Q: 2+2 forum question: Has anybody read the poker book "Poker Winners are Different" by Alan Schoonmaker?

A: This book is strictly psychology and talks no strategy (as he openly states). He talks about how winners act as well as how they approach poker as a career.

He talks about making tradeoffs or "sacrifices" to becoming a winning player. One example he uses is "would you bust your own grandmother?" and he means, "would you take her last dollar she had in the bank " (not tournament dollar) but literally her last dollar she had. While almost nobody would take their grandmas title to her house if it was on the line, WINNERS WOULD. By you not taking her title you have sacrificed a proft, to protect your view of how and what people think of you. He focuses on you winning without caring about how people view you or your actions.

He questions your dedication to poker and your seriousness about playing whether its for fun, or making a breakeven player a slight winner, or even attempting going pro.

It is more focused to live games and not tournaments. However his chapter "poker winners pay their dues" can be used for both live and tourneys. If you decide to try to take poker up as a pro.

No joke. He quotes Jack Strauss more than once in this book saying "I would bust my own grandmother if I played with her"

This example is used just to show how different people approach the game. What sacrifices they make to be "winners".

I think the people you are talking about probably steal from family to support their degenerate habits?

There are more examples in the book but that's the one i remember off the top of my head. Also there are more things he discusses such as being honest with yourself on your abilities. Like i said worth the buy.

Its definitely worth the buy since it deals with psychology. It focuses soley on WINNING AND ONLY WINNING. Dont take it personal when he calls you a loser. Hope this helps