Poker Book Review: Phil Gordon's Little Green Book

The follow up book to The Real Deal, Phil Gordon of Celebrity Poker Showdown continues to impress readers, players, and publishers with great writing. This book gets right to the point. "I intend in this book to write exactly how I play. You may disagree with many of the plays that I recommend here. Good. I want you to approach this book not as a definitive guide for how to play, but as a catalyst for thinking about the game." Since Gordon has placed in the WSOP, and won 2 WPT tournaments, hey, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. This is in spite of the fact that the first time I ever saw Gordon was heads up at a WPT final table getting sliced and diced by an amateur player.



As enjoyable as The Real Deal was in mixing strategy and poker lore, The Little Green Book is a lot more useful to those who want to improve their tournament play. And make no bets about it, there is excellent advice here with expert reasoning behind each play. Many common tournament situations are discussed here as the player, Gordon himself, discusses why he would fold or raise or (more rarely) calls. All the while doing this in interesting little bite size quips that make you just want to hug this book and keep it under your pillow. Some of the excellent chapters include; playing against player types, forming a game plan, big laydowns, and sobering math. All this and more, followed up by some interesting bio on players Phil knows and has played against .

I certainly think that Phil Gordon has jumped to the front of the class of all the poker writers out there today. His unique ability to make you think about the game, while showering his sentences with poker-love, creeps into your system and just makes you want to play that much more. The Little Green Book makes our TOP TEN list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poker Book Review: Poker: The Real Deal by Phil Gordon

There's no debating that poker is a hot topic these days, and because of it, there's a lot of interest in learning about it. In this quest, lots of people will head straight for the "... For Dummies" series because it's familiar - they'll be making a bigger mistake than going all-in on a 2-7 offsuit.

"Poker: The Real Deal" is a well-rounded, very informative, easy-to-read and immensely entertaining book for the poker newbie. It covers a wide range of topics on poker, from the development of its variations throughout history, to the basics of strategy, to the lingo and customs needed to not look foolish at a casino or home game. This breadth of topics make it worth reading even if you're a moderately experienced player, but the true value is held for the novice.

Strategy is what most people will be looking for, and the strategy section is a definite strength, discussing the calculation of pot odds, the importance of position and the basics of valuing your hand strength vs. your read on that of others at the table. Does it cover strategy as in-depth as Sklansky and Malmuth's books or the classic "Super/System"? Of course not - that wouldn't be appropriate for the book's core audience. But the great thing about this book is that it contains very helpful passages from those books and points you to them if you'd like to get more information. Let's face it - most of us are just looking to keep up with our home games and occasional casino vacations, and this book works as a single-volume bookshelf that more than fits the needs of such a player. But again, if you envision yourself flipping the boss the bird and staking your claim as the next Greg Raymer, then "Poker: The Real Deal" will help you find all of the additional information necessary to start.

Online play is also covered, and while it's a good chapter, it's also (understandably) rather biased toward's Phil's affiliated website.

Many will buy or give this book based on Phil Gordon's recognition from Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown", and that's fine. His personal anecdotes add a lot to the readability of the book. Finally, it's even a physically attractive book printed on quality paper, even if it is a screwy size (very tall and narrow, making it more difficult than usual to hold open at the very beginning and end). Do you really want to host your first home game and have someone spot that atrocious yellow-and-black "Dummies" book on your shelf? Of course not.

If you're among the many who recently discovered poker via TV or the Internet but are buffaloed by the numerous books on taking your game to the next level, then your search is over - this is THE one book for you. See this book in our TOP TEN list.

DR Jeanclerc, Ohio

Poker DVD Review: Final Table Poker by Phil Gordon

In the fashion of a World Poker Tour WPT final table, Phil Gordon brings you inside the mind of a professional player, who is playing in the tournament and has made the final table. Although seemingly acted out, the situations and characters that interact at this table are very real. Thus, they warrant the excellent narration and analysis that Phil offers during each hand, whether he is in it or not. What does a professional poker player do with pocket 9's? Normally you would expect a raise or even a reraise, but the situation that arises has Phil folding before the flop - and for good reason.


Situations are what this DVD is all about. What does Phil do with this hand, in this position, against this character and with this stack? Virtually every hand has something to take away - including some great tell playbacks, and on-the-spot pot odd calculations. There are beginner and advanced audio analysis - both of which I found valuable. Even more so because you can only see Phil's hole cards, forcing you to think about the other players' possible hands. This works well at both levels. And that is what Phil Gordon the teacher is all about. Listen, if you flop top pair and are heads up against a shorter stack - what would you do? Oh wait. the short stack happens to be Chris (Jesus) Ferguson , and he suspiciously called a preflop raise and checked to you after the flop. Both skill levels internalize how Phil Gordon calculates his response. Even though it may turn out to be a negative result, it is important to know the right decision process.

A lot of the play centers around player styles as well, with particular notes on aggressive players and how they tend to 'implode'. The DVD culminates with some fantastic end game strategies, keeping you on edge all the way. Yes, it is entertaining too! This DVD puts others in the field way back on the shelf. it also includes a handy tournament start chart. Seriously - never has such presentation, analysis, realism, and education come together in an instructional DVD for poker. It really sets the standard and surely is an excellent library addition.I fyou would like to purchase this DVD, click this link... Final Table Poker DVD .

Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book by Phil Gordon

Have you been wondering what Phil Gordon has been doing since leaving Celebrity Poker Showdown? And where has he been since The Little Green Book became a best selling poker book that provided juicy tournament strategy and a lot of poker-love between its cute little covers? Ok, maybe not, but when Phil Gordon isn’t writing, it really is our collective loss, so I do tend to keep track.

As if we didn’t know, Phil Gordon has been playing poker. Only in preparation for The Little Blue Book, Phil was kind enough to take notes. The result of those notes is a compilation of lessons and hand scrutiny specifically played out in No Limit Hold’em games where Phil was the key player, usually faced with a major decision.

As you may be aware, Phil Gordon has a very entertaining style of describing NL Poker hands. What could easily be a boring lecture of odds, position, stack, profiling etc. Gordon plays a hand out like theatre, allowing you to feel the participant’s stress, the gratification of making a critical call, and the anger and depression of being drawn out. Even better, in several of these hands Phil shows you where he went wrong, clearly making a less-than-stellar play, and then explaining how you can avoid such situations yourself.

The situations range from online tournaments, qualifying tournaments, major buy-in tournaments, online NL cash games, and live NL cash games in some of the nicest casinos in the world. The cash games bring a new angle to Gordon’s writing as he has up until now focused his writing talents on NL tournaments. And these hands are very interesting. In one live casino game, he was way ahead and got his opponent to commit about $15,000 to of his chips to the pot, only to be dealt runner-runner diamond suckout. Ouch. Pot was $30,000!

All of the hands come with a simple, easy-to-read table view with no distracting, contrasting graphics. Phil then goes on to explain the necessary details and brings us through his thinking process as the hand develops. Phil’s humility is always welcome here as he applies it with a humorous twist and lets us all know that he too can be horrified in the face of aggression from an intimidating opponent.

Some of these exciting hands involve Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harmon, Chris Ferguson, Chris Moneymaker and DevilFish Ulliot. In essence you get into some really high stakes games here, and feel the aggression dead on.

Although The Little Blue Book isn’t as captivating as The Little Green Book, to Gordon’s credit, that is some act to follow. Still, well worth the 25 bucks as it is an easy, enjoyable read with thought provoking, game advancing advice and would make a great gift for your poker love as well.

by Marty Smith @ PokerStrategyArticles.com

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