Alan Schoonmaker's Opinion For My Next Book

[BluffTHIS!]

David,

Regarding those four ideas for a book my thoughts are:

1) WHAT POKER TEACHES US

The way to increase the marketablility of this book would be 5 or 6 chapter headings/topics to which you apply poker reasoning, and preferably applying same to some current real life situations in war, business, education, relationships, etc. However in line with what Dr. Al said, its prospects might be limited anyway, and probably because a lot of even very smart people who don't gamble aren't willing to be open-minded as to the general premise that poker offers something uniquely applicable to such areas. Also FWIW, should you and he have any mutual inclination, this would be a fantastic topic on which to collaborate with Mike Caro.

2) ALGEBRA FOR TEN YEAR OLDS

This is the book that should be your priority. Screw the considerations Dr. Al gave about commercial success vis a vis educational institutions buying it. It is parents who will buy it precisely because the schools and teachers aren't doing a good job teaching their kids algebra for whatever reasons.

3) 50 POKER HANDS THAT REALLY TEACH YOU SOMETHING

There is a lot of potential in this for teaching the correct thought process in considering a hand, and especially how to prioritize the various factors that should be considered according to each specific situation. Barry Greenstein devoted a chapter of his book to such analysis but didn't come close to giving a full exposition on hand analysis.

4) A SIMPLE GUIDE TO "THE THEORY OF POKER"

To me this is the worst book idea, simply because I don't see how the TOP can be streamlined without losing too much. If anything, their is more room for an expansion or more thorough explanation of it, especially adding in more game theory applications that build on Chen & Ankemann's work.