Customer Reviews

The Making Of A Poker Player

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For the price, this book is definitely worth a read. Matt takes us from his kitchen table home games to the televised event that netted $700k. Here is my short review of the book.

Matt chooses not share all his secrets with us (and he says so). With that exception, you will find his honesty and openess refreshing while enjoying the vicarious thrill of trial by fire at several major tournaments. Most of all, you can learn about the hard work and study it takes to succeed by reading Matt's detailed accounting of how he restructured his game. This is a good book for all aspiring players.

There are some real disappointments such as the sparse chapters on game and heads-up theory, but overall we have sufficient detailed hand analysis to compensate.

Until the publisher or Amazon gets around to it, here are the chapter titles. Keep in mind that the chapters titles are indexes into the authors stages of development more than instructional topics (some exceptions).

01. Learning to Play
02. Texas Hold'em
03. Introduction to Tournaments and Connecticut Poker
04. Intorduction to No Limit Hold'em
05. Hosting a Home Game with Regular Opponents,
and Spotting Tells
06. Tournaments, the Next Level
07. Limit Hold'em, the Next Level
08. Pot Limit, Live
09. Playing as a Manaic
10. Picking Your Game, in Vegas
11. Game Theory
12. Learning Omaha and Stud (at FARGO)
13. Talking Your Opponents to Death
14. The Tournament of Champions
15. Heads-up Theory
16. Analaysis
17. Online Poker
18. Running Bad
19. Televised Poker and Me
20. Cashing Out
21. Postscript

If you're a fan of The WPT, you may remember Matt Matros from the championship final table in April of 2004. The hand he went out on to Martin de Knijff was later analyzed unflatteringly by Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth on "Poker Corner." The author gives an accounting of this play and discusses the situation here in the book's postscript. For his efforts in the championship, he won over 700 grand.

I would have to say that "The Making..." is kind of a hybrid. It is a personal story and also one which attempts to explain poker strategy to the reader. The biggest indication that it succeeds at both goals is that I found it very hard to put down. All of the chapters are readable, which may be due to Matros veering from his mathematics background to obtain a Masters of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence. He seems to make few mistakes and does not dwell on jargon in these pages (and he has a glossary in back for novices). The mathematics background comes across, however, in his personality, and he appears far more Yale than common man. Sometimes a narrator can produce feelings of empathy in a reader, but, in this case, he could not.

As far as the poker is concerned though, this book is surprisingly insightful. Matros is a scholar of the game and appears to be completely devoted to self-improvement. Here, he documents the tremendous growth he achieved over a few short years. The tale is inspirational to pikers like myself who hope for a small percentage of his lifetime cash-outs. I think his observations about the differences between tournament poker and "real" poker are excellent. I had not fully comprehended the disparities until opening this one up. His examination of the effectiveness of the maniac playing style was very valuable. How many times do we sit and watch our calls and raises get steamrolled by lunatics? Yes, they go broke, but so often they redistribute our chips to others before doing so. It's frustrating, and Matros reveals how some personal problems led him to accidentally assume the maniac role at a tournament and achieve astonishing results. We see, through his actions, just how stunningly effective maniac play can be. Even though many of us long for a civilized game, aggression is perpetually rewarded in No Limit Hold'em. Lastly, the chapter on game theory was perfect for beginners. The author gets across many important tenets of the mathematical discipline without alienating the non-mathematically inclined. If you're looking for a poker book that manages to teach as much as entertain, this one is a short-list choice.

Mike Matros has a bachelors in mathematics from Yale and a MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence, which is itself an interesting combination. One does not normally think of the two sides of the brain converging in a single person, but apparently, it has in the personality of Mike Matros. Matros is a rising tournament player who after writing this book placed 3rd in a WPT event, netting him over $700,000. That story, and others, is related in the book (as a postscript).

Poker books have been around for decades, but due to the sport's recent, explosive popularity, the market has seen a signficant increase in both the numbers published, as well as the creation of new sub-genres. Anyone who is in the market for a book on poker deserves to know where Matros's new poker book fits within this marketplace. Here's my shorthand for the sub-genres of poker books:

1. Technical and Strategic. These books seek to explain, not merely the rules of poker, but strategies and the technical mathemetics needed to become a winning player.

