Poker Book Report: Your Worst Poker Enemy by Alan Schoonmaker

Alan Schoonmaker has had one of the best poker books on the market for years now called The Psychology of Poker. Given the nature of it’s title it’s a book which barely touches on hand to hand game scenarios and thus may have been thought of as reading without the fanfare from writing peers such as Doyle Brunson, David Sklansky and Mike Caro. It simply didn’t have the “meaty” poker strategy, or did it? I have had that very book on my top ten list since I read it for the very reason others chose not to read it.

It is deep level thinking that goes to the core of every poker player’s fundamental strategy and profiling skill building. Those who did not read it and think they can do without it are either super skilled (top 10 – 20 players in the world) or simply ignoring costly realities.

Here now introducing Dr. Alan Schoonmaker’s latest addition to the collective poker psyche, a new book called Your Worst Poker Enemy. Yes, you guessed it - for the very reason you didn’t read his first book, YOU are your own worst enemy at poker and between these thoughtful pages you may just discover exactly why that is and what to do about it.

Recently I was in a sit and go tournament where during the early stages I noticed a player generously handing out the usual “nh” – nice hand comments while he was (by no skill of his own) the early chip leader. Later as the tournament narrowed and his competition increased he got less friendly and eventually as I took the lead from him, downright belligerent. Just before I won the tournament and eliminated him in third place, he actually chatted that he would kill me if he saw me. Oh brother. Here is a typical low limit player that just has no clue that he too was his own worst enemy, and thus is preventing his own growth in the game.

Schoonmaker brings to light in this book how players often play over their skill level feeling they can beat the game, without considering that there are easier levels to select and improve your own likelihood of profitability. He also makes it quite clear that there are very few players on this planet who can pull off some of the stuff you Brunson, Hansen, Ivey and Negreanu doing with regularity. Neither is it a simple matter of calculating poker odds.

In fact, Schoonmaker even claims it nonsense to be following some of the advice these pros put out for amateurs, referring to a particular Brunson recommendation from Super System for relying on your intuition to decide your strategy. Since you and I are not those players, and likely do not have those type of intuitive skills a more scientific, logical approach to the game is needed.

Once you accept this premise, the rest of the book makes complete sense and can be used as a layered set of psychological tools for your next game. Dr. Alan Schoonmaker has a values perspective to this game as he outright admits his skill levels are not world class but he makes a profit because he knows which games he can beat and doesn’t let his pride or arrogance make decisions for him. If this sounds like you, (and how could it not, really?) maybe it’s time to think a bit deeper about your game and confront your worst enemy.