Book review: Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business, by David Apostolico

Author: Simon Dexter

There’s enough evidence to suggest that more than one author believes there is a direct link between winning at the poker table and achieving success in business.

For example, Greg Dinkin and Jeff Gitomer’s The Poker MBA is compulsory reading at several UK Business Schools, while Aaron Brown’s acclaimed The Poker Face of Wall Street is known to occupy the library shelves of at least two FTSE 100 chief executives. Meanwhile, John McDonald’s 1950 classic, Strategy in Poker, Business & War, is a must-read for those who appreciate an unequivocal connection constantly referred to in David Apostolico’s latest book, Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business.

Once you recognise and accept the “connection between poker and other disciplines” one businessman says in Apostolico’s engaging read, “you’ll understand that a good poker player not only hides a good hand well, but has learned to execute solid business deals.”
When it comes to exploring the link between commerce and the felt table, David Apostolico has form. Earlier in his career, he worked as a Wall Street attorney before becoming a professional poker player and prolific author, responsible for Tournament Poker and the Art of War and Machiavellian Poker amongst others.

Here, he makes several further convincing arguments by maintaining that consistent winners at the poker table, like successful business executives, have learned when to take chances, when to bluff, how to read opponents and the importance of position. Similarly, Apostolico reckons it’s no coincidence that some of the greatest military minds are often excellent poker players, their decisions frequently confusing their enemies. In other words, discovering an edge, understanding enemy weaknesses or holding back reserves until precisely the right moment are moves that straddle poker, business and war.

But this isn’t just a theoretical, academic work. Apostolico considers why and how poker strategies can be applied to business and the investment world by exploring the psychology of poker and investing, as well as how to negotiate, when to bluff or fold and when to go all-in.
Interestingly for a poker-related text, Apostolico’s work contains no charts, tables, or mathematical formulae; nor are there sample hands to illustrate the various points he makes. This makes for a seamless read, one providing a combination of business advice and common sense, irrespective of where you sit on the poker or business ladder.

Tags: Book Review, Online Poker, poker book

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 10:43 am and is filed under News & Promotions Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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