The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success

• #22 in Best Poker Books

15 Reviews

Sort by: Most Helpful ▲ Date Rating

At first glimpse, this book appears to be not much different from a lot of other 'poker psychology' books on the market. However, after delving in and devouring the book, it offered much more than I expected. This is not a book that talks about reading opponents or taking advantage of their weaknesses, rather it takes the opposite approach: It tells you how to read yourself and avoid allowing your opponents to take advantage of you.

There are a number of concepts in this book that every poker player thinks they understand, such as tilt, bad beats, and downswings, but you quickly realize how little understood these concepts are when they are so well articulated as in this book. Everyone who reads this will find at least one chapter where they realize that they have made the exact mistake mentioned in the chapter but have not been able to put their finger on it. I personally have made nearly every mindset mistake mentioned in this book at one point or another, and I recognized each with each successive chapter. It feels all too familiar. We all know the gaps in our game, but this helps us really understand the gaps in our game and offers strategies to eliminate them.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever tilted off money, has ever stayed at a table too long, or has ever gone broke at limits too high for them. This book bears re-reading because these concepts are crucially important to being a winning player.

If you play poker for fun OR if you think you're good enough to turn pro, this book is a "Must Read!" It's not another "how-to." There are plenty of those. And, if you're like me, you know that poker playing skill is all relative. If you already know about "pot odds", probablities, "premium hands", betting after the flop, and all the other technical stuff, then read this book before you play another hand. Sure, you will already know some of this stuff intuitively. But even if you do, this book is good reinforcement!
I knew some of the things that Ian Taylor and Matthew Hilger point out. But I'm one of those guys that are so competetive, I let my emotions take over. But the next time I find myself in a "downswing" OR an "upswing", I will concentrate on what I learned in the Poker Mindset to try and improve my situation. "Just try to take my chips, baby!"

There are quite a few good books out there about the mechanics of poker play (I recommend any of Dan Harrington's books) -- where you can read about pot odds and late-position versus early-position play and all that -- and there are also good books out there about the psychology of poker play. I have read only two books devoted to the mental aspect of the game, but "The Poker Mindset" ranks among the best treatises about the psychological mindset poker players need to develop to improve their game.

What makes this book different than other texts written by players or psychologists? This book doesn't profess to tell you how to win on a regular basis per se. You WILL experience downswings which could last for long stretches, whether you are a solid player or not. Instead, the authors emphasize that how one deals with the invariable ups and downs of the game will determine whether one succeeds over the long haul.

This book takes a detailed, clinical and statistical approach to the realities of the game -- how odds figure into results in the near versus long term, how luck gives way to skill over time, how players limit their development by mis-associating certain results with unrelated causes (I lost this hand because I'm just running bad right now) -- and how understanding the bigger (mathematical) picture of poker reality is at the heart of anyone developing into a successful player.

The authors don't deconstruct hands, they deconstruct the mental process as events unfold at tables, and then they provide details about how to avoid common traps poker players fall into. They examine the many forms of tilt (not just players blowing up at the table, which is only one form of tilt) and how players need to confront their own mental and emotional weaknesses to overcome it.

The authors thorough examination of tilt (they define tilt as anything that prevents you from playing your best poker) will help the player focus on the subtle slips that further damage his/her results. This book is full of well-articulated ideas (and not too much mathematics) that help players take a 500-foot view of their game so that they can leave behind their superstitions and woolly misconceptions about suck outs, bad beats and downswings and improve their overall game. I highly recommend it, especially for those of you who have hit a "wall" and can't figure out why your game seems to be devolving.

The authors claim in the Introduction that this is the 2nd most important poker book you'll read - with the 1st being a book on the fundamentals of sound poker play - and I totally agree.

Poker Mindset does a great job of explaining why we think the way we do when we play, and often, why this is wrong. For example:
- it's better to be the "receiver" of bad beats rather than the "giver",
- downswings are a myth,
- upswings and rushes are myths,
- berating poor play (or weak players) can only hurt you,
- tilt is not a line that is crossed, but a spectrum of poor plays waiting to be made,
- focusing on the $$ is not better than focusing on making the correct plays,
- etc.

Mindset is well-written and well-paced with helpful Action Points and chapter summaries to drive the lessons home.

I've read it and re-read it within the past 8 months and can definitely say that it's helped me maintain my composure in some pretty bad situations (times where I'm sure I would have exhibited very poor table behavior without this information at my mind's forefront).

I have read many poker books and magazines and played thousands of hours at the game. After all that, this book has been the single most important component in my approach to the game. It was nothing short of revolutionary to my perepective. It is on a similar vein to Zen and the Art of Poker, but it was, at least for me, a much better book. I heartily recommend it to anyone who plays poker.

the products were in good condition and were what i expected them to be

a must read book for ALL poker players.there are so many helpful ideas and mindsets that are really neccessary for playing great poker and most of us dont utilize these.poker is so much more than math and luck and this book will be a wonderful guide to helping players understand how to handle the great game that we love to play.

It says reasonable things but it says them TOOOO MANY times during the book. It could be a 50 pages books. If you understand the importance of the bankroll and can avoid tilt, save the money!

Reading this book makes a lot of sense. Good advice on bankroll management, and most importantly tells you what you need to do to help you avoid tilt. Tilt is probably the main cause of a downswing, avoiding tilt is important. After reading this book I feel cool and calm about playing poker knowing that it will all even out in the long run. I also like how it stresses that poker is just a game and that there are other things in life.

So you may as well buy it. I'm an online pro poker player and have been for about 2 years now and I can say with 100% certainty that this book has increased my profits. I've read it about 3.5 times. If you have already mastered your tilt you may not need this, but it has lots of good information about different types of tilt you may not be familiar with. It also gives convincing points about BR management. Give it to your always busto friends.

But most likely you need it. When people ask me which book helped my poker game most out of my collection this is currently the one I point to.

I mostly play online. Saw myself, my relationship to the game and other players differently as I read the book over a 3 week period. My results have improved. Check out the Table of Contents. Book is put together well. I'm considering purchasing their Statistics and probability book but I've got a stack of Harrington books waiting to be read.

Learning the game is not the only thing you need to know to be a successful poker player. This book goes through the philosphical and psychologic aspects of the game. This gives you the information to get your emotions and attitudes in the corrct place to always go for that positive expectation.
Solid information and a good read. Pick it up if you are getting serious about the game.

Perfect book. It explains why not to be angry about bad beats.
Helps you to control and to recognize your (various types of) tilts.
It saves me money. I tilted too much and now i have a better
control over it. Keeps hammering on that a winning pokerplayer
must look for the long term. And thats what its all about.
Helped me to focus on targets. NOT to set targets about how much you must
win in a certain time. This is what i usually did.
Now i set targets for example: I will read 1 pokerbook every 2 month, i will post 10 hands a week in a forum. All of this to improve my game...
Guess what??? It works!
Its a must read for every poker player

Overall, I think the book is pretty good. It is especially helpful if you have problems with tilt or get down and think your play is bad when on a downswing. After awhile though, it feels like its saying the same thing over and over. Its worth the money though if you ask me.

This book is helpful for controlling negative emotions yet is secondary to technical and strategy books. Yet buy this book to develop a well rounded game.