Book review: Your Best Poker Friend: Increase your mental edge

Author: Simon Dexter

Your Best Poker Friend: Increase your mental edge
By Dr Alan Schoonmaker

“Poker players focus on learning strategy and reading other people, not on looking at themselves, “ declares Dr Schoonmaker who continues his efforts to address the matter by presenting readers with a variety of alternatives for increasing self-knowledge.

In his latest book, Schoonmaker first identifies and then explains a number of emotional and psychological forces that affect poker players’ decisions. This is straight forward enough, but usefully, he suggests methods for dealing with them, a number of which are quite unusual.

It would be fair to say that Your Best Poker Friend is not a text for inexperienced players as an understanding of the game’s basic strategy is essential. However, Schoonmaker doesn’t cover old ground; he endeavours to help “think logically about psychological issues” which, he believes have been neglected.

Logical thinking, not intuition or gut feeling, is the basis of understanding both poker and how it’s played, says Schoonmaker and he proposes a number of ways by which players can conduct self-analysis to ensure they’re playing logically. Such exercises are essential, he insists, if poker players are to realise their potential.

Not that the book is bogged down with psycho-babble; Schoonmaker writes – and edits – well, which means his work always has a sense of pace and makes for easier reading. This book is no exception.

At its heart, Your Best Poker Friend provides a development plan for players who want to be better – although Schoonmaker warns that will not happen overnight. His step-by-step plan for accomplishing long-term goals is both thought-provoking and bursting with great ideas, each designed to turn average players into much more accomplished, cool-headed ones. The ultimate intention of Schoonmaker’s comprehensive “Poker Improvement Plan” is to turn this book’s readers into money-making machines. For less than £8, it’s worth finding out whether his methods could work on your game…

Tags: , poker, Poker Books, Poker Strategy, Poker Tips

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 10:21 am and is filed under News & Promotions Blog.