Elements of Poker

Posted by bellatrix

May 8, 2008

I just finished reading “The Elements of Poker” by Tommy Angelo. “Wow!” is one of the few words I can say.

The book gives very few strategic comments. In fact, most of the book can be described as Zen-like mumbo jumbo, with Tommy spending many pages on breathing techniques and Yoga. But guess what? It WORKS. Not because I have tried the breathing or other stuff he says in his “elements”. It works, because Tommy is a professional, who knows how to talk about poker. He’s been there, playing his C-game, chasing losses, lamenting bad beats. Every single one of us has been there…

But he has some techniques that make the hurting stop. This book is totally about tilt-management and how to play the game professionally. How you will not anger fish, how you are at easy with yourself, with your poker lifestyle and choices. In his dedication he wrote: “Bellatrix, remember, to win at poker, you have to be good at losing.” And this is what this book boils down to. It gives you some strategic insight, but that was not as strong as the emotional aspects of the game. Especially the tournament section was sometimes filled with questionable advice. However, in the live game cash section, this book is tops. Reading “elements” will make you a good loser, if you understand where I’m coming from…

Everybody has had bad beats. I can still recall 3 years later every second of that pot where I lost with quads to a runner runner straight flush and the opponent laughed in my face, because he only had one card of the straight flush, so it didn’t even qualify for a bad beat. So what? I can laugh it off now. This book will help you look at the game in a professional matter and will make you ask yourself some serious questions.

So, IMO, bar some New Age stuff, which I can’t really qualify, I can only recommend this book to any poker player that plays high volume, especially for the live player! Much better than “Your worst poker enemy”. I can’t really compare it to “Inside the Poker Mind”, because I haven’t heard that one, but right now it is definitely among my favorites regarding tilt management and my own poker psychology.

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