Today’s poker tip is about books you might want to consider reading. As we all know, there are a lot of books out there that can help somebody become a better poker player. Most of them are written by people who are successful poker players in their own right, but are trying to squeeze that last dime out of the industry by charging poker fans an average of $24 to tap into their wisdom. There are, of course, some real gems out there, but a lot of the books sound exactly alike and hand out advice that is about as earth shattering as health suggestion that involves the words “eat your vegetables, wash your hands, and get enough sleep.” Instead of falling into a pattern of only reading poker books when you want to improve your poker game, take a step outside of the genre, and find non-poker related books that can give you an edge over your opponents.
Chances are that any book written by Douglas Adams will not help your poker game, so you can rule out the “Hitchhikers Guide” series as well as the “Dirk Gently” books. They may help you in all sorts of other ways, but they have very to say on the topic of poker. On the other hand, Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” is a great book to have in your poker tip library. While it won’t tell you what to do with a flush draw, it will introduce concepts that will do nothing but help your poker game. Vanessa Rousso was so impressed with this book that she built a poker camp around its teachings.
The DSM4 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is also a tome that every good poker player should have in their library. Once again this does not have anything to say on the topic of poker, but it can help you identity and classify people you may find yourself playing against. Knowing how they mentally tick will help you know how to play against them.
That is the poker tip for today.
