Customer Reviews

The Original Poker Diary

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Any serious poker player knows they should keep a notebook or diary; to record thoughts, results, mistakes, notes on opponents, etc, but very few actually go to the trouble of doing so. I've often wished I had better organized and more consistent records, and hoped this volume might help.

The book is tacky, poorly designed and ill-suited for its intended purpose, to serve as a notebook/diary. The second page reads "THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE NEXT MILLION-DOLLAR POKER CHAMPION (insert your name here)." There is little more than a paragraph on how to use the book, an example entry, and then 300 pages of blank entries. Each entry template is three pages, with blanks for date, time, location, checkboxes for game and limit, win/loss, and then sections for "Memorable Hands," "Notes on Players," "Bad Beats," "Tells," and "Other Notes." Each section has about ten blank lines. These choices are ill-considered, and it's hard to conform one's actual thoughts to their rigid template. And what's the point of recording bad beats every session, self-pity?

The book is thicker and heavier than a typical notebook, making it less convenient to carry in the car or a suitcase. The binding is more rigid than most books, and getting a page flat enough to write on comfortably requires breaking the spine.

The Original Poker Diary is clearly aimed at very casual players or well-meaning aunts and grandmothers looking for a "cute" gift. A blank notebook would be both a lot cheaper and more useful.

The Original Poker Diary by dedicated poker player Jonas Barrish offers a unique system for improving the reader's poker playing performance through developing a more focused awareness of play, strategy, and opponents regardless of the specific type of poker game being played. A good many world-class poker players keep detailed notes of their games to help them review successes and learn from their mistakes. Barrish incorporates this principle into The Original Poker Diary with 300 journal entry pages for players to record on in order to keep track of "Memorable Hands", "Player Notes", "Bad Beats", "Tells", and more. Enhanced with a comprehensive glossary of poker terms and slang, The Original Poker Diary will prove to be an invaluable addition to any serious poker player's personal reference shelf.

I don't know much about poker, but my friend does and he has so many poker books, but not this one. It is a cool diary for poker players and he uses his and loves it. It shows him how much money he loses LOL. It makes a great gift.