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Treat Your Poker Like a Business
In this specialized book for poker players who want to monetize their leisure or pro career into a dependable source of income, online poker legend Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt teaches players how to manage their bankroll, rationalize variance, play more tables, move up in stakes, avoid tilt, create new sources of revenue, and most importantly, become more profitable. The strategy section contains some of the most important tips in print, focusing on the situations that come around every few minutes rather than how to play specific hands. This underground seller, never available to the general public, has already been translated into eight languages.
- GenresBusinessNonfictionGames
177 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2009
22 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 28, 2020
This book was a fun, quick read. It felt more like a biography than an instructional book, but I took some notes anyway. The main takeaway is to be conservative and to look at the bigger picture of your life.
January 23, 2025
Great book. Lot's of good insights for poker ...and a small business/any business. Treat Your Poker Like a Business was written about 12 years ago. I'm wondering if the strategies mentioned are still as relevant in an online cash game. Also - Dusty was very clear about several things - the poker strategies applied to online cash poker and yet I still tried to imagine how the strategies would go over in a friendly at home regular tournament game.
September 5, 2017
Must have for every wannabe pro poker player. The book is focused strictly on poker, you should have some knowledge in this game. Principle and hints are useful for larger field of profession, though. Read as many as you can, it will definitely moving you up.
October 8, 2019
A must read for anyone looking to create a side income from poker!
This book is amazing. It has given me hope that my intuition was right.... You can make money playing poker online.
This book is amazing. It has given me hope that my intuition was right.... You can make money playing poker online.
March 3, 2015
With a title such as Treat Your Poker Like a Business, I was expecting to read a book with some sort of structure. Instead, readers get the ramblings of an online poker player who apparently has trouble managing his temper. Treat Your Poker Like a Business seems to appeal to those who have a very light understanding of business management.
As someone who is interested in learning about how management process can affect scale efficiencies, I was disappointed with this book. At times, I felt like I was going through a psychological sales process, something akin to a time-share sales pitch.
A process oriented book would commonly begin with an outline of what the reader can expect in the chapters ahead. This book begins by trying to convince the reader to buy into a state of mind. This is a poker book for the uneducated amateur player. It leaves that player with little valuable information, but it does tempt the reader to invest his time trying to improve his game by subscribing to poker training software and coaching services offered by the author’s company. The first chapter is a dead give-away entitled “A Game of Skill, Not Luck”. Oh yeah, this makes sense, first make sure the reader buy into the idea that their previous losses are not the result of luck, but of their lack of skill, and then make them believe only a greater investment of their time (i.e. buying this book and subscribing to the companion website) will make them a winner.
The second chapter made me laugh out loud. The author explains why the book is so brief and why it doesn’t go into any detail. Each “chapter” is comprised of a few pages of light commentary. The reason for the author’s brevity? The author claims it’s not because he is unsophisticated, it’s because the reader is. The author doesn’t want to overwhelm the reader with too much detail, or else the key concepts might get lost. Gee, thanks.
Nowhere in this book does the author suggest a day plan for a professional poker player other a suggestion of a ratio between play to practice. In terms of practice, the author advises readers to subscribe to his website where they can watch videos about poker. But watching videos isn’t practice. Practice would be running thru scenarios on PokerStars using free credits, or running thru pots odds calculations to ensure players can calculate the correct odds quickly. Practice involves running drills to improve your game.
Any serious poker player should avoid this book, it will only serves to re-enforce bad habits and sell you stuff you don’t need.
As someone who is interested in learning about how management process can affect scale efficiencies, I was disappointed with this book. At times, I felt like I was going through a psychological sales process, something akin to a time-share sales pitch.
A process oriented book would commonly begin with an outline of what the reader can expect in the chapters ahead. This book begins by trying to convince the reader to buy into a state of mind. This is a poker book for the uneducated amateur player. It leaves that player with little valuable information, but it does tempt the reader to invest his time trying to improve his game by subscribing to poker training software and coaching services offered by the author’s company. The first chapter is a dead give-away entitled “A Game of Skill, Not Luck”. Oh yeah, this makes sense, first make sure the reader buy into the idea that their previous losses are not the result of luck, but of their lack of skill, and then make them believe only a greater investment of their time (i.e. buying this book and subscribing to the companion website) will make them a winner.
