Play Poker Like the Pros

Play Poker Like the Pros author: Phil Hellmuth rating: asin: 0060005726 binding: Paperback list price: $15.95 USD amazon price: $11.96 USD

This is a light introduction to the game of poker by 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and all-time self promoter Phil Hellmuth.

Hellmuth introduces a simple approach to Limit Hold'em, advocating playing his "Top Ten" hands. He outlines five different animal types (player types) that he uses to illustrate most of the example hands in the book. There is a chapter on No Limit and Pot Limit Hold'em, but it is not the primary focus of the book. Hellmuth superficially discusses a few concepts such as hyperaggressive play and playing suited connectors.

Unlike a number of other similar introductory books, Hellmuth spends several chapters on poker variants other than Texas Hold'em, which receives the majority of attention today. There are chapters on Omaha, Omaha Eight-or-Better, Pot Limit Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Razz and Seven Card Stud Eight-or-Better. The book ends with a fairly extensive glossary of poker terminology.

The book suffers somewhat from Hellmuth's ego, which gets in the way of a number of anecdotes. Of course, every hand is either skilfully played by Hellmuth and the losses are all bad beats. Hellmuth can't seem to help himself from making grating mentions of his brilliance like "Did I mention that I went on to win the tournament?" I also lost track of the number of times that he shilled for Ultimate Bet or his personal website (I'm sure you can guess the URL).

This book also feels rather dated now. It was initially published in 2000, predating much of the online poker boom (there are some awkward mentions of "Cyber Hold'em" and "Cyberspace"). It's not as bad as some of its critics claim, but there are definitely better options out there. If you are a beginner to poker, interested in a broad overview of different poker variants and you like Phil Hellmuth, then it's a decent pick.