Phil Hellmuth's Book...

[wegs the wegs]

Playing Poker Like the Pro's... has anyone read it? Anyone suggest it? What is the main point of the book? I picked it up pretty cheap the other day and was wondering if I should read it or give it as a Christmas gift instead.

[AtlBrvs4Life]

I would suggest giving it as a Christmas gift to someone you dislike.

[scotnt73]

it has gotten huge negative press everywhere. do a search for it and youll se what i mean. it seems like phill just wanted to make money without giving anything of value up in the book.

[maurile]

[ QUOTE ]
I picked it up pretty cheap the other day and was wondering if I should read it or give it as a Christmas gift instead.

[/ QUOTE ]
Why not do both? It's not a bad read if you can disregard some of the limit hold 'em advice. Then you can give it away when you're done. Christmas isn't until, what, December?

[Wahoo91]

I would suggest giving it as a Christmas gift to someone you dislike.

Great post. This is easily one of the worst poker books I have read.

[shadow29]

Read every section but Limit Hold Em. The advice is ok. Don't bend the corners and give it away after you're done.

[nothumb]

This book is ass, for a variety of reasons.

The Limit Hold'Em is the most useless thing ever written... most members of this board could crap a better chapter. Since most people play limit, or at least start off playing limit, this is important.

The entire book is written for mid and high stakes. I don't think Phil has played low stakes since his college days.

The starting hands advice for Hold'Em is ass.

He never addresses position in starting hand requirements and does a poor job of it post-flop.

Worst of all, he rarely if ever gives a coherent idea of the logic behind most moves. He doesn't really discuss multi-way hands versus heads-up hands. He gives examples of bizarre or fancy plays constantly but warns you not to try them. And he is a self-promoting egomaniac too cheap to get a decent editor. The book is written really, really badly.

I loan it out a lot. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

NT

[pistol78]

Come on guys, It has a great section for beggining holdem players. The top 10 hands, who wouldnt want to sit at a poker table and ONLY play 10 hands. Seems like a lot of fun to me. Plus the book is kind of thick so when you are done reading it you can use it to balance your coffee table, or as a coaster, or even use it to start a bonfire for the homeless. Dont worry with al the knowledge you will soak up from the book you will make a killing off all the mice that play at ultimitebet.com!

[MicroBob]

mason gave two seperate ratings for this book.

he rated the limit hold-em content a 1 (and it has to truly suck for mason to give it a 1).
he rated the rest of the book a 6 (meaning that there is SOME value to it...but to take it fwiw).


i'm actually going to loan it to a friend of mine who i'm teaching how to play poker.
right now he still struggles to read the board and is learning entirely from scratch.
but he's outstanding at math and rather analytical and i thought that phil's section just on the rules of hold-em and how the game is played would be something he could read and re-read. he does okay when i tell him how to play....but i think he is a better learner when he can absorb stuff via print and i think the section explaining how to actually play may be of use.


i'm going to tell him that he can read the other stuff on what hands to play etc...but that he shouldn't bother with it too much because so much of it is wrong.

[mistrpug]

It's not bad for a new Omaha player. Don't even read the holdem sections.

[AKQJ10]

Echoing the consensus, the limit HE sucks, but it's not a bad way to spend 20 bucks if you think you'd like to dabble in a lot of different games and would like to learn a bit about PLO Hi, O8, Stud, Stud H/L, and Razz.

Just curious (since i don't play NLHE at the moment), how does everybody think that chapter is?
I replied to nothumb because this is best analysis for what's wrong with Hellmuth's LHE advice:

[ QUOTE ]
The entire book is written for mid and high stakes. I don't think Phil has played low stakes since his college days.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Fiery Jack]

I think it made interesting reading, many poker books are more factual and informative but they also tend to be dry and dull.

As far as practical advice is concerned, the PL Omaha chapter really helped me. Its the only part of the book I have gone back to read a few times.

[Beavis68]

Mason gave all parts of the book but the limit holdem section a 6. I like the book.

The only thing wrong with the limit holdem advice is that it is a little aggressive.

[mrjim]

I wasn't going to respond to this as others have already said how bad it is until some starting saying they liked it. So I throw my vote to the bad side, really bad.

[maurile]

It fills the same niche as Poker For Dummies. It's a general introduction to a bunch of different games. As a first book for someone interested in playing a bunch of differeng games only semi-seriously -- like in a home game -- it's not a bad book.

For any specific game, there are better books out there. Roy West for 7-stud, Tenner/Kreiger for Omaha/8, Lee Jones for hold 'em, etc.

But for a home game player who's looking for some basic competence in a range of popular games without doing too much work, I think either Hellmuth's book or Poker For Dummies would be good choices; and Hellmuth's book is more interesting.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
The only thing wrong with the limit holdem advice is that it is a little aggressive.

[/ QUOTE ]


huh?


SSHE is a 'little aggressive'.
PPLTP limit-HE advice is just plain goofy.

[avatar77]

When I first started playing poker, I actually learned my Omaha from this book and had quite a bit of success with it.

I agree with the posters..it sucks for hold'em but the other sections are pretty good especially for new players.