The game of poker consists of two entities-fish and fishermen. The fish could be newcomers who don't know much beyond what they've seen on TV or old timers who never wanted or never bothered to learn the tricks of the game. The fishermen are the players who have watched the fish, learned how they swim, and then baited hooks and cast nets to catch them one by one.
That is precisely the focus of James McKenna's newest edition to your poker library must-haves, Beyond Traps-The Anatomy of Poker Success.
McKenna is a therapist so he knows quite a bit about the human psyche, and as a poker player, he knows how to put that knowledge to work. In his book he explains why a successful player must do more than just identify other player habits; he must also learn to identify his own habits in order to change his table persona, which allows him to set up a smokescreen. He makes the reader do some self-examination to fi nd out just what kind of person he is-feeling-oriented, actionoriented, or reaction-oriented.
The inference here is that once a person understands his own drives, he will be able to keep them from hindering his progress.
Thus, the fisherman can make it to the waters without impediment. But, there is still more work to be done. The player must also understand what kind of fi sh are in his waters so he will have the proper bait. McKenna's chapter titled Different Bait for Different Prey excels here. He discusses pigeonbaited traps, fi sh-baited traps, speed traps, net traps, and dirty traps, among others, and outlines how to profi le other players, then follows with ploys to throw opponents off balance with notes about what the "moves" of a winner are.
He explains, "Good trappers in poker are hard to identify because they use different traps for different players. In other words, when a player is setting up a trap by checking and then raising, good players know this trap won't work on all players."
There are 10 major chapters in the book, each of them geared to exploring "how winners think, what personality traits they possess, and what they build their successes on."
With McKenna's first two books, this title completes a trio of work that covers the kind of ground successful players have already covered and now opens that territory up to aspiring pros.
-Howard Schwartz
