The Bookworm Gambler’s Digest: Play Poker Like The Pros

The Poker Brat decided to share his divine poker knowledge with us, simple mortals.

Phil Hellmuth is the person who has won thirteen World Series of Poker bracelets. Member of the WSOP Hall of Fame, he truly has something to teach us. Although his personality is controversial (he’s not called “The Poker Brat” for nothing), the poker winner possesses a large amount of knowledge. Currently, he is No. 207 on the Global Poker Index, but ranked also as high as No. 4 in 2012, too. He now decided to share the secret to his success.

• Special tactics
• Poker Brat attitude
• Great for beginners

Hellmuth is not only a winner in live tournaments; he had many successes when it comes to online poker sites in the US, too. And, he has accumulated a nice amount of money thanks to his winnings, too: he is ranked seventh in the all-time money list with a massive USD 18.2 million. Fun fact: he was the youngest person in 1989 to win a WSOP bracelet (at the age of 24.) This record was only broken many years later, in 2008. He has appeared on the TV show High Stakes Poker and worked with UltimateBet to create software. He was also a member of team UltimateBet.

Walking off the set is the adult way to settle a conflict

The following story will describe just why people tend to call Hellmuth “The Poker Brat”: During the first few days of NBC’s Poker After Dark, Hellmuth couldn’t concentrate on his next move because his adversaries were talking. He asked them to stop, and when one of them mocked him because of it, he stood up and simply left the set. He also threatened the producers that he’ll never come back. Although he got eliminated in that season, he won in season 3 of the show. Hellmuth is also known to verbally abuse some of his rivals, calling them names like “idiot” etc. Nice guy, huh.

His book is one that everyone anticipated to be great. I mean, how much knowledge could that man have when it comes to poker? Expectations were high, since he has had experience in poker manuals. He has created numerous teaching videos, like Phil Hellmuth’s Million Dollar Poker System or Ultimate White To Black Belt Course. On many occasions, he has written articles for Cardplayer magazine and we know that Play Poker Like The Pros is not his first book ever to be published. He has shared his experiences in US poker rooms in more than one book: Bad Beats And Lucky Draws, The Greatest Poker Hands Ever Played and Poker Brat (at least he’s quasi-aware of his behavior…)

A book for beginners

According to Kef X-Schecter at Parttimepoker, “This book makes neither a good textbook nor an entertaining read. It is not even anything in between. I once saw a message board thread somewhere where somebody asked about what might be a good brand of toilet paper, and the first response was a photo of this book’s cover. I think it fits.”
Although this may be a bit harsh, truth is, the book really is all over the place. It is for beginners, but is confusing. He talks about No Limit Hold’em and Texas Hold’em and other types, without a system or pattern.

It makes for good marketing to say that the book contains moves that he used in the WSOP, and list all of the cool names, such as the Elephant, the Jackal, the Mouse and the Lion. But, using adjectives to describe each style, like for the Jackal: crazy and unpredictable, won’t teach you how to play poker like a pro. Especially, if you get confused along the way. How can someone play like an Elephant? They play too many hands (duh…) Or what are the specifics of the Lion’s style? Well, dear reader, it’s easy as pie: a lion is skilled and hard to beat. Thanks, now I know so much more. Time to try myself out on online poker sites in the US.