2. Poker Memoir. These books are more about the poker player than they are about poker. They recount stories of bad beats or significant events in the life of the player.

Works that fit #1 are absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in improving their game. Books by writers like Dan Harrington, David Sklansky and Mike Caro fit this category well. Works that fit #2 are not, in a sense, technically necessary but are enjoyable reads nonetheless if one loves the sport. A great example of an excellent memoir book is Michael Craig's recent THE PROFESSOR, THE BANKER AND THE SUICIDE KING, as well as Jim McManus's POSITIVELY FIFTH STREET.

Not all books are simply one or the other, because as the market has grown and expanded, hybrids that are a mix of the two have emerged. These books attempt to combine the best of #1 and #2, but in my experipence, rarely succeed. For instance, a hybrid poker book will focus on poker stories, as well as strategy, in an attempt to make poker strategy more readable and interesting. But in so doing, these books rarely provide enough technical depth on given situations or needed mathematics to be truly helpful. Thus, hybrid books will tend to be the weakest in those chapters that are devoted purely to strategy. An example of this is several of Phil Helmuth's books, which are more about Phil Helmuth than they are about poker.

I consider Matros's book a hybrid, and like most hybrid books I've read, it fails at offering substantive analysis and technical depth of the game. His training in creative writing is definitely evident in reading the book, as he is truly gifted writer of nonfiction. I found myself genuinely liking Matt after reading about him in tournaments. He also does a good job of putting the reader at the table, in certain hands - something which only talented writers can successfully do. He is like Michael Craig, in that sense - he is able to take you experientially into the tension and excitement of gambling, and that alone makes this book worth reading.

But I thought the book was weak in the chapters where Matros appeared to be providing technical information to the reader. For instance, the game theory chapter is slim on actual game theory. We learn nothing about solving actual games; we're simply recounted anecdotes involving problems suggested to an Internet discussion forum, and a prediction by Matros that game theory will one day revolutionize the science of poker. As an economist, I've heard this prediction before - not with poker, necessarily, but with any number of fields. It was once predicted that Chicago price theory would be supplanted by a game theoretic approach, but that day has not arrived, despite the signficant contributions to the field that game theory has made. Hence, Matros came across to me as more of a cheerleader in that chapter than he did someone who could open up the black box of game theory and relate it with relevance to a layperson.

Hence I felt the book was not balanced well, and suffered the fate of most hybrid poker books. It worked well as a narrative about poker-playing, but worked poorly at explaining poker strategy to the reader. Nevertheless, I think Matros understands poker very well, and the few nuggets I did get from the book on playing were helpful.

Most importantly, I feel the need to correct something one reveiwer said.
"Dave M (Alexandria, VA) The amazing part is that this book was written BEFORE he won playing in the 2004 WPT Championship. He was nothing but an amateur with a couple cashes. He had no business writing a book."

The fact that this book was written almost in its entirety BEFORE getting the big payout is the true testament to its validity. I believe this book would have been inconsequential had it been yet another luck draw player made famous by his/her 15 minutes on ESPN. All theories and practices are well thought out and layout a natural development of this man's poker strategies. A great read for anyone bored with taking their friend's money every Saturday night, but not ready to start rounding.

The Making of a Poker Player is basically a series of well thought-out, informative, interesting, and easy to read poker trip reports with a twinkle of poker theory thrown in. Through the different chapters, Matros writes about his poker experiences in his life, it could be called a poker-autobiography. As he tells his story, he adds in the rules and basic strategies of some games, such as Limit Texas Hold'em, No Limit Hold'em, Seven Card Stud, Omaha and Tournament poker. He also discusses some interesting ideas and theories (psychological, mathematical and game theory) in most of these chapters as it pertains to the different games. While it is impossible to do an in-depth study in any of these games through short chapters (each one would fill a lengthy book by themselves), that was clearly not Matros' goal in this book. It seems to me, that his goal was to entertain the reader (beginner or experienced player), throw out some poker ideas and make the book a good read. If you want a book on strategy for a particular game, this is not it. But if you want an entertaining, easy to read book that gives good insight into different poker games, then this a good one. I enjoyed it.

