Recommended Reading: Part I

This column will start an episodic series on recommended reading for the poker player. Why episodic? The columns in this series will be spread over a period of time, to give you time to purchase and then read books that you think are appropriate. Obviously, some books are more basic than others, and thus are more appropriate for beginners. It is often useful to reread some basic books. There may be something you have missed, or the text may lead you to uncover some leak that has gradually crept into your game. Many other books relate to specific games or situations. It is not really necessary to read a book on tournament strategy if you play only cash games, but again, it might prove to be valuable. If you pick up one or two maneuvers that successful tournament players use, you may be able to incorporate them into your game, or at the very least be aware of them when a tournament player uses them against you in a cash game. My recommendations will also include a number of books that aren't purely poker books. There will be some on gambling and gamblers. There will be some fiction, generally relating to games and gambling. Lastly, there will be some books that can best be classified as spiritual or self-improvement. The subject of this column is one such book.

In about 500 B.C., Lao-Tzu wrote the verses that comprise the Tao Te Ching. I say B.C. (before Christ) instead of the current politically correct B.C.E. (before the Common Era) because I find the whole idea of political correctness to be needlessly wimpy. I believe that there is no more religious connotation to saying before Christ than there is to saying before World War II or before the Internet. Anyway, Lao-Tzu and the Tao are spelled and translated into English in a variety of ways. The Tao Te Ching, which is quite short, is available in a variety of translations online, and is thus readily available to everyone with Internet access. Even more varied than the translations are the interpretations. You can find a variety of meanings in and interpretations of each short verse. Even more odious than trying to be politically correct is the notion of trying to interpret ancient religious and secular texts literally, as some fundamentalists have tried to do. These works are generally meant as parables that can provide many forms of enlightenment throughout the ages, rather than actual recordings of scientific facts.

Verse 44 of the Tao Te Ching ends as follows: He who knows when to stop is preserved from peril, only thus can one endure long. I presume that Lao-Tzu didn't have poker players and other gamblers in mind when he wrote this 2,500 years ago, and yet, I can't think of better advice for anyone. If you want to avoid disaster and survive a long time, know when to quit. I am tempted to catalog all the reasons for stopping, but it is much more valuable for you to think about situations occurring in your own life. Think about when it is appropriate for you to quit for the day, to find a different game, and so on. In the next column in this series, I will recommend a book that relates more directly to poker.

Steve "Zee" Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at many major tournaments and playing on Full Tilt, as one of its pros. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A - Nice Guy Eddie's on Houston and Doc Holliday's on 9th Street - in New York City.