The following review was written by Greg “Chewie” Bellan.  Chewie got his nickname a while back due to a love for chewing tobacco and Star Wars.  He has since quit tobacco and created a website to help others do the same, Killthecan.org.  Another hobby of his is poker.  You can check out this article and others like it at his poker blog, talkflop.com.

Doyle Brunson is the “Godfather of Poker”.  Even if you’re not a poker player the odds are pretty good that you’ve heard his name.  In the literary world, Doyle is probably best known for his poker-Bible Super System (and subsequent Super System 2).  Those are poker books through and through.  They include hand strategies, how to play against certain opponents, etc.  Poker Wisdom of a Champion while certainly about poker is devoid of those things… but don’t let that stop you from picking it up.

Originally titled According To Doyle this is actually not one story but rather 47 separate stories that started out as magazine articles.  They’re little anecdotes, stories and recollections that when read together tell the story that is Doyle Brunson.  It’s difficult not to get an image of Doyle in your mind sitting around the table telling these stories.  I’ve not ever had the pleasure of a gaming session with Doyle but I can only imagine that these are the kinds of stories he’d tell at the table – while taking all your money.

Brunson tells stories of his early days where poker wasn’t what it is now.  He talks of back-room games that were incredibly dangerous.  He talks about getting held up at gun and knife point.  He talks about big wins and he talks about big losses.  He talks about friends that he’s lost along the way and how they all have made him into the man he is today.

If you’re looking for a nice light read this is definitely a winner.  There’s plenty of poker in here to satisfy your urge but you won’t be blown away by tables upon tables of statistics on how to play this hand or that.  We as poker players and poker fans are blessed to have Doyle still among the poker community… Poker Wisdom of a Champion will give you some insight at to who this man is and why we’re so lucky.

The following article, originally published in Cardplayer Magazine, was written by Eric “Rizen” Lynch.  Rizen is a professional poker player from Olathe, Kansas.  I can personally say that his first video series for PokerXFactor was probably one of the biggest eye-openers for me as a poker player.  I have read where some publications consider Rizen a timid personality; well his poker playing is nothing short of audacious.  I hope you enjoy his writing.  I know I do.

One of the toughest things about poker is that the variance that the luck factor brings to the game can really mess with your short-term results. I often receive questions like the following from readers of both this column and my blog: “Could you fold aces here?” “Can I get away from a set here?” There are some rare instances when I can, but for the most part, these are just inexperienced players who suffered a bad fate (their aces or sets got cracked), and since they lost the pot, they’re desperately trying to figure out what they did wrong.

Poker is a funny game that way. Some players are always blaming luck when they lose a pot, while others are always looking for what they should have done differently. The truth is, we measure our success in the game by our profit, so we should be results-oriented, right? Well, yes, we should be long-term results-oriented, but in the shorter term, we should expect some variance within the game and realize that sometimes we’re going to make good decisions that lead to bad results, and sometimes we’ll make bad decisions and still get rewarded.

The key to evaluating your game and not letting short-term fluctuations lead you to alter your game in negative ways is being able to evaluate situations and hands after they’re over without being results-oriented. Have confidence in your game and look back at the decisions you made. If you believe they were correct, move on even if the result wasn’t positive.

I’ve found that it also helps if you have some friends you trust from both a skill perspective and an honesty perspective with whom you can discuss hands or situations. Lay the situation out for them and ask them what they would do. Make sure not to tell them the results of the hand, though; that way, they can just look at the situation in isolation and give feedback. Also, when approaching your peers, make sure that you ask not only about hands in which the results where unfavorable, but ones in which the results were favorable, as well. Maybe it’s a hand in which you drew out but the decision was close, or a situation in which you thought it was a real close decision and you ended up having the best hand, but you’re not positive that your play had a positive expectation against your opponent’s hand range.

As an example, I recently played a hand in which I raised with the Q 10 from the button. The big blind flat-called. The flop was K 9 2 , a dream flop for me. The big blind checked to me, I made a standard continuation bet, and he made a decent-sized raise. Looking at our stack sizes, I knew that if I flat-called and he bet the turn, he would be committing himself to the pot. I wanted to play for his stack, so I just flat-called. Sure enough, on the turn, he put the rest of his chips in and I gladly called, only to see him turn over the A 5 for the nut flush.

