Is there really such a thing as a professional gambler? The answer is an unequivocal, "Yes!" This book's authors are but two examples. Many thousands of people around the country make a good living exclusively from gambling. It is not easy, but it can be done. The key is to understand which games are beatable and know how to beat them. David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth have spent many years writing about the finer points of poker, blackjack, and other beatable games. As you will see in the book, those other "games" are horses, sports, progressive slots and video poker, casino tournaments, and special promotions. They don't include craps, roulette, keno, or baccarat for reasons they'll explain. This book, was written for the not quite as experienced aspiring gambler. It shows you everything you need to learn and do if you want to gamble for a living from both the practical and the technical standpoints. The rest is up to you.

A psychotherapist and poker columnist offers tips on anticipating players' behavior by analyzing their mental and physical approaches to the game.

Play your opponents, not just your cards! The most important game being played in a poker room has nothing to do with cards--it's the psychological battle being waged between players. In Beyond Bluffs, poker columnist and psychotherapist James A. McKenna shows you how to elevate your game to a new level by playing your opponents as expertly as you play your hand. With these advanced people skills, you'll be able to determine how and when a player is bluffing, and know which bluffs to use in response. You'll even be able to predict how different types of players will think and react in any game situation. Go beyond spotting bluffs to reading your opponents! In his acclaimed Beyond Tells, McKenna introduced a unique way of integrating personality types with reading tells. Beyond Bluffs delves further into those six key personality types--The Boss, Party Hardy, High Roller, System Player, Loner, and Hunch Player--revealing the psychological patterns that govern the way they live and the way they play. McKenna shows you how to spot the subtle clues that reveal when a person is bluffing or telling the truth. You'll learn when, how, and against whom to bluff with "garbage" hands, how to avoid bluffing when you don't have to, and the difference between planned and unplanned bluffs. Discover the clues to look for and unravel the mysteries of poker! Plenty of poker books outline strategies that can help you become a good tactical player. Beyond Bluffs goes further, unraveling the real mysteries of the game and providing the psychological advantage that will help you play smarter every time. James A. McKenna, Ph.D., has been a practicing individual and group therapist for over 35 years, as well as a management consultant to Fortune 500 corporations. His column, "Power Poker Psychology," appears regularly in Poker Player and Gambling Times magazines. He lives in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri.

The Players: the best poker professionals in the world The Challenger: a wealthy banker from Dallas The Game: the richest poker stakes of all time... In 2001, a rich stranger from Texas descended upon the high-stakes poker room in the opulent Bellagio casino in Las Vegas. A self-made billionaire by the name of Andy Beal, the stranger challenged some of the world's greatest poker players-including Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Howard Lederer, and Jennifer Harman-to heads-up matches in the richest poker game ever played This is that story... Beginning the scintillating contest that would shock the world of poker, Andy and each opponent had $1 million, betting $10,000 and $20,000 per round. As the games intensified over the coming months and Andy developed into a great player, he realized how he could take his adversaries out of their comfort zone-he raised the stakes to put everything they had on the line. By the time the battle of wits ended, there was more than $20 million on the table. For the first time ever, here is the detailed, true account of the Big Game that has already achieved legendary status in poker lore. Putting you railside to observe the pulse-pounding action, where you can almost hear the distinct sound of clay chips on felt, Michael Craig takes you inside the iron-nerved mind and pathological psyche of the professional gambler. Filled with vivid characters, sensational tales, and riveting human drama, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King is a unique, suspenseful journey into the world of people who live on the razor's edge of fortune-where incredible wealth, or utter ruin, turns on the flip of a card.

Poker columnist, psychotherapist and author James A. McKenna goes deep into the psychology of poker, revealing how to use the psychological patterns that govern opponents to trap them into making mistakes. McKenna explains how consistent winners use different bait for different prey and how they trap and avoid traps by noticing the difference between players at the table. McKenna demonstrates the different approaches needed for different personalities, outlining the traps for each, and shows readers how to take their game to a higher level.

Heads-up confrontations can occur in any game, even when every seat is occupied. Adjusting to the amount of aggression can be difficult since heads-up battles require you to bet and raise with many hands. This book covers heads-up tournaments, cash matches, the final two of a multi-table tournament, and blind-vs-blind play at fuller tables. Mastering heads-up no-limit hold 'em is invaluable if you're looking to add a loose-aggressive component to your game. With more heads-up matches available, becoming proficient in them is highly profitable.

What Makes Winners Win? Every serious poker player knows there's a big difference between playing well and winning: Winners successfully master specific attitudes and habits. What Do I Need To Win? It's right in your hands. Poker guru Dr. Alan N. Schoonmaker explains the key skills that enable winners to bring in the money. With his expert guidance you can master them, too. You'll learn to: • Manage risk and information • Develop better discipline • Improve your decision-making processes • Focus on the right issues • Choose the information you give others • Control your reactions to feelings • Act decisively By mastering the behaviors and skills that Schoonmaker teaches, you'll be able to play more confidently--and win more often. Alan N. Schoonmaker, Ph.D, is the author of Your Worst Poker Enemy, Your Best Poker Friend, and the top-selling The Psychology of Poker; he is also a columnist for Card Player magazine. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from UC Berkeley, and has conducted research and taught at UCLA, Carnegie-Mellon, and Belguim's Catholic University of Louvain. He lives in Las Vegas.

Provides poker strategies for every phase of tournament play, covering the early phase where the stakes are small to later tactics such as bluffing, flops, scare cards, playing shorthanded, loose games, and endgame play.

The first years of the poker boom were fueled by the interest in no-limit hold em tournaments. Recently, however, players have been gravitating to another, even more complex form of hold em no-limit cash games. In Harrington on Cash Games: Volume I, Dan Harrington teaches you the key concepts that drive deep-stack cash game play. You ll learn how to tailor your selection of starting hands to your stack size, how to recognize the increasing deception value of supposedly weaker hands as the stack sizes increase, and how to use the concept of pot commitment to your advantage as the size of the pot grows. After laying out the general concepts behind deep-stack cash game play, Harrington shows you a complete strategy for post-flop play, and then teaches you the difference between post-flop play against a single opponent and post-flop play against multiple opponents. If you play no-limit hold em cash games, you need to read this book. Dan Harrington won the gold bracelet and the World Champion title at the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold em Championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker. And he was the only player to make the final table in 2003 (field of 839) and 2004 (field of 2,576) considered by cognoscenti to be the greatest accomplishment in WSOP history. In Harrington on Cash Games, Harrington and two-time World Backgammon Champion Bill Robertie have written the definitive books on no-limit cash games. These books will teach you what you need to know to be a winner in the cash game world.