This book out of all others I have read(Sklansky, Brunson, Harrinton, etc...), this is probably my favorite. I myself, and a player who is wanting to learn the game and work my way up. This book gives you that hope. He seperates the book from Beginner, average, to advanced. And along the way, he shows you what he did and the mistakes he made. You get a sense of what not to do when playing poker for a living or trying too. The is a strategy-story book which is very different among others. I highly-highly recommend this book.

I cant wait until his 2nd one comes out!

_JAck

This book is a mix of narrative and poker tips. The poker tips are solid and I found them helpful. I would not make this the first book about poker that you read. I approached this book after having read Theory of Poker and several game specific texts by Sklansky, Malmuth, Harrington and Gordon (ie. "the classics"). I think the classic didactic texts provide a better format for presenting how to think about poker, but hearing these insights for a second time in a new format helped to cement some of the knowledge.
The narrative portion of the book is quite enjoyable and I had trouble putting the book down, even waking up early in the morning to sneak in a few more pages. I'm a beginning/intermediate poker player so it was nice to live vicariously through someone who has achieved more but not so much more that his achievements seem unobtainable. Contrast this with Stu Ungar's biography, which I enjoyed reading,but don't ever expect to be able to replicate his success. I may never replicate Matt's successes either, but it is easier to believe that with the same hard work he showed, you could stand a chance of coming close.
What I think separates this book from many of the other poker books is the bit of knowledge it presents that the other books I have read seem to have left out: a road map for improving in poker. Matt takes us through his road of home games and low limit casino ring games to internet bullitin boards, bigger tournaments and away from the table study techniques. It is surprising to me that no other book has attempted this. The story of how Matt progressed in his poker knowledge and skill is entertaining for any reader, but I think someone hoping to replicate some of his successes will also find the book useful.
In summary, this should not be your first poker book, but I would definately recomend it for anyone who is not a total beginner.

He starts learning poker at 15, and heck, he plays it all the time: at home, at school, in small tourneys at Foxwoods in Connecticut, ultimately on TV. He learns enough to win regularly.

Because Matros's degree is in math, he isn't afraid of the numbers in poker. He explains them clearly throughout the book.

In fact, though this is his poker autobiography, there's an awful lot of good poker instruction contained within it. He encapsulates some key points he learned from classic poker textbooks.

Matros has a current understanding of the game: at casinos, playing online, reading the newsgroups, playing home games. He used to play in headsup Texas Hold'em tourneys at his friend Greg's house. That was before Greg, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, won the 2004 WSOP, the main event, for $5 million.

So even as the book feels as it written by a poker newbie, who recounts for us his bad plays, he is knowledgable and well-connected in the poker world. By the end of the book, his tourney play is outstanding, a force to be reckoned with -- if only he could remember the two cards in his hand. (See the exciting and funny last chapter.)

This is an enjoyable read as a memoir and darn it! you'll learn some poker. Even the numbers.

Highly recommended as a break from those classic poker textbooks.

This is a very interesting book. Matros is well ensconced in the upper reaches of the second tier of Hold'em players. I have found two general approaches to Hold'em by the big boys. Some are organic players like T.J. Cloutier and Doyle Brunson. Some of the new breed take a more academic tack. Count Matros in the latter group. And frankly for those of us who will not be going on the road in the Texas panhandle any time soon this latter approach offers far more dividends to those willing to study. Matros gives a fair and honest account of his development as a poker player. He is a math wonk but doesn't overburden the reader with too much 'reckoning'. He is a good writer and shares a lot of useful insight with his reader. While Matros is not yet in the top tier of players he has arrived near the top of poker writers with this book. This book is destined to gain wide readership. I rank it with Positively Fifth Street as a read but it has the added benefit of possibly improving your game. Kudos Matt.

Very enjoyable reading. I learned much from Matt's odyssey through the poker world. I was particularly intrigued by Matt's analysis of expected value for particular situations. I recommend the book, particularly to players that have caught the poker "bug" in the last 3 years.