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Apostolico’s Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business

In an amusing August 2004 review, The Economist condemned most books about business to the trash heap:

“… it is astonishing how bad most business books are. Many appear to be little more than expanded PowerPoint presentations, with bullet points and sidebars setting out unrelated examples or unconnected thoughts. Some read like an extended paragraph from a consultant’s report (and, indeed, many consultancies encourage their stars to write books around a single idea and lots of examples from the clientele). Few business books are written by a single author; lots require a whole support team of researchers. And all too many have meaningless diagrams.

“The formula seems to be: keep the sentences short, the wisdom homespun and the typography aggressive; offer lots of anecdotes, relevant or not; and put an animal in the title—gorillas, fish and purple cows are in vogue this year. …”

The mail brought a case in point: Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business by poker player, attorney, and businessman David Apostolico.

From Amazon’s book description:

In this book, ... David Apostolico takes core poker philosophies and applies them to various business situations. Readers learn how to develop a poker mindset to help them in all aspects of their business lives.

Apostolico, who has matched wits with the world’s top professionals on the invitation only Professional Poker Tour and negotiated mergers and acquisitions on Wall Street, says there are no hard and fast rules to either poker or business success, yet the skills involved in both are extremely similar. Reading the opposition, adapting to changing circumstances, being innovative, and thinking like a winner are necessary to making a living on the felt or in the board room. Whether you are negotiating a deal, managing your finances, marketing products, running a business, or trying to climb the corporate ladder, a solid poker strategy can prove invaluable. Before you make a move in any of these areas, you should read this insightful book to learn how to play your hand for maximum strength.

I skimmed it and it looks fairly typical of the breed. Lots of generic advice about achieving excellence, but not a lot of details about, say, raising capital. Given the popularity of poket at the moment, the gimmick probably ensures it will have reasonable sales.