This week we received Trii ‘Slow Habit’ Nguyen’s How I Made My First Million, and whipped through it as quickly as we could to get a review up for the November issue. Lucky for us it reads easily and comes in at a reasonable 45,000 words, so we were able to get through most of it in just a few days. We’ve included the foreword, written by Barry Greenstein, in our excerpt of the book in this issue because we believe it so accurately reflects the spirit of the book.
Normally a foreword doesn’t mean much in a poker book, but in this case Greenstein introduces a book that could almost be a sequel to his own work Ace on the River. Though Nguyen’s writing contains a little more nuts and bolts strategy than Greenstein’s, it is certainly in the same vein. These books are advice for aspiring players, words to the wise, not focused on math, numbers, or hand reading. Nguyen shows his versatility here as his past books have relied heavily on strategy.
You may remember the name Slow Habit after hearing about his $1,500 ebook Let There Be Range a few years ago. He has dropped the price of his work over the last few years, and his books sell at a more reasonable price point these days. Tri also gave us a bonus code so that all Blind Straddle readers can save 10% by using the bonus code FoxPoker10 when they purchase the book or any other products from DailyVariance.com.
What we like most about the book is that it handles so many important topics that are neglected in other books. While there is a glut of strategy books on the market (we know, we wrote one ourselves) there isn’t as much work on topics like handling downswings, being happy playing poker, managing a bankroll, and how to use all your resources to learn quickly. Learning how to learn is so much more important than grinding through another dry strategy book, and this book does a great job of helping you get into the right mindset and amass the right resources to improve quickly.
The book actually gives you space to answer the questions that are asked in the earlier chapters, and encourages the reader to use it as a workbook as much as a textbook. Nguyen’s goal is to help the reader understand what a serious pro does before during and after he plays, and get himself into the right mindset. It really feels like this is the advice that a truly great professional player would give to a friend to help them succeed as a long term pro.
The only real downside to this book is the $97 price, and that drops to $87 with our discount code. Still a little pricey, but if you are serious about playing poker for money and making part or all of your living at the tables, we think it’s worthwhile. If you are just a casual player with no aspirations beyond enjoying the game, then $87 is a lot to spend and you’ll probably end up picking up a basic strategy book instead.
Tri Nguyen’s newest book How I Made My First Million is available for preorder now at http://www.dailyvariance.com/poker-books/my-first-million-from-poker/ and you can save 10% on this book or any other Daily Variance products by using the bonus code FoxPoker10 at checkout.
Read the excerpt from How I Made My First Million From Poker.
