This DVD is a fantastic learning tool for a beginning to intermediate player, although more advanced players will not gain much from it. It discusses several techniques that seem advanced to a beginning player, such as folding easily-dominated aces pre-flop and not falling in love with a pocket pair.
Gordon accurately captures the atmosphere of a final table, and the cast of characters are humourous yet accurate. The internet young gun, the aggressive maniac and Chris Ferguson assemble at the table. Also try to spot the Jennifer Harman-based character. Hint: she’s the one with breasts.
My only issue with the DVD is not poker-related: there are adverts throughout the feature which is annoying when you’ve paid for the product, but please – if you are a player who knows how to play and wants to learn slightly more advanced techniques, I urge you to buy this.

Caro writes very clearly and explains his concepts well - each tell is illustrated and explained and a scenario in which it might be useful is given. It’s an idiot-proof guide to a very complex thing, i.e. the psychology of reading people.

Online players will get less out of this than live players will, as many of the tells are actions people make - in fact, I would not recommend this for an online player. In all fairness, though, the amusingly anachronistic hairstyles are proof that this book was written far before the age of online play. Also, you will need a grasp of Stud and Draw poker in order to understand all the situations.

All in all a serious live player cannot be without this book, and I would advise any online players who wish to give live play a shot to peruse this text also. Many of these tells are still very common today.

Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book is aimed for beginning-to-intermediate players and is a very good read for a player of that level. It introduces slightly more advanced concepts than your archetypical low-level book such as pot odds, blind stealing and semi-bluffing.

These concepts are written well, and Phil explains them in a simplified manner without being condescending. I first read this book when I was aware of most of the strategies he explained; I still, however, found it to be worth reading - it’s always good to get a fresh insight on things.

If you know the basics of Texas Hold ‘em and you’d like to advance your game I would reccomend this as the ideal purchase. Phil also has a DVD called Final Table Poker that illustrates some of the same things in this book in a visual format. I’ll review that at some other point.

At first the mathematical processes can be overwhelming but in all honesty there’s nothing overly challenging there – it’s around a high-school level of mathematical problems, and even people who struggle with numbers should wrap their heads around it after some time.

He expresses complex points in a very simple and understandable way, and while you might (nay, will) need to read it several times to fully understand the meanings of what he talks about, once you absorb even a small fraction of what he is getting at you will be a better player.

Some people may be put off by the fact that he draws on examples from lesser-known games such as Stud and Draw poker, but even those examples are explained well enough for novices to those games – and in the back of the book he includes a brief run-down of the rules of Stud, Razz, Draw and Hold ‘em.

In short, if you don’t get this book you are quite literally burning money. It’s as valuable a tool to a player as cards and chips.

Phil Hellmuth is almost undoubtedly the best NLHE tournament player in the world. He ranks with the likes of Chan, Brunson and Gold. OK, I was kidding about the last one. However, he does not even fall into the same league as Hemingway, Joyce and Dickens nor Sklansky and Harrington. His Play Poker like the Pros and Phil Hellmuth’s Texas Hold ‘em are, sadly, abysmal.

“If you can absorb most of the information in this book,” he writes. “Then I may see you sitting across the poker table from me soon.” Despite what he would have you think, these books will not get you good enough to play $300/$600 in Vegas. A total beginner (that is, someone who has never even picked up a deck of cards before) will get a decent understanding of the game from this book, but sadly its teaching ends there.

Limited to a super-tight style, Hellmuth takes no account of the various situations that make QQ foldable pre-flop and his philosophy in the book can be summed up as: “Play only the best hands really aggressively but if the board is too dangerous fold.” Good advice for a hold ‘em newbie, but if you can already play the game then this book is certainly not for you. Literally no sort of advanced tactics are discussed in this book.

I hope Phil’s tournament success is built on better fundamentals than he teaches in this book, or I will be forced to conclude the WSOP is rigged.