Just finished reading Cards by Maxwell.

[MicroBob]

The point is this: it's virtually impossible to be a good player WITHOUT being able to remain in control.

if you have tilt-issues where you play rags for multi-bets pre-flop, or bad bankroll management, or blow all your winnings on coke, etc etc then you are just cancelling out (and probably exceeding) any card-skills that you might have.

lots of so-so players with decent talent could say the same thing regarding emotional control. It's common.

The result will be roughly the same as someone with poor card-skills. They will not succeed.


"I'm good as long as I stay in control."

Well...no-freaking-duh!!

That bit about playing your cards correctly is only a fraction of the equation towards being a good poker-player.

[acekingoffsuit]

[ QUOTE ]

The point is this: it's virtually impossible to be a good player WITHOUT being able to remain in control.

if you have tilt-issues where you play rags for multi-bets pre-flop, or bad bankroll management, or blow all your winnings on coke, etc etc then you are just cancelling out (and probably exceeding) any card-skills that you might have.

lots of so-so players with decent talent could say the same thing regarding emotional control. It's common.

The result will be roughly the same as someone with poor card-skills. They will not succeed.


"I'm good as long as I stay in control."

Well...no-freaking-duh!!

That bit about playing your cards correctly is only a fraction of the equation towards being a good poker-player.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think I agree with you then.

But then again, that's part of why i really dig this book. It's a picture of a typical poker player, a guy like me and my friends. After I read it I am energized with the feeling that someone understands me, that someone is honest about the real poker experience.

And I think it really improved this very detrimental, and very difficult to fix aspect of my game: staying off tilt, the consequences of tilt.

I feel that other poker writers are too insecure to write a charachter who doesn't make every perfect decision.

And the book wouldn't work if the guy was an idiot. It mainly works because (I'd say) the guy is talented with his analysis.

I guess it shows how different book preferences can be, because I (and apparently some others) love this book, and then some hate it.

[MicroBob]

if exploring your tilt-ish tendencies are of interest to you then you may want to consider:

Inside the Poker Mind - Feeney

Psychology of Poker - Schoonmaker

Zen and the Art of Poker - Phillips

(I have many problems with his 'playing the rush' ideas...but if you can ignore those and focus on the ideas about patience and discipline it could be worthwhile for you)

Ace on the River - Greenstein

(he explores the tendencies some players have to blow through their bankroll on stupid things...and other discipline issues like that)

[ewile]

I'm about 100 pages in now and still enjoying.
I'm very disiplined in my play and really don't have tilt problems. I feel physically ill when this guy wins a hand and "plays the rush" every time, or when he plays his hands on the button blind simply becouse of position etc. etc.
This guy is a freaking trainwreck but I am enjoying it. The repulsion that I feel is a sign that I'm engaged with the story I guess.

In some vague way it brings me back to the repuslion that I felt when I read American Psycho. (Mike's obsession with music makes me think of American Psycho too.)

On a down note, it's overkill already with "adrenaline" every hand the guy plays we hear about his adrenaline rush.
It's a bit much.

[mattw]

[ QUOTE ]
Where did you get it? On amazon it hasn't come out yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

barnes and nobles online.

[SNOWBALL]

Its more than a bit much. His heart starts pounding every time he flops a draw? Gimme a break. I quit this book on page 70. Too much dime novel prose. Mike is an annoying character, and Maxwell is a bad writer.

[MicroBob]

If he talks about his heart pounding every time he flops a draw then that confirms my initial hunch that I would find this book to be totally gay.

[wyrd]

After watching Rounders (for the billionth time), I have to say the character in this book reminds me of Worm.

[MicroBob]

If you guys are into that Rounders stuff or this kind of book you seriously may enjoy the book Shut up and Deal by Jesse May.

As I've already indicated...I find a lot of that kind of stuff to be pretty stupid...but for what May was trying to accomplish it actually is an entertaining read.

It's pre-pokerboom stuff and he's just a total addict who practically lives in the Foxwoods poker room. Has many tales to tell of the other 'personalities' (to say the least) that he runs up against.

The more I hear about this Cards book by Maxwell the more it seems to remind me of Shut up and Deal.

[Peter McDermott]

[ QUOTE ]
After proofing the manuscript, he accidentally sent back not his corrected version, but the original version containing about 30 errors. Naturally he is no longer with us.


[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm. Why blame the proofreader for accidentally mailing the wrong file? Personally, I would have sacked the editor who didn't bother to check that the proofreader had done his job. Or the author, who didn't bother to read the galley proofs. Or the publisher who didn't bother to send galley proofs out to the author to check.

And while I get your point about being inside the author's head, this is precisely what I found so irritating about it. I kept getting annoyed by his portrayal of himself as some sort of intellectual ubermensch, while in reality, he's the kind of 'author' who doesn't know the difference between a 'stake' and a 'steak'.