Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book

Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book

More Lessons and Hand Analysis in 

No Limit Texas Hold'em

by Phil Gordon

Quick Thoughts

Having previously reviewed Phil Gordon's Little Green Book (see here if you have not read this review) and given their popularity; its probably worth looking at another one of Phil Gordon's books. The little blue book differs in approach from the green book, using selected hand histories as a tool for analysis and advice. This is less of a beginners book then the green book, but makes a reasonable follow up to this and other introductory poker books.

Four out of five stars as a good follow up to introductory poker books.

Basics

As with the green book this is a nice hard back book. Although the book format is small, at around 400 pages in length it packs in a lot of material. Hand histories are divided into different formats of No Limit Holdem with chapters on cash games, sit and goes and a number of chapters on tournaments. Separating tournament play into a range of chapter is probably a good idea. The chapter on satellites and super satellites is interesting, providing advice specific to the non-standard payout structure of this type of tournament. The other chapters on tournaments considers early, middle and late stage play followed by a chapter that specifically considers the final table of a multi-table tournament.

Typical Cost

£9 to £12.99, $14 to $21

Additional Thoughts

Example hand histories and hand analysis can sometimes come across as contrived, where the author selects (or makes up?) a hand that simply presents the point or advice they want to get across. Phil Gordon goes to some effort to avoid this. The hand examples are from real hands he has played, and being real poker even when played optimally the hands don't always go his way. Similarly he is open about hands he could have played better.

This is a good book for dipping into, perhaps reading through 2 or 3 hands in a short session, or reading one of the chapters in a longer session.

Texas Hold'Em Poker - Win Online

Texas Hold'Em Poker - Win Online

by Paul Mendelson

Quick Thoughts

This is quite a well written and well structured book with some good advice for the new players considering player online poker. It is however quite a short book and only covers topics at a basic level. Unusually for an introductory book it assumes some familiarity with the rules of poker, focusing on the specifics of online poker instead. This is presumably due to space limitations and not wanting to duplicate material covered in Paul Mendelson's other introductory book, Texas Hold'Em Begin and Win.

Overall quite a good book introducing online poker at cheap price. Three stars out of five.

Basics

As mentioned above; this book is short at around 125 pages in a small softback. The first two chapters are essentially the initial introduction to online poker. Some may find these first chapter annoyingly basic with this information available on  many websites, such as those run by the bigger online poker sites. However, as a introductory book its probably not a bad idea to cover some of the basics, the reader can always flick past these chapters it they want. The next three chapters cover the main formats of online poker, cash games, one table sit and go's and multi-table tournaments. Tips and strategy specific to these formats are discussed in these chapters. The final chapter addresses miscellaneous tips for online poker. This includes discussion of bad beats (loosing to a player who had a poor starting hand but who got lucky) , which often seems worse and more regular online compared to the live game due to the large number of hands that can be played in a short period online.

Typical Cost

£2.99 to £4.29, $6 to $7

Additional Thoughts

Although this is a small book this is reflected in the price. You can probably read this book in a evening, or alternatively dip into quickly a few times and finish it in a week.

If you are a complete beginner you will probably need to combine this book with another introductory book that covers the basics of poker not addressed here. Phil Gordon's Little Green Book (see the review here) would be a good choice to combine with this book and would see you through from starting out to more advanced play. However, it you want a small cheap book of similar length to this then Paul Mendelson's other book, Texas Hold'Em Begin and Win, is also a reasonable choice.

Upcoming Book Reviews - May/June 2012

A quick update on recent and upcoming reviews.

Reviews have already appeared this month for Gus Hansen's Every Hand Revealed and Poker For Dummies, the next review this month will be Paul Mendelson's Texas Hold Em - Win Online.

Later reviews this month and heading into June will include the following books;

• Phil Gordons Little Blue Book
• Caro's Book of Poker Tells - Mike Caro
• Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha - Rolf Slotboom

Poker Bookshelf Listed at Technorati

Poker Bookshelf is now listed at http://technorati.com/. A interesting place to find blogs on a range of subjects.

Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen

Every Hand Revealed

by Gus Hand 

Quick Thoughts

Most poker books present hand histories and provide analysis of these hands to one degree or another.  This might be one or two chapters, or even most of the book.  However, Gus Hansen's Every Hand Revealed is unique in following a player all the way  through a large tournament to the final table. Gus ultimately won the 2007 Aussie millions and this book describes how he went from playing on day one to the heads up play at the final table on day five. In addition to recording the hands played there is detailed commentary and advice, which provides insight into a player that has an interesting aggressive style of play. This book is not really a beginners book, but most other players will gain something from it, or at least find it interesting.

This book is unique, and more than that is interesting and informative to read. On this basis it gets five stars out of five from me.

Typical Cost

£7 to £12, $10 to $16

Basics

A medium sized soft back book of around 370 pages. There is a quick introduction including a nice piece on crucial hands, which is interesting to periodical flick back to as you go through the later chapters. The introduction is followed by chapters covering day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4 of the tournament. In addition to describing the play on these days each of the chapters has a useful "my advice" section from Gus.  For example chapter 1 has advice on how to approach a tournament from the beginning and chapter 3 has advice on varying playing style between short-handed and full tables.

The final table starts on day five with several chapters dedicated to it. This starts with a chapter covering the full final table of 7 players. Another chapter covers 3 handed play, followed by a chapter on heads up play for first place. Chapter 8 provides advice on various aspects of play through the tournament including limping, continuation bets and bluffing. The book finishes with a few pages providing afterthoughts.

Additional Thoughts

As noted in quick thoughts; this is not a beginners book. It does not provide commentary at a basic level, or play the role of an instructional book. Less experienced players are also likely to get into trouble trying to play an loose aggressive style of poker like Gus Hanson.  Most other players over a wide range of abilities will get something from this book, either by learning from some of the hands or from reading some of the sections that provide advice. This is also a book you may well read more than once and the individual chapters can be dipped into one at a time without having to read the whole book in one go.

If you have read this book share your thoughts with a star rating or a comment.

Poker For Dummies

Poker For Dummies

by Richard Harroch and Lou Krieger

Quick Thoughts

This is not a bad book, and has some good material in it. However, one fault is trying to cover too much material for a book of its size. As a result, in places, it ends up not covering some aspects in sufficient depth. There are chapters on Holdem, Omaha, various stud games and even a chapter on video poker.  Internet poker is touched on but the treatment is very dated. Overall not too bad, but there are better more focused introductory books out there. I picked this up second hand on Amazon, and on this basis it was quite a good buy and an interesting read.

Three stars out of five. Some good material but tries to cover too much in a book of its size.

Basics

A medium sized soft back book of around 300 pages. The introductory chapters on poker basics are great for the absolute beginner up to the novice player not sure on a couple of points. The book then goes on to cover the basic rules and strategy for a range of different types of poker, 7 card stud, Holdem, seven card stud 8 or better Hi/Lo and Omaha. Other topics covered include home game poker, tournament poker, and importantly bank roll management and record keeping. Video poker is also covered in one chapter, should you be curious on how this relates to the poker you play at the table or online. 

Having considered the basics the book provides various additional chapter ranging from strategy advice to advice on tells. The final chapters in the book are in the 10 tips format popular in the dummy books. These include ten reads (and tells), ten poker legends, ten keys to success, ten tips before going pro, ten ways to improve, and ten real life poker lessons. An additional nice touch for an introductory book is a short chapter on further reading.

Typical Cost

£7 to £14.99, $13 to $17, available a lot cheaper second hand.

Additional Thoughts

Most people will consider the treatment of internet poker in this book as very dated, which is unsurprising given the first published date for this book.

The overview of other forms of poker other then holdem is a nice aspect to the book. If you are a holdem player thinking about playing an additional form of poker this might be worth a read before buying a more specialist book on the form of poker that interests you.

If you have read this book please share your star rating. Also let us know if you have any comments on the book.