Poker Winners Are Different: [Paperback]

Alan N. Schoonmaker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 24, 2009

What Makes Winners Win?

Every serious poker player knows there's a big difference between playing well and winning: Winners successfully master specific attitudes and habits.

What Do I Need To Win?

It's right in your hands. Poker guru Dr. Alan N. Schoonmaker explains the key skills that enable winners to bring in the money. With his expert guidance you can master them, too. You'll learn to:

• Manage risk and information

• Develop better discipline

• Improve your decision-making processes

• Focus on the right issues

• Choose the information you give others

• Control your reactions to feelings

• Act decisively

By mastering the behaviors and skills that Schoonmaker teaches, you'll be able to play more confidently--and win more often.

Alan N. Schoonmaker, Ph.D, is the author of Your Worst Poker Enemy, Your Best Poker Friend, and the top-selling The Psychology of Poker; he is also a columnist for Card Player magazine. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from UC Berkeley, and has conducted research and taught at UCLA, Carnegie-Mellon, and Belguim's Catholic University of Louvain. He lives in Las Vegas.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Lyle Stuart (February 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081840728X
• ISBN-13: 978-0818407284
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #412,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great title from Dr. Al, February 25, 2009

By 

Paul Benjamin "An avid reader" (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poker Winners Are Different: (Paperback)

There are dozens if not hundreds of books on poker strategy, and many of them are very good and very useful at helping you learn what to do at the poker table. But knowing yourself--your motivations, your fears, your reasons for playing, your responses to the inevitable ups and downs of the game--is at least equally important to successful poker, and maybe more important.

All of Al Schoonmaker's books can help in this regard, and he has set the bar even higher with this new title, "Poker Winners Are Different." He has identified and articulated the characteristics of winners (many of which will surprise you), and he will help you determine if you have those characteristics or can cultivate them. In fact, the most powerful element of the book is in its "interactive" nature, forcing you to self-evaluate your attitudes and your game to determine if you can indeed be a winner.

I used to review poker books for Card Player magazine, and this is a very a impressive addition to the literature of poker. If you're serious about the game and honest with yourself, you should read this title.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look beyond the cards., June 15, 2009

By 

D. Mosman (Simi Valley, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poker Winners Are Different: (Paperback)

I have invested in several of these "how to" and "advanced strategy" books for playing and I have learned a great deal from them. But, I really wanted something that would help keep me focused and to be more disciplined when I played. This book delivers in many ways that helps you organize yourself so that you are at an optimum performance level when you play. The book tells you what winners do (behavior and decision wise)and it also tells you what losers do. Unfortunately, I found myself in the losers category more often than I would have liked. This was actually good news to me and now I know what to fix. The book helps your realize why you play and therefore, how to approach the game with your end goal in mind. Things like playing for the long term are still difficult concepts to master. But, I feel like the author has set some excellent guidelines for filtering out all the noise so that you can play your best. This is a definite must in your library if you want to understand yourself better and be a better player.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Dr Poker" strikes again with massively helpful insight, November 5, 2009

By 

Sanjay Mehta "no worry" (Henderson, NV United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Poker Winners Are Different: (Paperback)

I've decided to give Dr. Alan Schoonmaker the nickname Dr. Poker, since this book - combined with all his previous books - form an amazing body of work that is indispensable for the health of all poker players. If there's a leak in your game, your poker personality, your internal attitude towards poker or your approach to the game, Dr Poker is the man to help you fix it. And because his books are not about strategy but personal insight, they are rather timeless, and players at just about any level of play - from beginner to expert - will likely find a lot of information to improve their performance at the poker table.

Since different problems pop up in a player's psyche at different stages in their game play, this book (like his others) is an invaluable reference tool that requires constant re-reading to maximize its value. A first reading may isolate and fix a few problems with your poker attitude. Later readings may identify other problems that didn't exist the first time, but have developed since then. Like physical health, poker health is constantly changing and evolving and this book is the perfect tool as a constant reference guide to refer back to repeatedly.

This book has played a very major role in improving my poker health and I expect it to continue doing so for as long as I play poker.