What's happening? About Ace Ace & Media Ace in Videos Rolf Blog & Columns Some Personal Stories Recent results Player of the Year 2008 Dutch Poker Champ 2005 Ace Speaks: Articles Cover Stories Vegas Voyage Tournament Reports Book & DVD Reviews Pocket Aces Ace & Poetry Travel ACE The Dutch Poker Police Potnopine Hold'em           Guestbook Ask Ace Poll Links Contact Ace   Phil Gordon Phil Gordon’s Little Blue Book More Lessons and Hand Analysis in No-Limit Texas Hold’em $21.00 (6.5) This follow-up to Phil Gordon’s “Little Green Book” consists of short, 3 to 4 page columns - each discussing one specific no-limit hold’em tournament hand. Just like his previous work, this book looks good. The author has a pleasant writing style (with the exception of the same “What would you do?” question / remark that has found its way into the text in just about every column), and has a refreshing modesty when it comes to his own skill level in relation to others, especially the top pros. Having said that, this playing ability of the author, or – to be more precise – the quality of his advice is exactly the problem that I have with this book. Too many seemingly small but in my opinion crucial mistakes: p. 150: six outs when it should be four outs, p. 314: 33% when it should be 35%, p. 109: AJ suited when the picture says offsuit, p. 126: “an opponent might call with a flush draw” when it should be “a lower flush”, p. 129 “call 14% of the total amount of chips out of position”, when the player in question had already raised to 600 with a 15K stack, to then call 1400 extra against a reraise – meaning the call was just 9% of the stack, not 14%, pp. 332-333: forgetting that he could complete his draw yet still lose, etc. More importantly, the “Key Analysis” that is on the bottom end of each column rarely offers any kind of deep thinking, and often doesn’t even have all that much resemblance to the actual problem. For instance, on p. 112 the key analysis is “Don’t go broke with one pair”, when heads up and in position, the author had flopped top pair / top kicker on a J64 flop, having raised to $175 before the flop, and having started the hand with $1125. Then, with $475 in the pot, and just $900 left, he was faced with a $200 bet from his lone opponent who bet into him. No way that in a shallow-money situation like this, with this hand against this board and the action as described, one would not go broke! The money is simply way too shallow for the point that the author is trying to make. Also, on p. 215 the key recommendation is “Folding a dubious hand to maintain an average chip position in a tournament is rarely a ‘bad’ play.” Not bad advice in itself, but a strange recommendation nonetheless, as it is based on an example where the author mistakenly folded a hand that would have been a 95% (!) favorite against the rather obvious bluff from his opponent. And yet another strategic thing that I don’t like in the book is that the author recommends standard 3xBB raises also from out of position (for instance, from the SB, facing just the BB) when in this situation I think one should raise bigger in order to negate for the bad position, or not raise at all. And finally, in quite a few cases Gordon talks about how he contemplates “making a bluff” with a hand like AQ unimproved, in a situation where he is heads up with an opponent who checked it back on the flop. So, habitually calling this a bluff (as the author does), when it should be obvious that the unimproved AQ should actually have a decent chance of being the best hand here, shows at least to me that the author & I are just not on the same wavelength when analyzing hands. All in all, for those who are not looking for very deep advice, but who simply like to read a pleasant book with some interesting hands, a few rules of thumb and a tiny bit of strategy, well, for those Phil Gordon’s Little Blue Book is well worth the read, and may actually be an excellent choice. For those who want to dig deeper though, the book will not be of much use – simply because of the lack of deep thoughts and the too many (minor) mistakes when it comes to actual strategic decisions. David Apostolico Machiavellian Poker Strategy How to play like a prince and rule the poker table  $14.95   Mort Badiza-Degan Texas Hold’em Flop Types  $24.95   Bobby Baldwin Tales Out of Tulsa  $6.95   Michael J. 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