Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold’em
April 22, 2010 by Editor
Filed under Poker Books Lessons
Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em
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Product Description
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 cohost of Celebrity Poker Showdown, Phil has quickly become one of the most sought-after teachers of No Limit Texas Hold'em. It's a tough game. But anyone can become a winning player with the right amount of courage, patience, aggression, observation, and, perhaps most important, dedication to becoming a better player.
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. Through philosophy, psychology, strategy, math, and the knowledge gleaned from playing poker with everyone from T. J. Cloutier and Phil Ivey to Hank Azaria and Ben Affleck, Phil breaks down the game into enlightening instructional tidbits and illustrative anecdotes that inspire the kind of persistence and motivation necessary to improve your game.
A book 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.
Details
- ISBN13: 9781416903673
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Rating
Phil Gordon is a great teacher of poker. This book is simple to understand and straight forward. Phil is very good at taking semi-complex concepts and making them easy for anyone to learn. Phil also put out a DVD called Expert Insight: Final Table Poker that I picked up and love. It just had so much good info and wasn’t boring like other poker DVDs I’ve seen. (…)If you want to learn Hold ‘em I would pick-up both the book and the DVD.
Rating
Just because somebody is a great skier doesn’t qualify them to teach the sport. Likewise, a big winner in poker isn’t necessarily a good teacher. However, in Phil Gordon we get both. A proven winner and a great teacher. His ability to distill complex ideas into simple explanations is second to none. Buy this book and win money! It paid me back many times over in my first session after reading it. And I hear he is going heli boarding up in Canada for a week and there are spaces for 30 others at $5k the week…I’m tempted to do that as well and pay it off in the first session back…lol
Rating
Phil Gordon is not only a successful professional poker player and poker commentator (from Bravo’s “Celebrity Poker Showdown”), but with his “Little Green Book,” he proves he is a master teacher of poker as well.
With the advent of online gaming and televised Texas Hold’em tournaments, poker has seen an explosion in popularity in the last three years. To meet the demand for poker information, many pro players have written how-to books. Some are too basic for the experienced player, others too complex for the beginner. Gordon’s book is the 12th poker book I’ve bought, and I rank it at the top for both style and substance.
The Little Green Book is patterned after Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book on golf, and like Penick’s book, it covers its subject with clarity and detail, and without pretense. Beginners and experience players alike will benefit from Gordon’s book.
I think it was Tommy Smothers who joked that he was going to write a golf book called: “The 39 Most Important Things to Think About at the Moment of Impact.” Reading golf books can cause a player to overanalyze and, consequently, worsen a player’s game. The same can be said of some poker books, but not Gordon’s. While the book is simple and an easy read, it is also comprehensive. It covers play on every round of betting, the math involved in no limit hold’em, the psychology of the game, and tourney play. The book also includes starting hand charts and “tells,” the body language of poker that gives opponents clues of a player’s hand. It’s no stretch to say it represents the only no limit hold’em book a player needs to master the game.
I highly recommend the Little Green Book for those who want a rock solid foundation in no-limit hold’em.
Rating
The Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book is, in my view, the second or third best book on no-limit. In my view, nothing beats the Harrington books, which are more comprehensive, particularly on tournament strategy (although they are useful for cash games too), and Doyle’s chapter in Super System is still must reading. But having said that, Phil Gordon’s book is right up there with these classics–heady company. It is conversational in tone and easy reading, but not unsophisticated. The sections of the book dealing with post-flop play are excellent, and somewhat reminiscent of the approach used in Super System, as Phil analyzes how he would play some commonly-occurring post-flop situations. The sections on pot-odds, implied odds and hand match-ups is clear and surprisingly comprehensive–he really gives you everything you need to know. Phil gives some useful starting hand charts and includes a useful and insightful discussion of some common pre-flop situations. I wish Phil had spent a little more time discussing how he plays hands when he is not first in the pot (and expanded on the starting-hand charts at the back of the book), as well as more time discussing how he views the tactic of raising (or calling a raise) with small pairs and connectors (based on an implied odds argument)–he does mention the tactic, but I think there is more to be said on the topic. His discussion of play from the small blind and button is excellent, as is his discussion of blind-stealing. I was fascinated by his discussion of maintaining an appropriate ratio between steal raises (which you would generally have to fold to a reraise) and raises with a real hand in order to maintain a profit (i.e., winning enough when you have a real hand to compensate for your losses when you have to fold to a reraise)–I have not seen that kind of discussion elsewhere, and the calculation can be fine-tuned to match table conditions as well as applied to a variety of other situations when you are contemplating a move.
Phil says that he is not the best player in the world, but notes that he is a profitable player. I would add that he is a generous player and author also–Phil is generous in sharing his knowledge, and does not appear to be holding much back (too bad Barrry Greenstein didn’t right a book like this rather than the non-substantive coffee table book on poker that he actually wrote–talk about holding back!). Based on listening to Phil’s Podcasts on the WSOP, watching his DVD and reading this book, it is apparent to me that Phil enjoys sharing his knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the game with others. He is a natural expositor and gifted teacher.
