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Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold ‘em

Rating: 6/10

Cost: $21.00

The Nuts: An honest, open and thoughtful examination of a winning style of play.

The Muck: Very short snippets of advice, never going into too much detail.

Recommended For: Intermediate players

A lot of people like this book for a lot of reasons. It is handy, worthwhile and highly relatable. Some people call it a “classic.” It’s hard to go there just yet, but it is a pretty good book.

Phil Gordon is a well-known poker player and poker commentator. He’s well-mannered, likable and has a solid playing style. A book like this is a good fit for him.

Modeled after a golf instruction book, Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book, Gordon filled his little book (literally, it’s little) with advice on how to win in no-limit Texas Hold ‘em poker.

He focuses on his own style of play, though admitting “there are many ways to win at this game.” Right off the bat, Gordon describes the five qualities that the greatest poker players in the world share.

Summed up, they are: aggressive playing style, patience, courage, being observant and always striving to improve their game. Although pretty simply stated, it is a good place to start a book.

This book is a quick read, but if you take Howard Lederer and Annie Duke’s advice from the Foreword, you should enjoy it slowly, “like a good meal or a great bottle of wine.”

Honestly, it’s kind of hard to do that. The chapters are so short (sometimes two to a page) that you’ll want to keep reading in hopes of getting just a little bit more information before putting it down.

One of the book’s strengths is the diversity of topics it covers in Texas Hold ‘em. Not only are you getting advice on betting, raising and bluffing; Gordon also touches on poker tells, table image, and exact advice on how to handle flopping big hands (from two pair to four of a kind).

There are many pages devoted to playing in tournaments, the psychological elements of poker and proper money management.

Some of the book’s wasted space is filled with “Player Profiles” of people like Gus Hansen, Dan Harrington and Phil Hellmuth, Jr. (all whom you’ll likely never even meet in real life, much less get into poker hands with).

One of the oddest wastes of space is a section on the “Rules of No Limit Hold ‘em” that is near the end of the book! If you don’t know what the rules are before you get to that section, then you’re reading the wrong book.

About 2/3 of the book is worth reading, so if you can find a used copy of this book, all the better. Read it fast or read it slow; it doesn’t really matter in the end.

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