Your Best Poker Friend: Increase Your Mental Edge and Maximize Your Profits »

Alan N. Schoonmaker, Ph.D, is the author of Your Worst Poker Enemy and the top-selling The Psychology of Poker, and is 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.

Poker players who read Dr. Alan Schoonmaker's groundbreaking Your Worst Poker Enemy learned that many of their mistakes at the table were psychological, not strategic. Now he's taking his program even further to help you get the outstanding results you want-and deserve.

WAIT-SO WHO IS MY BEST POKER FRIEND?

You are, of course! Dr. Schoonmaker can boost you to your true potential by helping you analyze your commitment, giving you a clear sense of where you want to go and teaching you how to get there. You'll learn the keys to long-term player planning and development, and get the big picture on—
• Learning efficiently
• Monitoring yourself and the situation
• Increasing your edge
• Playing no-limit hold'em
• Assessing your assets and liabilities
• Planning your poker career

As players get smarter and the games get tougher, there's one edge you should depend on— playing at your full potential. Dr. Schoonmaker can help get you there so that you can maximize your enjoyment of the game-and your profits!

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     1
Using This Book     17
Getting and Using Information
Introduction     23
Learning Efficiently     28
First Impressions     41
Taking Notes     50
Playing Online     66
Poker Discussion Groups     71
Getting Helpful Feedback     84
Getting a Coach     90
Afterthought     95
Increasing Your Edge
Introduction     99
Creating False First Impressions     101
Would You Bust Your Own Grandmother?     105
Beating the Newbies     116
Isolating "Idiots"     123
Playing the Rush     131
Defending Against the Rush     135
Creating Tilt     139
Exploiting Tilt     144
Afterthought     150
Should You Play No-Limit Hold'em?
Introduction     153
The Essential Mental Abilities     166
The Critical Psychological Traits     173
Reading and Adjusting to Players     181
Which Games Should You Choose?     201
Where Should You Sit?     207
Where Do You Want the Big Stacks?     212
Making the Transition     217
Afterthought     228
Developing Yourself
Introduction     231
Should You Move Up?     234
The Coaches' Dilemma     247
General Principles     253
Setting Your Goals     258
Evaluating Your Assets and Liabilities     272
Making Your Plans     279
Monitoring Your Progress     286
Should You Quit Your Day Job? Part I     291
Should You Quit Your Day Job? Part II     300
Afterthought     306
Appendixes
Why Do You Play Poker?     309
Don't Waste Your Time in Lectures     312
If You Have Psychological Problems     314
Biased Data Samples     316
Mini-Quiz     319
Recommended Coaches     321
Recommended Readings     323
Index     329
About the Author     339