Rating
I am a strictly low limit player (my bankroll hasn’t grown enough yet to be able to justify playing higher limits…plus, I play poker for fun, not for a living). After I bought this book, I now make money when I play poker the majority of time that I play (both online and at some casinos here in Michigan). I estimate I have made over $500 due to the strategies and tips in this book. The book makes the math of poker easy, and the psychological aspects of poker are shown giving real life situations. Plus, it is written in an entertaining fashion….it isn’t a dry “how to” book. It makes for an enjoyable read.
Finally, any book on poker that quotes Sun Tzu has a place on my bookshelf.
So anyway, if you don’t live in Michigan, you should get the book. But if you play at the Soaring Eagle casino here in Michigan, please don’t buy the book as I would prefer to have the edge all to myself.
Rating
You can never be too rich or have too much information in my opinion; Gordon has both in excess if you know his story. I decided to get the audio version because I drive between 500 and 600 miles per week. Absolutely excellent. Of particular interest and value to me is his analysis of playing AJ for all your chips against the probable calling hands(AK,AQ,AA,KK,and QQ ) and playing 87 suited against those same hands. The AJ rates to win about 25% and the 87 suited about 32%. I have always hated AJ and now I have another reason. It is this kind of analysis that makes this book so interesting and thought provoking. He covers so many ideas and aspects that this is a book to be read in small doses many times rather than all at once. No one could possibly remember all he has to say. His “Don’t tap the aquarium” is a favorite because so many misguided players berate the bad players into leaving and missing out on relatively easy money because they suffer a drawout or two. His section on “Sick gamblers” helped me to see them in a different way; where I used to not play my best against them, I feel better now in playing them as tough as anyone who is taking a shot at my money. Overall a very good book filled and overflowing with many nuggets of great poker wisdom. Gordon is a likeable and effective teacher but also admits he is not the best in the world. He is a winning player who developed over time and shares much of the information which has helped him to elevate his game. Definitely recommended.
Rating
This is a terrific book for no limit hold em tournament players. It is not as valuable for cash game players, as many of the strategies count on the limitations of tournament structure for them to work. I like Gordon’s comment at the start: “I’m not the world’s best poker player. But I make a living playing poker. This is how I do it.” He tells you his style and then encourages you to build upon it.
The most valuable part for many readers will be his simplification of probability and math. Concepts that seem impossible in other books are very clear here. Yes, his simplification may make his results off by a half a percent or so every now and then, but we all know that math is only part of the equation for winning poker.
He does tout Full Tilt Poker more often than he should in a book that is not an advertisement. I like Full Tilt and play there, but it is not the only decent poker room.
If you are reading Phil’s books to learn the game, read his ” Poker: The Real Deal” first. It has the basics and this one has more nuance.
There are other great poker books out there. But you should read several. Gordon’s approach to game and his writing style is
very different than Stewart Reubin’s, but I’ve learned from both. Ditto for Dan Harrington.
Now, the only question is, when is Gordon going to offer his insights on Omaha?
Rating
Well-written, easy to read. This book covers the math, the tells (a little bit), and why players play the way they do. Also, I love the examples of tournament plays and things the players did to elicit calls. I love Phil’s anecdotes which are part of the book’s teaching. These are as informative as the lessons. The book covers a lot of material concisely, and in a friendly manner. The chapters are very easy to read and again the anecdotes ILLUSTRATE the principles the book expounds. Phil Gordon is modest and admits his book is not definitive (whose is?). I loved this book for its mathematics, tells, methods, and examples by player.
Rating
This book is written as a series of short essays. Each one is just several pages long, but each is in its own way, a thought provoking essay that if taken to heart, should alter your style of play slightly.
Because of this, I don’t think it is wise to pick up the book and start reading; you would just end up plowing through the material without absorbing it. Ideally, you should read 2 or 3 of the short points, then play a game or two with real people (online play only counts for building technical proficiency) seeing if you can use those 2 or 3 points to alter your style of play.
The material here is dense and impressive for such a small book.
Rating
I am new to the world of poker and have been searching for a book that would teach me some of the fundamentals of the game without going over my head. Some of the books out there read like a college algebra textbook.
Phil has written a great book for the beginner and seasoned player to enjoy. This book is broken down into chapters that cover the entire had from pre flop to turn (and cover what you should do or look for at each spot). Other chapters thoroughly cover Tells, Tournament Strategies, Percentages and Math, and Psychology. And, if Phil left anything out, he put it in the Miscellaneous chapter. Add in some charts covering all aspects of poker and some player profiles at the end of the book and I have found myself a keeper.
The only thing that disappointed me was the chapter on Online Poker (where I play most of the time). It ended up being an advertisement for Full Tilt Poker more than a strategy guide. However, there are several books on the market that cover online play so I guess I can live with that. The wealth of information in this book far outweighs my disenchantment with this one chapter.
When reading any instructional book I normally underline just the important parts so I can come back later and just hit the highlights. Not so with this book. I would have to underline the entire volume from cover to cover. Should No Limit Texas Hold `em ever be taught in school, this would definitely be the textbook to use. I can tell I will be reading this one for years to come.