms of bait they can use.
“Good [poker] trappers,” he explains, “are hard to identify because they use different traps for different players. In other words, when a player is setting up a trap by checking and then raising, good players know this trap won’t work on all players.” As in the rest of this excellent book, McKenna offers sound advice.

Tags: Book Review, poker book

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 10:13 am and is filed under News & Promotions Blog.