How We Decide

Ever since I started playing internet poker I have found it almost impossible to actually read a book. I don’t know if I have acquired ADD or what, but I am usually playing Full Tilt and doing something else at the same time.

I have however discovered audio books on Itunes from which I occasionally download a book to my Ipod and listen to it while I drive, play on Full Tilt, ect.

Recently I saw a guy do a couple TV interviews on his book “How We Decide” and decide to buy it. This book confirms what I had always known about my own poker game and how my brain works at a subconscious and emotional level when making decisions at a poker table. I have always been very good at reading players yet could never pick up a single tell on a conscious level, I just went with my gut feelings, which were usually right. This book explains very well why this is actually the best way to play poker. How over thinking on a complicated and unclear decision like the ones we face at the table is the last thing you should do.

This is a fascinating book that every poker player should read. It may not be the most well written book and have some throw away unnecessary anecdotes, that were probably stuck in as fillers, but overall a must read.

It even has a section dedicated to poker and one of my favorite players, Michael Binger. This is probably the least informative section for me, as by that time, all the information was just being rehashed. Also I am certain he misquoted Binger at least once when he was quoted as having said, something like, ‘When you lose a tournament it isn’t always because you made a mistake but when you win one it is always because you outplayed everyone else at the table’ unless Michael said this as a joke and he took it seriously(remember he was at the final table the year Jamie Gold won the main event so he is well aware that a good run of cards can be very helpful in winning a tournament).

Read/listen to this book, it will give you more insight to poker then almost any “poker book”.