Thanks to the song and movie by Kenny "The Gambler" Rogers, most of us now understand that "you"ve got to know when to hold "em and know when to fold "em." This axiom can be applied around a conference table as well as a card table. In The Poker MBA, Jeffrey Gitomer and Greg Dinkin take this concept to the extreme by drawing a world of business advice from the popular pastime. "There is no better training ground for business than a poker game, where your ability to measure risk and make split-second decisions determines whether you cash out a winner," note Dinkin, an MBA-carrying columnist for Card Player magazine, and Gitomer, a writer and sales-and-service consultant. The authors use simulated hands and real tournament settings to illustrate how both pursuits relate in strategy (reading the competition, keeping cards close to the table), technique (acting on prior knowledge, maintaining sufficient cash), and starting anew (choosing a setting, selecting proper partners). Sprinkling the book with quotes from the likes of Dale Carnegie, Sun Tzu, and Peter Drucker, they stress that success in each undertaking is largely determined by discipline, skill, and cunning, and they recount a variety of proven applications from cards that could prove equally effective in commerce. --Howard Rothman