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Lawyers' Poker: 52 Lessons that Lawyers Can Learn from Card Players | 
| Author: Steven Lubet
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.82
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 281465
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0195369017
Dewey Decimal Number: 340
EAN: 9780195369014
ASIN: 0195369017
Publication Date: August 22, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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Product Description
Great poker players are master tacticians. Not only do they calculate odds with lightning speed and astonishing precision, but they also cunningly anticipate and manipulate the actions of their adversaries. In short, they boast skills that every lawyer can envy. This highly entertaining work might best be summed up as "better lawyering through poker." Steven Lubet shows exactly how the tactics of the poker table can be adapted to litigation, negotiation, and virtually every aspect of law practice. In a series of engaging and informative lessons, Lubet describes concepts like "betting for value," "slow playing," and "reverse bluffing," and explains how they can be used by lawyers to win their cases. The best card players, like the best lawyers, have a knack for getting their adversaries to react exactly as they want, and that talent separates the winners from the losers. Lawyers' Poker is an irresistible guide to successful lawyering and an enjoyable read for anyone with an interest in law. No poker knowledge required.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
Good read, just don't expect the magic bullet December 10, 2007
The author (Lubet) uses anecdotes from famous trials to compare actions of poker players with trial lawyers and the witnesses they examine. As a recent law graduate, I noticed he is the same author as two of my trial advocacy text books from law school. Since the publisher is not known for producing pulp, I bought the book for some post-graduate light reading and was not disappointed. However, don't come here looking for secret trial strategies that nobody else knows, nothing in the book is truly earth shattering.
There is a false assumption among some reviewers (and somewhat present throughout the book) that poker players are quite similar to lawyers. This comparison is as predictable as it is delusional. Most law school graduates can make a modest living in law, but most people who can play poker (even very good players) will unfortunately lose their shirts if they were to attempt to make it their livelihood. Though there may be some behavioral similarities among the two, doing even moderately well at poker takes considerably more skill than doing so in law.
The author points out important differences, particularly in the areas of ethics, lying and flat out mechanical cheating. Lawyers can get away with things that poker players cannot, and vice versa, and the limits of each adjust with the passing of time and the advance of technology.
One of the most interesting observations the author makes is that as the respectability of poker playing is on the rise, the respectability of the legal profession is in decline. Make of this what you will, but unfortunately I agree with him here.
 There's nothing here that a lawyer could learn September 13, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
There's far less that could be learned from this book than one could by watching a few law-related TV shows.
The poker related explanations are rather mediocre so that poker players would get bored, and one gets a feeling that the author is stretching to find an anecdote to fit every situation.
The text is peppered with anecdotes that are mildly interesting, both poker-related and from legal cases. If there's the ideal book that brings the two topics together, this is not it. I found no eye-popping revelations, it felt like a routine drill, covering all the angles--never going too deep.
I actually picked up this book to see if I could learn anything in preparation for a tort case--as I am not a lawyer but a competent poker player. I learned one thing from this book--conceptually, it is not a bad idea to share enough information before trial (during or before discovery) to arrive at a situation where the opponent has enough to achieve an optimal settlement.
So many aspects of law are so complicated that by the time you get to be a lawyer, poker has little to teach you that haven't already seen. The book proved this belief.
 Legal insights demonstrated through poker June 7, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Inexperienced poker players often mistake poker for a game of chance. In fact, good players recognize that good hands and bad hands even out after many hands. It is the skill with which they play that separates losers from their money.
The advocacy system of law in the USA can appear too much of a game of chance to outsiders. However, Steven Lubet uses poker as a metaphor and guide to the methods behind the apparent madness of lawyerly questions and argument. The writing style is elegant without drowning in complicated language or "legalese." The author's dry wit is an added joy.
Thought-provoking, Instructive, and Entertaining March 15, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Professor Lubet's book is thought-provoking, instructive, and entertaining. The similarities between litigation and poker are evident to every litigator, but Professor Lubet's accounts of various poker maneuvers and strategies will cause even the most seasoned litigator to reexamine conventional thinking. One example: the traditional strategy in defending a deposition is to limit the deponent's responses as much as possible. Professor Lubet suggests the contrary-that showing your cards in a deposition may increase the pot because 90 percent of cases settle rather than proceed to trial.
Similarly, the early raise (presenting substantial discovery early in the case) even if a bluff (because counsel does not have the resources to consider proceeding to trial), can pay dividends.
Whether the reader is a card player or not, Professor Lubet achieves the difficult task of presenting poker big game moves in an understandable but exciting way. This book is a valuable, entertaining read for every litigator. The uninitiated poker player will have a new found respect for the game.
52 Lessons that Lawyers Can Learn from Card Players January 8, 2007
0 out of 11 found this review helpful
Book was ordered as a gift. Arrived promptly and hopefully it will prove useful to recipient.
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