No Limit Life

As a man who has had considerable success in a very short period of time in the poker world, Charlie Shoten might have some thoughts of interest to poker players who aspire to reach the heights Shoten has reached.

Many poker players these days, in my opinion, limit themselves by tilting easily or being unable to maintain their discipline and patience, not to mention making an ass of themselves by launching into angry tirades.

Poker players will find highly valuable insights in this book, into both poker and life in general. Shoten reveals his belief that a healthy mental approach to life allowed him to achieve success in poker. He goes into detail both about what the proper life mind set is and also how the reader can attain it. Shoten continues to say one can never have sustained success in poker without the proper mind set. He has, to my eye, a strong and valuable message. As with many poker books, and many self-help books I suspect, the book will suit some people better than others and therefore help some people more than others. Some people will not believe in Shoten's message, and some who do may never be able to implement his ideas due to internal personal reasons.

I understand poker anger is an issue I feel needs to be addressed. Even if you don't see poker anger as I do, or view Shoten's message as favorably as I do, the book is nevertheless valuable as are many other poker books, as a resource to add to any player's general poker knowledge. When I read Hellmuth's book, for example, I didn't like it much. I disagreed with much of what I read in fact, but it has still added to my poker game. In time, I found one or two small ideas I agreed with and sometimes use, and it also provided some insight into how other players might be thinking.

To sum up, then, you can and should find something very valuable in this book to improve your poker game and perhaps your life. But even if you find the ideas inside aren't something you fully accept and implement, it is still a valuable read and may help you from time to time even if it isn't something that will change your life and turn you into Tuan Le.

Beyond the ideas, No-Limit Life by Charlie Shoten has amusing cartoons, famous quotes, is easy to use and is visually pleasing. This is important for a casual reader to keep his interest, and also significant to the reader who takes the book to heart, because the inclination will likely be to read and reread it to fully absorb the concepts therein so it needs to be easy to negotiate.

Review by Jeff Henry