by Kate
26. May 2010 10:10
Love that title! CEO turned professional poker player, Tom Schneider, wrote a book of this title after noticing that there were a host of similarities between the worlds of business and gaming. The book is an account of Tom’s extensive boardroom and poker experience in how to read people. He provides stories that are funny and educational as well as accounts of the games he has played, the people he has played against and the hands that he has won with. There’s some good, some bad and some ugly in this book.
One of the interesting chapters is about players who have found themselves in a “spin cycle” which he defines as when players experience a series of misfortunes at the poker table as a result of difficulties they are experiencing away from the table. Tom reckons it’s not a good time to play poker when you’re going through a divorce or any other highly stressful situation because he says: “it’s not easy to play poker when you’ve got problems.” These factors are one of many that are categorised as “noise”. “Noise” is anything that will contribute to breaking your concentration and losing at the table. He then adds some “active” noise reduction techniques in order to get out of the “spin cycle”. Firstly be aware of actually being there and avoid making big decisions when you are. Secondly, make a checklist in order to ensure that all personal matters are settled before play so that you can “play in peace”.
He also has an interesting stance on the ‘playing for the money or the love’ debate: “make sure you have the important things in life done first before you try to make money in any endeavour, because winning is more important than playing. If you continue to win you can continue to play.”