POKER LIFESTYLE

Poker Book Review: Moorman

By Shannon Mack
August 11, 2017

WOW! Wow is all I can say.

I have read several poker books, but they have been all about strategy. While Moorman has a hand analysis section that comprises two-thirds of the book, the first section is Chris Moorman’s autobiography. I love biographies. Every good book or movie has to have a few foundational elements to make it good, and one of those elements is character development. If the protagonist is static throughout the story, it isn’t dynamic. The main character is more multidimensional if he or she undergoes a change. Chris Moorman walks us through his own evolution from a talented young bridge player with advanced Master status at the age of 14 to nearly becoming the WSOP Player of the Year in 2011 at 26 years old to winning his first WSOP bracelet this year just before turning 32.

Throughout all of his career milestones and achievements he has had personal growth as well. No professional poker player’s story would be complete without covering the dreaded day of April 15, 2011 better known as Black Friday. Chris was a prolific online player who made his living primarily from online tournaments. He lives in the UK, but he was impacted simply because Black Friday changed online poker traffic. He specifically describes the learning process he went through while backing other poker players; 2/3 of them were American players at the time, which had a huge negative impact on him. I won’t give any spoilers, but it was a wild high roller coaster ride! Chris also talks about some of the sponsorship deals he has had; some good, some not so good. Moorman is also a love story, as Chris describes how he went from socially awkward college kid to a ladies man!

READ: Interview with Chris Moorman, Online Poker’s Most Successful Tournament Player

This is just such a great read, a real page-turner! I couldn’t put it down. I hadn’t read any biographies from poker players before. I am excited to find more, but I have to say the rest better be really great because Moorman (published by the venerable D&B Poker) has set the bar high! I am so excited to watch Chris Moorman play now that I know more about his personal life. That is what is so great about biographies; once you know their back story – you are that much more invested in their game. He is a down-to-earth guy, he even replied back after I messaged him on social media letting him know that he is my new poker favorite after reading his book. I just thought that was so great!

That’s not all, not even close! As mentioned, not only does Moorman have the fast and furious autobiography, it also has an extensive hand analysis section. I can’t even begin to tell you how powerful the hand analysis is that Chris provides. Up until this point I haven’t slapped down any buy-ins to live or online tournaments because I primarily have focused on cash games. Since reading Moorman, I have started dabbling in some of the freerolls that are available online, have implemented several of the takeaways from Chris’ hand analysis, and I have crushed it! I may have been converted to a tourney player after this; we’ll see.

If you’ve never studied hands away from the table, you are not doing yourself any favors. You should be actively staying on top of current game theory trends, taking poker notes, and finding your leaks and plugging them. I heard a good quote once, “Practice makes permanent.” It basically means that if you are putting in a lot of hands but not doing the work away from the table like studying past hand history, you are going to be habitually playing less than optimal poker. That is where the power of Moorman’s hand analysis is. How often do you get the chance to get inside of a real life poker pro’s head and see their thought process street by street!?

Awesome Bonus Material

Moorman has called upon some of the best poker players in the world to provide hand analysis of Chris’ play. We are talking some heavy hitters, including Fedor Holz, Maria Ho, Vanessa Selbst, and the one and only Daniel Negreanu. If you take advantage of the opportunity to buy and read this book, I’m confident that it will translate to more tournament cashes and deeper runs for you. I would recommend this book all day long. Great bio, great study material – it’s a win-win.

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Shannon Mack poker author
Written By.

Shannon Mack

Born in the Midwest in Bemidji, Minnesota, first city on the Mississippi, in 1978 in the disco era. Shannon has fond memories of playing poker during Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays with family as a child in the 80s; everybody was bluffing and nobody was folding! After getting his degree in Mechanical Design from St. Cloud […]

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