PRO POKER SCHOOL Learn Before You Earn

Poker Review

Review by Jon Eaton

The Making Of A Poker Player by Matt Matros. You might remember watching during the 2004 WPT Championship, you undoubtedly saw Matt Matros make quite the impression. He played solidly and really didn't make any mistakes until his (as the magazine show that followed it stated) donkey move with A5 against eventual winner Martin de Knjiff.

To Matt's credit, his raise on the turn would have won the pot had Martin missed the board and was just trying to pick up the pot with a bet. But regardless, we saw the birth of a new face in poker.

Matt is a regular on some of the poker forums on the Internet and plays regularly as jacksup online. Just before he hit the WPT final table, Matt had written this book. It follows Matt from the early days of playing kitchen table poker with friends in high school to his days playing at Foxwoods. It ends up in the postscript discussing his final table at the WPT, as it was added at the last minute following his $700,000 cash.

This book, however, is no regular poker book. It isn't a strategy book, and it's not simply a long tale of poker hands and experiences from the tables. This is actually a good mix of both, which is something I haven't seen done before. Not only can you learn from it (at any experience level), but it's a very entertaining story about the recollection of a poker career through the eyes of a now-experienced and solid professional.

Matt shows you his mistakes he made coming up the ranks and how to avoid them, along with teaching the basics of the games and how to win at them. It covers Limit Hold 'Em, No Limit, Pot Limit, and a little bit about Omaha and Stud. He even grazes over other games like kitchen table crazy games like no peak and others.

A few of the things he writes about are extremely elementary, but the text is trying to appeal to both novices and experienced players alike. It does extremely well in that area. In fact, I was really pulled in by the book, and wanted to keep reading it. I was actually surprised, because I figured any book that's remotely targeted at beginners would bore me.

The exact opposite is true, because it also teaches even experienced players. At the very least it will help you review some parts of your game. Matt also dives into a little bit of game theory, which should definitely start becoming a part of any serious player's toolbox.

Thankfully Matt leaves his ego at home and is extremely humble throughout. Some poker authors seem to forget that even though they think they are the greatest player to ever play the game, they really aren't. Matt is admittedly still learning the game, as is everyone who plays regularly-as the old saying is that you should be learning something new every time you play.

In all honesty I can't think of anything about the book that I didn't enjoy. It seems that most poker books today are hit and miss, with some just rehashing concepts you can find in other books. Some even give bad advice and have really sketchy material. Among all of these bad titles, this is a major breath of fresh air. I highly recommend it.