Hello everybody,
A new poker book that I wrote has just been released. It is titled, “PROFESSIONAL POKER: The Essential Guide To Playing For A Living” by Mark Blade. You may recognize my name from an article I wrote for the Two Plus Two internet magazine a couple months back on “money management.” A follow-up piece to that article has been scheduled by Mason Malmuth to appear in next month’s internet magazine. (FYI – I’m making this announcement here because of King Yao’s previous mention that Mat Sklansky deemed it as acceptable.)
PROFESSIONAL POKER is intended for players who are currently trying to make a living playing poker (either as a full-time or part-time job), plus those players who just want to plan for a possible future poker career. If you are solely a recreational player, you could still get some value out of the book. For example, there are some universally useful topics such as advice on how to mentally cope with bad beats or prolonged losing streaks. Other portions of the book, however, include topics such as the intricacies of bankroll formulas, staking arrangements, or how much money professionals can actually expect to earn. Info on these topics isn’t really necessary for you. Though, it could make for interesting reading material.
I have made my living entirely from poker for over 10 years, primarily in the Los Angeles area. If you are a loyal fan of Two Plus Two’s many landmark books, you will notice throughout my book the many glowing raves I share regarding these titles. In fact, if you come across a professional poker player who claims to have never read books such as The Theory of Poker, Hold ‘em Poker For Advanced Players, etc., there is a high probability that they are either not as successful as they purport to be or simply lying.
I won’t tout the strength of my own book as my judgment is obviously biased, but if you are interested, you can read some early reactions on my homepage, MarkBlade.com. Also, I can definitely assure you that this is a first-class produced book. I can’t guarantee what all your reactions will be, but I know there won’t be any criticisms about ridiculously oversized fonts, a bunch of blank pages, or some other underhanded production trick.
I hope you like the book, but I welcome reading your reactions to it whether positive or negative. (By the way, Amazon currently lists my book as available to ship in a couple weeks, but this must just be an initial listing error as there are plenty of books in the distribution pipeline to fill Amazon’s warehouses as orders begin coming in.)
Good luck in all your poker endeavors!
Mark Blade
www.MarkBlade.com