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.
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