Kindle version soon?

+1 eagerly awaiting Kindle version.

Hi moose:

Here's the problem we're currently having. We send a PDF to a kindle conversion company that we work with and they send us back the kindle file for our review along with a previewer. However, this kindle file has to work well on five different kinds of kindles and so far, even though they have sent us the conversion file several times, the card pictures we use in our books is showing up as blank spaces on two of the kindle previews that we can see. But when we tell this to the conversion company they say that everything appears to be fine on their end. So the hangup is that they're trying to correct the issue without knowing exactly what it is.

Hopefully this will all be fixed in a day or two and then we'll get it into Amazon. But if the conversion company that we work with can't solve the problem we'll have to go to a different company and that would cause more delays which we obviously don't want.

Best wishes,
Mason

Wow, you have a complete misunderstanding of meditation. Meditation isn't about "inner peace", it's about paying attention. If you don't think paying attention is important in poker, well then.... I guess I don't know what to say.

More accurately, meditation isn't exactly paying attention, it's practicing paying attention. It's like studying poker so you'll play better in a real game. You practice paying attention so you can pay attention better in a real game. Meditation is referred to as "practice" for a reasion.

Why is meditation important? Obviously when playing poker you need to pay attention, but it's not like an athletic sport. In fact, those players who are emphasizing GTO strategies only need to pay attention at the lowest level.

MM

Hi Stella and everyone else who has been asking about the kindle version:

We approved the appropriate files today and all the stuff that Amazon needs has now been sent. So Amazon should have the kindle version up in a day or two.

Yes it's about time and our apologies for it taking far longer than we expected.

Best wishes,
Mason

Might be time to go with a more GTO conversion company in the future

Thank you for the update Mason.

UPDATE: The book has shown up in the Kindle store as of about 8:25am EST this morning.

And here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Poker-Psy...ker+psychology

Best wishes,
Mason

Hi Joey:

It sure seems that way. In the past, we always got the kindle up in just a few days after the paperback was published. But this time, when we looked at the kindle file in the kindle viewer, the card pictures and other images were coming up blank for one of the kindle formats, and it just took the company we work with a number of tries to get it fixed.

Best wishes,
Mason

I've been reading The psychology of poker by Alan Schoonmaker and was wondering if it's outdated for today's game and online game?

Having gotten to page 55, a suggestion: FIRE THE PROOF-READER!

I really don't know if meditating regularly would make much difference in someone's play, but the idea that players using GTOish strategies can just zombiebot is silly.

Exploitative strategies are always in play for anyone that doesn't hate money, and there are very few players that even have anything close to a complete balanced strategy worked out in any variant.

Hi DaycareInferno:

This is not what I said. You still need to pay attention.

While I agree with this statement for most cases, Applications of No-Limit Hold 'em by Matthew Janda is a book that does produce a much more complete Game Theory strategy. Also, players who are multi-tabling a large number of tables are not going to be able to do much from an exploitative stand point.

Best wishes,
Mason

My quick review:

Let's get one thing out of the way first: I'm not a psychologist and neither is Mason, as he repeatedly acknowledges. I've been playing casino poker since it came to AC in the early 90's, Mason much longer. These days I play 8-16 LHE and some 6-12 0E at Talking Stick (Scottsdale), Mason keeps referring to his playing 20-40 LHE. Does it matter that neither of us is a high stakes crusher? The answer, as far as poker 'psychology' goes is no.

So let me get to it: Is Real Poker Psychology worth the money and time to read it? The answer is yes and it will help, in some way at least, everybody except the truly expert players who already know what's in the book.

Is Mason's premise, that tilt is caused by the brain 'locking up' due to an inability to be able to process information correctly correct? In my opinion, probably partially, and the extent to which 'probably partially' is a legitimate interpretation is open to debate but at least he has a couple of academic papers to back him up. But does it matter whether or not 'probably partially' is true? Absolutely not, imo, since the cure 'Understand poker and the probabilistic events that govern it better (page 13)' is certainly correct. Let me add that I would have gone further even though what I'm about to point out is implied in that concept and should grow naturally from it and would have said outright (since some people need things pounded into them) that 'Players need to learn to accept and love all things poker.'

I had prepared to make a very long post but have decided against it mostly bec Mason's entitled to get paid for his work which might not happen if I talk about half of the book so I'm going to limit myself to a few things:

I can't remember the last time I got seriously tilted and have reached the stage where I can laugh at some of the beats I've taken and Mason's right in that if you understand the game well enough players should be able to chuckle at what's happened as I often do.

Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, would benefit greatly if they either memorized or read the second paragraph on page 36 which addresses 'Them fluctuations' before every, single session.

Mason discusses a few ideas from somebody named John Feeny, Ph D, whom I don't know. His remarks under 'Idea No. 2' on page 209 (something I learned for myself years ago) is worth the price of the book all by itself. That single idea has been a tremendous benefit to me, I can say that much.

