Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em

Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em | Phil Gordon | Phil's Writing Style

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Phil Gordon's Litt...

	Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em Phil Gordon Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2005 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 114 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Phil Gordon plays poker with the best players in the world. He has won -- and lost -- in tournaments and cash games around the globe, all the while studying the game and learning from every hand dealt. As the resident expert and co-host of Celebrity Poker Showdown, Phil has quickly become one of the most sought-after teachers of No Limit Texas Hold'em.

After fifteen years of keeping notes on the things he's learned, the greats he's played with, and the celebrities he's taught, Phil Gordon has poured every single thing he knows about No Limit Texas Hold'em into this little green book. Taking a page from Harvey Penick's bestselling book of golf wisdom, Phil plays the role of both teacher and student, offering up insightful tips on how to think about poker and how to develop a singular style of play. He breaks down the game into enlightening instructional tidbits and illustrative anecdotes that inspire the kind of persistence and motivation necessary to improve your game.

Sure to rank with Doyle Brunson's Super System, and David Sklansky's The Theory of Poker, Phil Gordon's Little Green Book deserves a spot on the shelf of every serious student of the game.

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Helped Me Win

I picked this book up after looking at a bunch of the other ones out there. I've played for many years, but never really analyzed the game in detail. It seems to give good solid advice in short sections without all the fluff. The day I picked it up I read the first 4 chapters and came away with some solid impressions on how I should improve my game. That night I played in a local bar tournament and won it. My wife (who's won 2 herself) was very happy. This was the first time I've won a tournament and I have to admit the cards were definately coming up for me. People started kidding with me that I was a "bully" at the table. They were impressed with how my play had improved and how I had correctly bluffed them out of some major hands. I can't give Phil's book credit for the cards I got, but I was much more confident and solid with my play after reading the first part. I've since gotten more and more great tips from the book and really enjoy it.

The only thing I have to criticize is minor. I don't really care for the Sun Zu quotes in the book. I've seen those in everything from self help to computer programming books, and they are really becoming tired.

I highly recommend this book.

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Phil's Writing Style

I am just a poker novice and found the information in here to be a good start but what I really like about the book is that Phil Gordon has a good sense of humor about himself and shares the mistakes that he has made as well. I found it was not too dry to just be a good read.

Good, but not excellet

The book has the essentials, but the analysis is not the best. I like it that it had the chart about hands chances heads up.

decent

I'm not sure what this book has that isn't covered in books like: "The theory of Poker" or "Super System." In fact, it might just be better to read those two and Mike Caro's "Poker Tells." This is a how to book based on how Phil Gordon would play a certian hand in a certian situation. Its a good beginner's book but not quite as good as Sklansky's or Doyle Brunson's books. It's a fairly quick read and doesn't offer much that can't be acquired elsewhere.

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Some Good, Some Not So Good

Phil Gordon's 'Little Green Book' starts out very well. The concise chapters do a very good job of covering the basics of the game. In fact, I think the short, topical chapters are an asset throughout. In poker, the ability to analyze the situation is a strength. However, overanalyzing is a flaw. Phil's short chapter approach serves the information well.

I also found the end of the book to be valuable. The hand-charts and percentages outlined on pages 262-273 provide critical information in a quick and easy format.

However, I did not find much of the information in the middle to latter part of the book to be as useful. My problem rests primarily with the manner various situations are discussed. Phil spends quite a bit of time telling us how he varies his play against a particular opponent when he has a particular hand (i.e. 40% of the time I do this, 30% I do this, 20% I do this, and 10% I do this).

In a particular game/tournament, specific hand situations under the same table conditions just don't come up often enough to break it down to that degree of detail. You just have to play to the situation in front of you at that time. Another significant flaw in this approach is that your opponents are likely going through the same mental exercises against you.

As with all poker books, Phil emphasizes the importance of position, pot odds, and properly switching from aggressive to tight when dictated by the table. These are the absolute necessities to winning poker. I do think, however, too much emphasis is put on reading your opponent's betting patterns. I'm not talking about physical tells, only betting patterns.

Fact is, that a poker player with any amount of experience and skill is going to vary their betting pattern just as the rest of us do. Sometimes they will bet as expected, sometimes they won't. I'm looking for something a little more concrete on which to base my decision. The more important thing to read is the board and the possibilities it offers. I'm more concerned about what could beat me and the mathematical probability my opponent has that hand, not whether he bet like he had it or not.

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