Pokerwiner.com → Games of texas holdem poker
1.GENERAL BOOKS ON POKER
Each Chapter in the book has been devoted to a particular poker concept.
Examples included: slow playing, position, bluffing, semi-bluffing, pot odds, raising, and check-raising. Each concept has been discussed in detail with multiple examples from different poker variations that have been used to illustrate his thinking. A recurring theme has been that good poker players would have to learn to adjust their play to conditions.
Not only would the kind of game be considered (loose or tight), but the structure of the game as well.
By structure, he has meant that limits in the betting rounds and the size of the antes in relation to the final pot. Limit Texas Holdem poker would only be one form of poker. If you would consider participating in other poker variations, you should read Sklansky’s discussion on game evaluation to determine what adjustments would need to be made. Zen and the Art of Poker, by Larry W. Philips, Penguin Putnam Inc., http://www.penguinputnam.com (1999).
This would be a book on mastering yourself and developing the state of mind necessary for success. Like Schoonmaker’s book, the emphasis would be on developing objectivity by separating ego and emotions from play.
However, instead of the point-of-view of Western psychology, Philips has examined the Eastern ‘psychology’ of Zen. The book will consist of a collection of hundred rules that has been organized into five broad
categories:
(1) fundamentals,
(2) establishing calmness and rhythm,
(3) the ‘nuts and bolts’ of play,
(4) the ‘warrior’ aspect of poker, and
(5) understanding emotions and opponents.
Most of the rules have been related to mental preparedness, such as acquiring patience, reading opponents, accepting losses, and not going on a tilt. The advice would apply to all forms of poker and specific tactical examples have not been discussed. Philip’s book on Zen and Poker would be a good complement to Schoonmaker’s on psychology and poker.
Both books have had as a central them that we have defeated ourselves by being unaware of our own mental state. Each person’s mental state would bring out limitations and flaws to poker play that you should be aware of, especially your own.
However, the contrast in the approach these books have taken is fascinating. Western psychology has analyzed, dissected, and has charted behavior patterns with the goal of predicting future actions.
All would be necessary activities for understanding the reasons for and consequences of behaviors. Zen has been about synthesis; it has been about attaining a mental state where the complex behaviors needed to play winning poker would come naturally. The Zen point of view would be interesting because.
Sid believes that the enjoyment of activities such as poker, or chess, or golf, would come from the suspension of time that would occur when we become totally immersed and would no longer analyze our actions.
Learning to perform an activity well would mean doing more while thinking less. As children, we have worked hard to read and have exerted considerable effort to understand spelling and sentence structure.
As adults, we have read without thinking about the act of reading. We have only thought about the mental world that our reading has brought us into.