My Two Minute Review: Given the choice between Travis Steffen’s Peak Performance Poker and Eric Beck’s Poker Mindfulness, Steffen’s is the better book by far. Whereas the latter consists mostly of uncontroversial platitudes and little practical advice, the former is a helpful book packed with practical, actionable advice for how and why to integrate health and fitness with a poker lifestyle.
I still remember my mandatory 7th grade Wellness class. I remember a perky female teacher who wore frumpy sweaters with oversized ceramic lapel pins. I remember videos of energetic, multi-ethnic teens proudly proclaiming by song the “Smoke Free Class of 2000” (“two zero zero zero, everyone’s a hero!”, though of course by 7th grade quite a few of my peers were no longer heroes in this regard). I remember grades determined by attendance and fill-in-the-blank worksheets. What I don’t remember is learning anything remotely useful or interesting.
This was my concern about the recent batch of what might be called poker lifestyle books. Their authors, who tend to have graduate degrees in fields like wellness, nutrition, and physical fitness, promise to increase your profits at the table by sharing insights from these disciplines that are applicable to poker. Consequently I had no intention of spending money on these books, but two of these authors offered me free review copies, so I agreed to have a look.
Eric Beck’s Poker Mindfulness lived up to my expectations, which is to say that… Read the full review in our book reviews section.