I am going to get a full WSOP trip report up soon. The cliff notes are that the cash games were amazing, I had one deep run where I came in 23rd for $18,612 and was colder than an iceberg in the Main event, busting 7 hours into the event never seeing a hand better than AJs preflop. Oh well, I am a cash game player and am glad I am. Tournaments just don’t do it for me. The skill level needed to be good at those things relative to deep stack cash is not even comparable. Tournaments are like poker on training wheels compared to deep stack cash games and while people like to think that there is a debate on that, there isn’t. I can’t imagine any player who has taken tournaments and deep stack cash games seriously saying that tournaments were a more complex form of poker. Like Phil Laak said, tournaments are just “a +EV lottery.”
So, I rarely try and spam anything in my blogs, but hopefully I have built your trust and you will take me seriously with what I am about to write. I want to tell you briefly about a poker book that the company I own, Imagine Media just put out into the world. The book is called Way Of The Poker Warrior and it was written by Paul Hoppe (aka GiantBuddha on Poker Stars aka Limit holdem phenom). The book is one I have read and enjoyed immensely, despite not being a limit holdem pro. Essentially the book is poker and life instruction through the lens of martial arts. I guess one might loosely say it is like the book Art of War for poker players. Paul’s Grandmaster, Suk Jun Kim, said this about the book, “In this book, Paul will show you how to win and make money. What I think you’ll ultimately find, though, is that these are the least important things Paul has to teach.” This sums it up completely for me. The book, no matter what form of poker you play, will help you make money at the tables. And while you may be making more money after reading the book, down the line that is the one of the last things you will remember the book for. It is the kind of book that has the potential to really elevate your approach to poker and life in a way that you may be grateful for for a very long time.
One thing Imagine Media is proud of is that we are the leaders is driving down the cost of poker books written by online poker pros. When online poker pros first began writing poker books a few years ago, they were all $500 or $1,000 or even as much as $5,000 a book!! Yeah, that isn’t a typo, there were books put out that cost 5 GRAND! Last summer, I made the decision to write Treat Your Poker Like A Business and I was looking at the poker book market and the cheapest book I had seen written by a successful online poker pro was $399 and it was on sale! No joke, it was on sale at $399. I told myself there was no way I would ever put out a book that carried a price tag like that so I released Treat Your Poker Like A Business for $39.99 (only 10% of the cost of the next cheapest book) and blew every other book written by the online guys out of the water. And I am glad that I did it. I have long believed that there are a ton of talented people out there who never get to realize their potential because of lack of opportunity. So to me anyway, putting a book out into the world that only serves the people who are among the “haves,” is clearly not in line with what I believe in.
Anyway, enough with that, Paul’s book is $24.99 and can be be purchased in either ebook or hard copy form at GiantBuddhapoker.com There is a review up on the site that Pokernews.com’s Barry Carter was kind enough to provide that will give you an unbiased opinion on the book, as well as some excerpts, if you are interested in purchasing it. All in all I think you guys will be well served picking up a copy and I hope if you do, you are glad you did it after reading the book.
Well, I am going to log onto Poker Stars here in a few minutes and play all of the major Sunday tournaments. I am also going to grind the cash games until my eyes bleed so hopefully I can get a hold of some loot by the end of the day. As always, I will provide updates on my Facebook page when I am done playing for anyone interested.
I hope you guys kick some butt today at the tables!