Now, if I were being results-oriented, it would be very easy for me to look back on this hand and try to figure out a point where I could have laid it down. The truth is, though, that the stacks weren’t deep enough for me to ever really get an indication that I was beat. I very easily could have been up against something like the A K, a naked A , or even a set. A vast majority of the time, I end up with this guy’s entire stack and don’t think twice about it. There are times when situations arise and there is really very little you can do to avoid them. It’s key to be able to recognize these situations and not let the results impact future plays. I’d be making a huge mistake if the next time I was faced with that exact situation, I folded my queen-high flush out of fear that my opponent held the only hand that beat me.

The bottom line is that in the longer term, we need to be focused on producing results. However, in the shorter term, we need to be more focused on making good decisions than on the outcome of those decisions. That can be a constant challenge, since poker can throw some real curveballs at you at times. The good news for us poker players is that it is this very form of short-term variance that leads bad players to give us their money. They’re often having bad decisions positively reinforced in the short term when they get lucky, and they’re always able to blame the bad results on luck.

The following article was written by Chris “Fox” Wallace.  Fox is the epitome of class in the poker world.  When I asked if he would be willing to help me out with a guest article, not to my suprise, he obliged.  You can find many of his highly sought after articles at PocketFives and Poker Pro Magazine.  Fox is the head cash game instructor at PokerXFactor and is also available for hourly poker lessons at foxpoker.com.

For a poker writer there is no greater scoop than to get an honest interview with a real life Donkey. This isn’t a guy who lost a few deposits or just plays for play money, this is the real deal, a chronic depositor, a true calling station, the guy who cracked your pocket kings with his ten-seven suited on Wednesday night. This is it, my one chance at greatness. My Interview with a Donkey.

We met in a bar across from the local card room. I knew who he was of course, we’d played together 40 or 50 times, but he wanted everything to be a secret and I didn’t want to lose my shot at the big interview. He walked in looking around furtively as if someone might be following him and his collar was up high to shield his face. That and the huge wrap around Oakley sunglasses would have hidden his identity if it weren’t for the hat from the Bass Pro Shop and the World Poker Tour sweatshirt that I had seen him wearing at the table an hour earlier.

He walked over and stood next to my barstool, leaning on the bar as if he were going to order a beer, ignoring me completely. I watched him and tried not to laugh out loud when he leaned his head slightly my way and “Pssst! Buddy! You’re buying the beer right?”

“Yeah, get what you want, and let’s get on with the interview” I said. He ordered two Coors Lights as he grabbed a seat, and told the bartender he was on my tab tonight. Sure he was drinking on my tab, but I was spending his $180 from a nut flush versus a ten-high flush about an hour ago, so a few beers wasn’t going to be a problem. He capped it on the river with me, and couldn’t believe it when he lost. That hand was probably the best guarantee I was going to get as to his status as a true donkey.

Below you will find the extent of our interview word for word. Nothing has been omitted or altered. This is the donkey in his own words.

Fox – “Thanks for doing this interview, fishsayswhat?

Donkey – “What?”

Fox – “Nothing, never mind. So when did you start playing poker?”

Donkey – “Oh are we starting already? Umm O.K., let me get another beer first.”

Fox – “Alright, you’re back, so when did you start playing poker?”

Donkey – “About 5 years ago, I saw Moneymaker on T.V. and figured if he can win a big pile of money like that, maybe I can too. I mean I’m as smart as the next guy.”

Fox – “I suppose if the next guy is four hours into a whiskey bender and played football for a few years without a helmet, yeah you are. Just as smart as the next guy.”

Donkey – “What?”

Fox – “Nothing, let’s get back to the interview. How did you learn to play?”

Donkey – “Well, I watched a lot of poker on TV when I first started, and I got couple books too”

At this point Fox interrupts

Fox – “You read a book on poker?”

Donkey – “Yeah I read a couple of em’, but they were mostly crap. I mean who the hell is going to memorize all that stuff anyway? Card odds and pot heads and whatever, ridiculous. Not a word on how to tell if a guy is bluffing. When I got serious about playing for a living I just had to learn to play my own style.”

