The Making Of A Poker Player

by Matt Matros

Click Here to find out how to get this book for Free

Reviewer: pjensen

In The Making Of A Poker Player, author Matt Matros lays out in detail the journey he took from playing in kitchen table poker games to becoming a full-time professional player. We learn about how he climbed the ladder, the ups and downs, and some of the mistakes he made along the way. Be forewarned – this is not a poker strategy book, but rather a “poker memoir”. The poker instruction is very basic, and never goes too far beyond telling you the rules of the game he’s describing. There is a short chapter on poker theory, but that is also not terribly informative.

Where the book excels is in the storytelling. Matros is a good author, and he has some fascinating stories (one of the best is his description of how he put Phil Hellmuth on tilt simply by being chatty!). Every so often the narrative will lead into a discussion of a particular hand. These hand discussions are very entertaining, and he does a great job of putting you in his mind during the hand, relating what he was thinking and why he did what he did.

The best part of the book is the final chapter, which describes how Matros went on to place third in the World Poker Tour $25,000 Championship event, netting him over $700,000. The reason this is so fascinating is that it all happened after he had finished writing the book – it was ready to be published, and suddenly he had the perfect final chapter. Originally the book was intended just to tell the story of how an unknown amateur climbed the ladder of “grinding it out” success, and then he goes on to find much bigger success. It’s a very satisfying conclusion to the narrative.

The Making Of A Poker Player won’t necessarily improve your game, but it is an entertaining read, and worth checking out. And if you happen to grab a few nuggets that improve your game, that’s just icing on the cake.

3/5

Discuss this book in the VPP Poker Forum.