Has anybody read a good book/author in this vein that's helped them with tilt/emotional control in their poker games? It seems all of the tilt advice I've read is very Zenish.

shunryu suzukis 'zen mind, beginners mind'.

thich nhat hanhs 'miracle of mindfulness' is pretty good.

shakyamuni buddha is the best though.

also 'zen flesh, zen bones' and anything by d.t. suzuki is excellent (though he does a lot of buddhist history).

There is a decent free e-book about beginning meditation that you can find on the Web - "Mindfulness in Plain English".

Second the suggestion for Zen Mind, Beginners Mind.

How about 'Zen and the Art of Poker' by Larry Philips. Its a Zen book designed specifically for poker.

Cool. Tommy Angelo gave me the first two and I am re-re-manyX-reading them. I guess I should return the favor.

Read====>>>>>>> ELEMENTS OF POKER by Tommy Angelo. It has what you are looking for.


ps--Book available at the TwoPlusTwo Store, your friendly neighborhood sponsor

yes, elements of poker is a great book. definitely in the top echelon of poker books. refreshingly original.

Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth About Reality

Are you purposely trying to make him play worse?
IIRC that book had suggestions like following your LUCK when you're in the lucky state, no matter what your starting hand, etc.

Zen and the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel, is an excellent
book which has many applications to poker.

Thich Nat Hanhs Miracle of Mindfullness is excellent and useful.

Zen and the Art of Poker by Larry Phillips is totally worthless.

i find D.T suzuki's stuff too confusing

Thats a lot of peoples strategy.

Miracle of mindfulness is very good in my opinion. If you have never read anything along these lines then it may be a little wierd but it is very good.

Check out Zen and the Art of Motorcycke Maintenance by Pirsig

This is the best intro Zen book I ever read, and I read about 15 Zen books.

I think that you just have to basically understand that anger is up to you. Sure, the moment someone sucks out, you get pissed off, everyone does. But like 30 seconds after it happens, it's up to you to decide how much you want to let it bother you. Same with everything in life. Initially you have a gut reaction, and you can't change that part. But after a few moments, it really is up to you how much you want to let it bother you. Think about that. =)

And like punching things and yelling is just reinforcing anger and making it stronger. But you don't want to bottle anger inside either. Rather, do a 3rd option, just decide not to be angry. Once you realize anger is a choice, life will be a lot better.

tao te ching

+1, great book...gets at the important stuff and circumvents a lot of the nonsense

That's Taoism, not Buddhism.

OP, are you interested in Zen Buddhism or Buddhism in general or using Buddhist meditation to help with tilt?

There are 2 authors that I like, Stephen Batchelor and Steve Hagen. There books are very non-mystical. I looked at the free e-book mentioned and I thought it looked great.

Yah, I gleaned 3 major concepts from the book:

1) As you mentioned, anger is what you make it out to be. Everyone has a moment where they feel some anger, some immediately let it dissipate, while others keep fueling it until it builds into a rage where you start taking it out on people/things.

2) Everyone always thinks the grass is greener on the other side, but once you take that vacation to Thailand, you realize your living situation isn't nearly as bad as what you perceive. If you can make the most of what you have and realize there is no paradise on Earth, you're better off for it.

3) Everyone believes if they just had a million bucks or just had a hot girlfriend, whatever, then life would be great, but people are never content. When you have a million you want 5 million, it's an endless cycle. Look at all the celebrities whose lives are F'ed up, fame and fortune is nothing, life is just accepting our lot in life and making the most of what we have while suppressing potentially harmful emotions like anger, lust, greed, etc.

Besides this book, I had only read Larry Phillips Zen/Poker book, which was pretty worthless to me, but Hardcore Zen got me very interested in the topic and I just ordered 3 more Zen books recommended from this thread that I'll hopefully receive this week.

actually if you read the history youll see that zen buddhism grew out of a mixture of taoism and buddhism. thats why zen is so much different in its method and presentation than more traditional buddhism. if OP is interested in zen, i dont see how taoism would not be of interest, especially the tao te ching, which i think is unquestionably one of the most highly regarded and influential eastern spiritual texts, and certainly applicable in this context.

I'm not certain it qualifies as "zen," but An Archer Prepares was standard reading for military cadets at West Point and very insightful.

Just checked this book out on Amazon. I need to get it.

It reminded me of the following quote.

"If the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed."

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Nice post - needed a dose of that tonight. Ordered that book too. Thanks.

Thanks for all of the recommendations. I ended up ordering the 'Hardcore Zen' book, should be here next week.

I have a question for some of you who are further along the path of study in this area.

What do you think of approaching Zen from the viewpoint of a 'naturalist,' (agnostic, atheist, etc) that is, somebody who essentially believes in the scientific view of the universe; no supernatural forces, no deities, magic forces or whatever? Is there a conflict, or are there certain books that would be a more natural fit for me?

Basically I despise 'new age' mumbo-jumbo, which I would characterize as the 'What the Bleep,' 'The Secret' type of stuff. I view it as cultist nonsense, even sinister in some respects. Yet the few Zen ideas I've read, and audio-books I've listened to seem to be separate from this sort of stuff (ideas such as mindfulness, meditation, training focus and attention, etc).

Am I just deluded or can a scientific/agnostic path into Zen thought be taken?

Nice to see this topic. I'm pretty new here. I wrote my graduating thesis on Zen and Taoism so I was glad to see others in this forum share one of my interests. Some great titles have already been mentioned. I'd like to add one more even if its ability to help with tilt and other poker issues might not be as great as some of these other books. It is a great insight into Zen itself and it reads in a very enlightening, easy way. Check out Stephen Mitchell's "Dropping Ashes on the Buddha".

Additionally, OP, I think you will find that Zen is a great "religion" for atheists or agnostics. It is basically godless itself.

If you see the Buddha, kill him. If you see the Buddha in the lane, check him the ball.

I'm not saying that the tao te ching is not well regarded or is not useful to the OP, although taoism is pretty . I'm also not disputing that taoism had a historical impact on Zen ( Chan ) Buddhism. But to just reply tao te ching to the OP's request is misleading. If someone wanted to read about Catholicism I would not recommend The Torah.