Fox – “So how did that go for you, the attempt to turn pro.”

Donkey – “It’s going fine man, I play poker for a living now, I love it.”

At this point I spit Coke all over the table and my mouth hung open wide.

Fox – “You play poker for a living?”

Donkey – “Yeah man. I mean I pick up a few shifts at the Pro Shop too, for when I’m experiencing variance you know?”

Fox – “I see, that makes a bit more sense. Can you tell me how much money you made playing poker last year?”

Donkey – “Man I have no idea, maybe thirty thousand or something. This year will probably be better. I don’t really keep track of that stuff, it’s distracting.”

Fox – “So you must be doing pretty well, going to replace that 87’ Sentra with no passenger seat?

Donkey – “Yeah man, I been looking at some cars, just a little short on cash right now.

Fox – “Tell our readers a little bit about your strategy, we’re very interested in the things that influence your decisions.”

Here’s where it gets really good. The mind of a donkey revealed.

Donkey – “Well I play my own game like I said before. I don’t think you can learn to play poker from a book or a website. Kind of like the Karate Kid you know, you just can’t learn it from a book. I try to watch everybody, pick up on their styles and watch the cards, see how they’re running.”

Fox – “So you are watching to see if the cards are turning a certain direction?”

Donkey – “Sure, I know that it all evens out eventually, but that don’t mean it’s gonna break even tonight. And you can use that too, like if there tons of spades falling last night, tonight you aren’t probably going to see very many. Unless it’s a longer trend than just one night. I also notice dealers and how they tend to put certain cards out. Like that one dealer Diana, you know her right?

Fox- “Yeah we dated briefly”

Donkey – “Well then you probably know she always puts 5’s out on the flop. Like way more than any other dealer, it’s just one of her quirks. Those of us that play all the time, we notice stuff like that, kind of like home court advantage over the guys who don’t play often enough to know that or to know how to use that information.”

Fox – “That’s incredible…”

Donkey – “When she’s dealing I’ll reraise with a pair of fives in the hole every time. She may not always bring a five on the flop, but I’ll call to see the turn and river too because I know she puts fives out there all the time. Once in a while I miss, but I hit a set a lot and make money on it.”

Fox – “I’m guessing you haven’t ever kept track of exactly how often she puts a five out there on the flop?”

Donkey – “I know you don’t believe me, that’s fine that’s your style. You’re one of those logical guys, all numbers and good cards preflop, tight as hell. If that works for you that’s fine man, it’s just not the game that works for me.”

Fox – “What other trends do you see at the tables?”

Donkey – “Well there’s all the usual stuff that the old-timers will tell you about, one suit running hot for a few days, certain cards falling a lot at certain tables, and everybody has a few hands that just seem to be lucky for them. Like ten-six of hearts, that hand is always good to me.”

Fox – “You lost a huge pot to me with that hand earlier tonight…”

Donkey – “It can’t always win, that was just bad luck, but you would be surprised how often I win with that hand. Kind of like Doyle Brunson with ten-deuce.”

Fox – “Tell us a little about yourself, what did you do before poker?”

Donkey – “Well I’ve worked at the Bass Pro Shop for about six years, I’m assistant manager now, and I grew up just a few miles from here. I like fast cars, loose women and cold beer buddy! I play poker like an assassin, you can’t never bluff me out, and I’ll arm wrestle anybody in here!”

Fox – “How many beers have you had in the last twenty minutes?”

Donkey – “I dunno man, jus’ a few”

Fox – “How the hell are there beer cans and shot glasses all over the table now? It’s like magic, we do a twenty minute interview and I have a $60 bar tab.”

Donkey – “That’s cause I AM MAGIC my man, I’m gonna go play some cards, I feel lucky! All-in Baby!”

At this point he was already walking out the door. “This room only has fixed-limit games you idiot.” I muttered to myself. Then I paid my tab and headed back over to the card room to try and get a seat at Mr. Lucky’s table. I knew where the biggest fish in the room was, and I knew what he was thinking. I was the one who was feeling lucky tonight.