Phil has written a quality poker book, but he tried to do a lot with it and the very first part that suffered was his coverage of position in the Hold’em section.  When you try to cover 6 different poker games, from set-up and blinds to intermediate and advanced theories including the pot limit, no limit and tournament variations in 386 pages, you too would have difficultly organizing all the material from start to finish.  By comparison Doyle Brunson took over 600 pages in Super System.

From the beginning of Play Poker Like the Pros Phil talks about the basics of Hold’em.  He introduces the blinds and the basics of how the game is set up.  This is first thing he should have skipped because  there are dozens of other beginner poker book out there, and you can tell from the start Phil does not wants to write another beginners book.

After Phil sets up the game he launches in his top 10 hands and tells beginners to raise with these hands at every chance pre-flop.  If he had assumed you knew the game he could have started there and worked on position from the start.  I don’t dispute how he advises to play the top 10 hands especially for beginners but almost all of his examples put you with no one to act after you post flop.  It is not bad advice, it is just missing a very important piece to help beginners understand why Hold’em works the way it does and help them take their game to the next level.

I think everyone would get more benifit from understanding Phil’s views on position as opposed to raising with 77 UTG and then capping if it is raised behind them.  There are many situations where you are behind or in a coin flip and out of position and going to lose 3 more big bets going to the river.  If you understand position you can get out this hand cheaper if you are behind, or win the 3 big bets or more when you are ahead.

Phil does mention position for beginners and his emphasis on position increases in the advanced section but this is where I think Phil falls fall short.  I do like how Phil divides his hands, the top 10 are good beginner hands, but they are even better if they are the “any position hands”.  I also don’t think the hands that Phil calls his Marginal Play hands are problems for beginners if he calls them his late position hands and teaches you how to play them from late position only.

If you are beginner to Hold’em, start with someone like Lee Jones (Review), or Matthew Hilger, or possibly Ed Miller.  If you have a solid poker understanding, then Phil’s perspective of Hold’em should have something for you.  I caution you get your game to that point before you read this book, some of the ideas are dangerous if you do not apply them properly.

I read Phil’s book and having never seriously played Omaha, Stud, or Razz online.  After following Phil’s beginner advice, I found 7 Card Stud to be a beatable game and plenty of other players not playing very well.  Phil’s beginner advice for Omaha High was also very helpful, and the games seemed to be fairly weak.  When it came to Omaha High/Low, I had some issues because there are players playing very weak hands and the redraws to better hands seem to always get there, also I did not have too many good starting low hands.  I will try that game again because I think you can win some large pots if you know what you doing.

I did not play 7 card Stud High/Low or Razz because while the games are played there were not enough players to find a full game.

I recommend Play Poker Like the Pros to players who have read a beginners poker book and understand Hold’em well enough to win at low limits.  If you play that well you will understand some of what Phil’s book is missing and the other parts will help and so the Hold’em section will add to your game.  If you have never played the other games, I think you can gain a lot from those sections but I don’t think the coverage goes anywhere beyond a beginners understanding of those games.

You can enter to win this copy of Play Poker Like the Pros.  All you need to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment to tell us of a good poker book you have read or plan to read.  If you tell us a book you have read, please tell us an important point that you learned and if you tell us book you plan to read then tell us why you have selected that book.  On December 1st, I will choose a comment at random and mail you this book to anywhere in the world for free.