And, finally, Concept No. 46 (Mason's rebuttal remarks regarding the work of someone else I don't know, Dr. Patricia Cardner) made me laugh out loud, it's so true.

I'll end w/ this: Much of the book will be familiar to anyone who's read the Malmuth/Sklansky library of poker books but it's not a waste of time. Everybody can use a refresher once in a while.

Hi Howard:

First, thanks for the positive review. It's much appreciated.

Second, if you would like to write a much longer review, feel free to do so. I also feel that's it's important to get some of the ideas that the book contains out to more in the poker community. This is especially so since much of what has become recently available under the heading of "Poker Psychology" or "Mental Coaching" is, in my opinion, extremely inaccurate.

Best wishes,
Mason

You're welcome, Mason, but I think that I'll leave it as it is (I marked at least a dozen pages to address) and will answer questions if I think that I can be helpful. Many people who read it are going to wonder a lot about some of what you write but to the careful reader it should be clear. For example you say that being tired shouldn't matter much and I can just see the expressions on the faces of the reader who strongly disagrees and they may not notice that you soften that later on by acknowledging that there's such a thing as 'too tired.' Many will pass over that and not get the point.

I know that you don't think much of the current crop of poker psychology books and I don't find them very helpful myself. I've got Tendler's book (which you think is good, iirc) sitting half read on my shelf. I've read Tommy Angelo's Elements of Poker bec it was so highly touted and liked much of it except for the small bits of strat talk (I love you Tommy but, damn, you are a nit).

Let people read your book and come here to talk about it if they want to but I'll advise them again: If you think 'wtf?' at any point, read on. Read on w/ what it would mean if you took 'Understand poker better' and applied it to what you might reject out of hand.

ETA: I'll add a couple of further thoughts: Much of what I HAVE read in the poker psych books, and in the psych forum on here bring up anger issues and entitlement issues. Some people will never get over their anger issues bec they bring them w/ them wherever they go. If it only happens at the tables then they don't understand poker and they certainly don't love it. They are getting angry at facts, a silly thing. How can anybody get angry about a fact? If a person can't understand that something happens bec it's SUPPOSED and even MUST happen there is little help for them except your basic cure. The same goes for entitlement issues as if some player thinks he's so damn good that he should never lose, esp to the fish. And how I hate that term, 'fish.' So many of the 'fish' are extremely wealthy and they can play poker as stupidly as they want bec the money is like lint in their pockets. Yet so many players think of them a suckers (btw, the page on Sucker Privileges was very funny and I'm going to shamelessly steal that line). And here's an example: Years ago there was an absolutely terrible player in an 08 game that I sometimes played. He was one of the worst I've ever seen. Then one day somebody told me that 'He owns half of Chicago.' lololol, there's a 'sucker for you.'

I could go on but by the time I'm finished I'll have written my own book.

Hi Howard:

One quick point. I've been going back through Tendler's book at a very detailed level and while I still feel it's much better than Cardner/Little, my recommendation of it is now withdrawn.

Best wishes,
Mason

That's a relief! I thought that I ought to finish it (actually would've had to start from the beginning) and now I can put it into the bookcase instead.

Your book is on a long list of books I plan to read

But, I have to say this statement is wrong for anyone who knows how to use a HUD. Badges, Icons, and customizable HUDs make it very easy to make exploitative plays while playing many tables.

At a minimum the authors of these books should come on a public forum and give a full and complete set of answers about what they're writing about and why they chose to write what they did. Anyone that refuses to do so should have their works rejected. They're only as good as the rationale behind them.
Cardner hasn't come on here but my point isn't really leveled at her. From what I've seen she's the real deal, but I've only seen about 1/8th of her stuff. Same for Angelo.

Poker psychology is actually a very interesting topic. The reason that I feel comfortable having posted a review and why I also sometimes give advice in the psych forum is bec it's POKER psychology and I think that anybody that's introspective and is simply someone who has managed to even break even at small stakes (they are beating a steep rake) is worthy of offering advice. IOW, I don't think much of what might be called a 'pure' psychologist has to say about poker if they haven't suffered the intense mental strain that learning to play winning poker requires.

It's for this same reason that I advise any pro player (unless he/she is one of the few w/ millions in the bank) to only get into a relationship w/ someone else in the industry (floor, dealer, fellow player) bec nobody else will understand. And that's what happens, btw, at least where I play. Dealers marry players, players marry players, it's one huge 'incestuous' industry we're in the middle of!

got it from amazon.com yesterday; not an auspicious start-two typos in the introduction
I will read it of course but who is your copy editor?

Hi jimi:

I do all the editing on 2+2 books. Could you tell me what the typos are and did you buy a kindle or a hard copy?

Thanks and best wishes,
Mason