The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success [Paperback]

Matthew Hilger (Author), Ian Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 26, 2007

What "secret" separates top poker players from poker wannabes?

Is it zen-like mind-reading skills, a computer-like brain or thousands of hours of play? No. It is a series of established approaches and behaviors that enables these experts to bring their "A" game to the table session after session, regardless of short-term results.

In this groundbreaking book, Taylor and Hilger lay bare the secrets of the Poker Mindset: seven core attitudes and concepts that ensure you have the optimal emotional, psychological, and behavioral framework for playing superior poker.

The Poker Mindset deeply explores vital topics that most poker books only touch upon:
- Tilt: What it really is, why and when you are most prone to it, and how you can avoid it.
- Bankroll: A complete examination of bankroll management from a technical, but more importantly, from a psychological and emotional viewpoint.
- Opponents: How to determine your competitors' mental and emotional processes so that you can dominate, out think and outplay them.
- Downswings: Every poker player experiences them, but you will truly understand and be armed against low ebbs when they occur.
- Bad Beats: The Poker Mindset will enable you to overcome the trauma of bad beats and losing big pots.

Poker is a fun game, but it is even more fun when you win. The Poker Mindset may be the most valuable poker book you will ever read. Embrace its concepts and you can overcome the unseen obstacles that are limiting your success at the table.

When you make the Poker Mindset your mindset, you will take control of your game and walk away a winner.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

About Matthew Hilger
Matthew Hilger's interest in professional poker is three-fold: playing, writing, and managing poker content websites. His first two books, Internet Texas Hold'em and Texas Hold'em Odds and Probabilities, became best-selling poker books around the world.

Matthew received his bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Georgia in 1989. He completed a master's degree in Finance at Georgia State University in 1991 as well as a master's degree in International Business from Thunderbird in 1996. Prior to embarking on a poker career, Matthew worked in various accounting, finance, and consulting positions.

Matthew cashed eight times at the World Series of Poker between 2004 and 2006, including one final table and a 33rd place finish in the main event. He also won the 2002 New Zealand Poker Championship.

About Ian Taylor
Ian Taylor is a professional poker player and writer. His articles have appeared in a number of websites and publications, mainly focusing on poker psychology, variance, and emotional control. You can find Ian posting on a regular basis in the Forum discussion group at InternetTexasHoldem.com.

Ian received a degree in economics from the University of Warwick in 1999, completing a thesis on risk tolerance and gambling. He worked in the IT sector for a number of years before embarking on a professional poker career.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Dimat Enterprises, Inc. (March 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974150231
• ISBN-13: 978-0974150239
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Poker

More About the Author

Matthew Hilger's interest in professional poker is three-fold: playing, writing, and managing poker content websites. He has written three best-selling poker books: Internet Texas Hold'em, Texas Hold'em Odds and Probabilities, and The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success, coauthored by Ian Taylor.

Matthew received his bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Georgia in 1989. He completed a master's degree in Finance at Georgia State University in 1991 as well as a master's degree in International Business from Thunderbird in 1996. Prior to embarking on a poker career, Matthew worked in various accounting, finance, and consulting positions.

Matthew started playing professionally on the Internet in 2001 and has logged thousands of hours online, playing at limits from $1-$2 up to $100-$200 and in countless online tournaments. In 2008, Matthew demonstrated his tournament prowess by winning a major online event with a $132K first place payout as he outlasted over 3,500 opponents.

Matthew cashed in the main event of the World Series of Poker three times between 2004 and 2007, including a 33rd place finish. He has a total of ten cashes at the World Series of Poker, including one final table. He won the New Zealand Poker Championship in 2002. In 2007, he made back-to-back final tables at the 2007 Aussie Millions Championships.

Matthew now devotes much of his working time to his website and poker forum, www.InternetTexasHoldem.com, where he answers questions about his books and general poker strategy. You can read his poker blog at www.PokerWonks.com.

Matthew lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Diana, and three children, Joshua, Zachary, and Isabel. Matthew's other interests outside of poker include composing on the piano and traveling.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

96 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nebulous Concepts Finally Well Articulated, April 17, 2007

By 

Ammon Brown "Poker Wonk" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success (Paperback)

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.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book's a must have if you play poker!, May 24, 2007

By 

R. Romeo "Avid Reader" (New Castle, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success (Paperback)

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!"

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent analysis of the psychology of successful poker play, August 20, 2007

By 

M. Drudzinski (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success (Paperback)

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.