Poker Book Reviews

Elements of Poker

Review by Aaron Angerman

Dear Poker Player:

I wrote this book to amuse you, inform you, inspire you, and enlighten you.
First, I played a lifetime of poker. Then I taught poker for a few years, which caused an accumulation of curriculum. Then I fleshed out the parts of my teaching that I thought would be the most helpful to the most players most often, punctuated it with winks and smiles, and put a binding on it.

I wrote this book for everyone who plays poker, or knows anyone who plays poker, or even knows how to spell poker. I wrote it for anyone who wants a better A-game, and a better C-game. I tried to make "Elements of Poker" a book that will speak to every player, if not today, then maybe tomorrow.

- Tommy Angelo

It seems as if everybody plays poker these days. Not only is everyone playing, but a lot of those players play very well. This is not by chance, but through lots of practice and homework. Online poker is allowing players to accumulate years of experience in a fraction of the time. Poker school sites are available for lessons from peers, instructors and poker professionals. New books are released every day, most of them penned by the sharpest minds and biggest names in the poker business.

Enter Tommy Angelo. Former drummer, turned poker pro, turned poker instructor. A childhood of poker and bridge experience enticed Angelo to abandon a nearly decade long music career in favor of the life of a poker player. He would slide in and out of the dealers chair during rough spots on the poker road, but five nights of poker a week was, more often than not, enough to live comfortably on. In 1999, Angelo started to put his poker experiences on paper. It wasn't long before other players were coming to Angelo with theirs. In 2004, Angelo turned his hobby into a business and tiltless.com was born. He is now the personal coach of more than 50 players of all skill levels, from rookies to seasoned pros.

Angelo's book, "Elements of Poker" (EOP), is a culmination of years of poker lessons, 144 lessons to be exact. From bankroll to slowroll, suitedness to wellness, Angelo covers it all.

What separates EOP from other poker books on the market is that this book has some personality. Angelo displays a sharp sense of humor without distracting the reader from the lesson at hand. His 'Tommyisms' are a throw-back to Yogi Berra.

• Walking away is easy. The hard part is standing up.
• My past is a fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live in it.
• When I keep missing and they keep hitting, I get very flushstraighted.

It is evident that years of grinding have given Angelo a grounded perspective. Many lessons appear to spawn from long battles with tilt. A lot of EOP is focused on tightening up poor play and avoiding tilt, not so much sharpening your winning game. With this in mind, Angelo seems to work at molding and shaping a complete poker player, rather than improving one's decision making in specific hands and tournaments. In EOP, you won't find the detailed hand situations that fill the pages of other poker books. What you find is instructions on a healthy poker lifestyle, like how to breathe and sit at the table, or how to display and receive respect on the felt. Angelo is definitely aiming this book at those players with humble expectations and a sense of humor.

The underlying concept of EOP is reciprocity. Webster's defines reciprocity as something "interchanged, given, or owed to each other." In Angelo's included glossary, he describes reciprocity as "the cause of profit in poker."

"Reciprocity says that when you and your opponents do the same thing in a given situation, no money moves, and when you do something different, it does," said Angelo. Over time, you and your opponents will see every hand in every position. When you and your opponent each picked up AA UTG, who scooped a bigger pot? When each of you had those same aces cracked from the button, whose stack took the bigger hit?

According to Angelo, a person is capable of three types of play; A-game, B-game and C-game. Players are on their A-game when they're playing and feeling well, displaying their C-game when they feel they're playing poorly and playing a B-game when you're anywhere in between. There are countless poker books out there aiming to improve your A-game. Angelo attributes large portions of EOP on how to cut down your losses by improving your C-game, focusing on the fact that losing less should be as important as winning more.

"Whenever you lop off some C-game, you increase the percentage of time you spend playing your A-game," says Angelo. "This means that the work put into your A-game will pay a higher return by being put into play more often."

Many of Angelo's lessons aim to eliminate tilt. "If no one is tiltless then everyone can tilt less," says Angelo. Tilt can turn an A-game into a C-game instantly. Finding ways to avoid tilting is an easy way to "lop off" some of that C-game. Angelo outlines ways to sharpen your tiltlessness, both at the table and away from the table.

Whether you're looking for tips on ways to sit, when to speak, or how to breathe, Angelo has you covered. While reading EOP you often find yourself examining lessons you may think you already know, yet Angelo finds ways to not only make it an enjoyable, easy read, but also shed further light on topics you thought you understood thoroughly.

"Elements of Poker" is a breath of fresh air in a time where it seems everyone is writing poker books. You may find books that touch on more specific poker situations, but it won't be as fun to read. You could run off a list of books which contain more data and hand examples, but they will be more difficult to comprehend. Angelo has created a poker book with unmatched levels of personality. He has also created a book that needs no deciphering. Angelo manages to touch on subjects that no other poker books are covering and does so in an enjoyable manner. For those players who realize that losing less is the equivalent of winning more, Elements of Poker is the book for you.

Elements of Poker can be purchased here.

Click here for poker articles by Tommy Angelo.

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