Book Review – The Poker MBA

A whole deck full of jokers? That's just the beginning of what you get from The Poker MBA: Winning in Business No Matter What Cards You're Dealt (Crown Business). Throughout this book, jokers are wild and all 52 offer a business nugget, a quote, or a funny story. At the end of every chapter, there are four "chapter aces" that review the most important points. It's the reason this book is so fun to read and easy to put to use.

Authors Greg Dinkin and Jeffrey Gitomer know how to teach and entertain. They make references to gambling movies like The Cincinnati Kid, Rounders, and Maverick, and tell stories ranging from a game of strip poker on the beach to a no-limit Texas hold'em game with $1.5 million on the line. These stories all have a purpose, as the poker anecdotes are used to set up concrete business lessons. The authors never lose sight of the goal of this book: to teach readers how to use the traits of a poker professional to become a better risk-taker and decision-maker in order to profit more in business.

Just like the teaching approach at Harvard Business School, the book teaches business using case studies. A poker situation is presented, followed by the lesson of how it impacts a business. In the beginning of the book, the authors explain that a world champion poker player like Amarillo Slim and a world-class businessman like Bill Gates possess the same set of skills: They are adept at reading others and seeing things from another's perspective, able to balance risk and reward, disciplined enough to handle adversity and recover from a loss, and good enough actors to "fake it" and win – that is, they can bluff.

The book goes on to examine business leaders, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jack Welch, Michael Dell, Steve Wynn, Lee Iacocca, Michael Eisner, Herb Kelleher, Donald Trump, Sam Walton, Meg Whitman, Oprah Winfrey, Henry Ford, J.D. Rockefeller, and George Soros. It's a who's who of top business leaders, and the business wisdom from each leader is put into a poker/business context so that you can put the information to use in your own business.

The authors explore game theory, and examples include airline pricing wars, a battle for clients between Maurice Saatchi and his old firm Saatchi & Saatchi, as well as how Sumner Redstone was able to use his leverage to acquire Blockbuster video from Wayne Huizenga.

The genius of this book is that it uses anecdotes presented in simple language that not only are fun to read, but are explained in simple terms. Through the poker lens, readers learn sophisticated concepts, such as expected value, regression to the mean, and discounted cash flows. The book examines arbitrage and how Long Term Capital Management failed to understand risk and had to be bailed out by the Fed. The material is MBA-level, but is explained in such a way that a Business 101 student can comprehend it.

Author Greg Dinkin's background may best explain why this book works. He's a poker professional who has been making his living at the poker table since he was 16. He's also an MBA, and a former management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He's part poker player and part business guru, and he has the right perspective to appeal to both audiences.

Co-author Jeffrey Gitomer has the perfect background, as well. He was given the designation of Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) by the National Speakers Association, and is a highly regarded speaker and trainer for blue-chip firms such as Coca-Cola, IBM, Xerox, and AT&T. One of his earlier books, The Sales Bible, was an international best-seller.

A poker book? Sure.

A business book? Absolutely.

But more importantly, The Poker MBA is a money book. Those who read it will soon be cashing in.