The 2024 Poker Book Club continues and Jaime will bring you his thoughts on each book here, but it’s never too late to join the club yourself.
Each book will have its own thread on Discord, where you can read and discuss with others. You can read as much or as little as you want – it’s the taking part that counts – and the community is growing all the time. Get involved here. The next book is PKO Poker Strategy by Dara O'Kearney and Barry Carter.
Book #4: Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo
Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo is the title on this year’s list that came most recommended. It has a cult following on my Twitter/X feed and everyone has something great to say about it. So, I was excited to dive in.
This is not my first experience with Tommy Angelo – he has a great video series with Joe Tall on DeucesCracked. The community there was largely how I got my start in poker, back in 2010. As such, he was my early guide to the mental game of poker. Although I didn't buy this book, I watched the videos at the time and learned lots about how we might want to think about poker. I saw just recently he has joined Poker Coaching as a coach.
As for this book, it provides guidance and advice regarding how to best approach high performance poker, probably described as “poker with maximal awareness” by Tommy. Some of the book outlines different frameworks for how we could think about various difficult aspects of the game, but it’s not all theory. It is, of course, all about making an actual difference in the day-to-day playing of the game as well. There are years and years of wisdom distilled into practical pragmatic tips all throughout this book, along with some incredible anecdotes from a career of playing the game.
A game, B game, C game
One of the core ideas presented early in the work is the idea of a player’s A, B and C games. Everyone has their top game - the best we have, given the limits of our own individual knowledge - our A game. We also have our B and C game. Tommy illustrates that when we study and learn poker, we are often improving our A game - what we can do at our very best. But for some of us (I am certainly included here), the majority of time we spend playing the game falls outside the A category. It is in the B game, and maybe even the C game. So, while improving at poker may strengthen the A game, a far more simple first step might be reducing the time spent in the C game, turning some of that into B game. Likewise, being more present to get some of that B game into the A level.
It's a beautiful idea that left a footprint on me many years ago. And, as time fades all, it was amazing to come back to it now, 12 years on in my poker career, and re-imprint that wisdom. The theory is about accepting that our performance is human. We are all suboptimal at times. And to accommodate for that, as opposed to expecting perfect performance at every turn, we should work with where we are - great stuff.
Angelo's ideal demeanor for poker pros
There is a general demeanor that Tommy advocates for in this book, a demeanor that is prepared for anything and remains stoic in its pursuit. It conserves energy where it can and practices discipline in gathering information while giving away very little. It finds an edge in any space possible. This reminds me of the measure of strength in a traditional eastern sense, an unshakable intimidating force that has no weakness, is unbreachable. Most of this resonates with me and I think it’s a great blueprint for success in the game.
There is part of this philosophy that I think I disagree with. There are discussions of having and attaining respect in this book. Some of Tommy’s clients in the past were in pursuit of respect. I can resonate with that desire. It was a primary driver in my own poker story in the early years. He mentioned that respect follows from playing well, earning money, and not tilting. However, this is presented as a good thing and I’m not sure it is for our future earning expectation. Leaving aside the politics of poker - getting into good games - I am not sure being viewed as unshakeable or a respectable player is a good thing. Even in a singular hand. It is likely to get people to fold more often to you. That might be good if your strategy is one built around stealing pots or getting people to fold, but if the hope is to get people to pay off value bets, having a strong image might hurt that. The jury is still out, to me, that being respected is a useful thing.
In conclusion, this is a must read book if you take poker seriously. Not everything that Tommy advocates for here is stuff that poker’s greats do, some of it is not in vogue. However, on the whole, any poker player could apply these practices and get better results. That includes the best of the best. If I could compare it to anything else in the literary sphere I would say it is the Art of War by Sun Tzu, but for poker. So much experience, thought and care - true poker wisdom.
I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book.
Element 49: Low Hanging Fruit
“Poker is a fruit tree. Money is the fruit. There are two ways to get the fruit. One way is to climb the tree, get all scraped up, risk falling out, pick some fruit, and climb down. Another way is to stand on the ground and pick the low hanging fruit. The Professional knows how to climb a tree. But he rarely has to.”
Next up in the Poker Book Club we’re headed back into the quantitative with PKO Poker Strategy by Dara O’Kearney and Barry Carter.
