Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business
by David Apostolico Prometheus Books, 2007 ISBN: 978-1591025528 217 pp, $18.95″>Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business
by David Apostolico Prometheus Books, 2007 ISBN: 978-1591025528 217 pp, $18.95
In Business or Poker the rules are the same at some point in their texts poker writers will compare poker to business because the kind of psychological edge needed to succeed in the high-stakes world of business is the same kind of edge you need to succeed in the high-stakes (and low-stakes) world ofpoker.
Former Wall Street attorney, poker pro and author, David Apostolico, who wrote Tournament Poker and the Art of War and Machiavellian Poker among other titles, has a new work geared for both poker players and business players who want to reach the heights of Brunson and Buffet.
Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business is divided into eight chapters that are focused on players who want to improve their skills.
There are other books that concentrate on this subject, including The Poker MBA by Greg Dinkin and Jeff Gitomer ($23.95); The Poker Face of Wall Street by Aaron Brown ($27.95); Lawyers’ Poker by Steve Lubet ($28) and the great 1950 classic by John McDonald, Strategy in Poker, Business & War ($11.95), and this title expands and enhances what already exists while touching on new areas. Once you recognize and accept the “connection between poker and other disciplines” one former businessman says in the book, “you’ll understand that a good poker player not only hides a good hand well, but has learned to execute solid business deals.”
Consistent in-the-money poker players, like successful business executives, have learned when to take chances, when the pot odds areright, when to bluff, how to read opponents, the importance of position, and other skills. Like the folks at the top in business, it’s no coincidence some of the greatest military minds were also good gamblers and often excellent poker players. Many times their decisions confused their enemy that believed it wrong. Finding the edge, by understanding enemy weaknesses or breaking a code or holding back reserves until the right moment, these are the moves in poker, business and war that are uncannily similar.
Chapter headings in Apostolico’s work discuss why poker strategies should be applied to business, how to invest for the long run, how to avoid tilt (the psychology of poker and investing), how to negotiate from poker (while becoming table leader), when to bluff or fold (effective negotiating no matter what hand you are dealt), going all-in (how to climb the corporate ladder and win), and how successful poker players and business people think.
Interestingly, there’s even a small section on how to play liar’s poker with the serial numbers of American paper currency, a game mostly won by bluffing and calling bluffs. The book has no index, no charts or tables, no mathematical formulas and no sample hands to illustrate points. Most poker books do; but this a combination business, advice, and common sense book for any level player, guiding the individual to key disciplines and common sense points of execution. “At the end of the day in poker, you are judged by one thing and one thing only-how much you win or lose,” the author says, while advising players never to always “play by the book.” -Howard Schwartz
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