The second chapter made me laugh out loud. The author explains why the book is so brief and why it doesn’t go into any detail. Each “chapter” is comprised of a few pages of light commentary. The reason for the author’s brevity? The author claims it’s not because he is unsophisticated, it’s because the reader is. The author doesn’t want to overwhelm the reader with too much detail, or else the key concepts might get lost. Gee, thanks.
Nowhere in this book does the author suggest a day plan for a professional poker player other a suggestion of a ratio between play to practice. In terms of practice, the author advises readers to subscribe to his website where they can watch videos about poker. But watching videos isn’t practice. Practice would be running thru scenarios on PokerStars using free credits, or running thru pots odds calculations to ensure players can calculate the correct odds quickly. Practice involves running drills to improve your game.
Any serious poker player should avoid this book, it will only serves to re-enforce bad habits and sell you stuff you don’t need.
July 4, 2010
Schmidt is the ultimate poker grinder. This book promises to tell you exactly how he does it, and it delivers. But there are no surprises. It's chapter after chapter of hard work and focusing on the goal, money.
Schmidt is a simple man with mostly simple ideas shared in very simple language. There is effectively no math, no derivations, no philosophy. There is also no accommodation for readers who are interested in tournaments instead of cash games, or live instead of online. The lessons Schmidt shares are useful in other realms, but you'll have to do the work yourself to make the translation.
The obligatory section on strategy is useful and valuable but still simplistic and shallow. Some of the strategies are the result of very high-level thinking, but that high-level thinking is largely left out. More importantly, the section distracts from the message of the book.
Do you want to know how to make a million dollars a year playing online poker? The short answer is hard work. The long answer is this book. And at two hundred pages of easy reading it's not a very long answer.
Schmidt is a simple man with mostly simple ideas shared in very simple language. There is effectively no math, no derivations, no philosophy. There is also no accommodation for readers who are interested in tournaments instead of cash games, or live instead of online. The lessons Schmidt shares are useful in other realms, but you'll have to do the work yourself to make the translation.
The obligatory section on strategy is useful and valuable but still simplistic and shallow. Some of the strategies are the result of very high-level thinking, but that high-level thinking is largely left out. More importantly, the section distracts from the message of the book.
Do you want to know how to make a million dollars a year playing online poker? The short answer is hard work. The long answer is this book. And at two hundred pages of easy reading it's not a very long answer.
July 13, 2010
This book is essentially attempting to be a guide to becoming a poker pro for things (primarily business strategies) outside of the game. There are about 50 pages of poker strategy toward the end, essentially a list of good spots to bluff rather than any kind of comprehensive look at the game. I will give the poker section credit for being very practical advice. The business stuff, while interesting in spots, mostly seems like common sense to me - manage your bankroll conservatively, maximize your tables/hours, variance happens, set goals, etc. There are some fluffier chapters, too, like one on diet and a chapter by the author's wife about having a relationship as a poker pro.
Still, if you're looking to get serious about cash games, there are things to learn and think about here. Schmidt's life story is also interesting - a top amateur golfer that had his PGA dreams dashed by a heart attack at 23 quickly turned into one of the top NL holdem cash players on the internet.
Still, if you're looking to get serious about cash games, there are things to learn and think about here. Schmidt's life story is also interesting - a top amateur golfer that had his PGA dreams dashed by a heart attack at 23 quickly turned into one of the top NL holdem cash players on the internet.
January 5, 2016
Poker = Business
Dusty teaches you how to see this and how to command yourself like a business owner and take care of your small business. I love the small chapters, it reads fast and furiously as he definitely gets right to whatever point he is currently making. But he still gives enough hand examples to describe his point. There is even a little bit of solid strategy content at the end. Overall, a very good book.
Dusty teaches you how to see this and how to command yourself like a business owner and take care of your small business. I love the small chapters, it reads fast and furiously as he definitely gets right to whatever point he is currently making. But he still gives enough hand examples to describe his point. There is even a little bit of solid strategy content at the end. Overall, a very good book.
October 30, 2014
A lot of great advice. Presented very well. Concise. A lot of things that you will hear early on in forums and such. 'Not tilting is crucial' 'proper bankroll management is crucial' 'work hard' 'overcome variance by playing a ton'. But it was a quick read and those things are worth being reminded of.
October 10, 2014
love it
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews