Review of Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book

Title:

Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book

Author:

Phil Gordon

Publisher:

Simon Spotlight Entertainment

Date:

2006

ISBN:

1-4169-2719-0

Pages:

379

Price:

$21.00

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@jetcafe.org

February 23, 2011

In 2005, Phil Gordon wrote The Little Green Book on no-limit hold'em strategy with a special emphasis on tournament play. The Little Blue Book is a companion piece to the green book. It contains no-limit hold'em example hands, most of which come from tournaments in which the author participated.

Since about 3/4 of the examples in The Little Blue Book come from tournament play, the continued emphasis on that brand of poker carries through into this second volume. Of course, this doesn't always influence the play Gordon recommends, but it is a factor in a large percentage of the sample hands.

Overall, I found most of Gordon's hand examples to contain good advice. He thinks about the situation clearly and provides enough details for the reader to really understand both the situation and the author's reaction to it. His recommendations are quite comprehensive, and while there are some situations where I think his explanations could be improved or with which I mildly disagree, overall his advice seems sound, and he's quite adept at communicating his core ideas to his audience.

The one thing I like best about his hand examples is that they don't always work out well for the author. In some cases even after the fact he's not completely certain what would have been the right way to proceed. No matter how good a poker player you become, there are some decisions you make that will never feel right, and Gordon doesn't only present those hands where the correct move is obvious.

Also, not every hand is an object lesson. In some examples he makes the right move and loses, and in some he makes the wrong move and gets lucky. That's the way it goes, and any set of hand examples that doesn't reflect these possibilities isn't honest. Moreover, I really like the fact that Gordon is willing to include hands where he makes mistakes, sometimes big ones, and he's not shy about pointing out when this happens. I believe this sort of attitude is very beneficial for aspiring poker students, both in showing that even high-level players make mistakes, and that we can't improve unless we acknowledge that we've done something wrong.

There are some aspects of the examples that I don't like quite as much. In the book Gordon is willing to vary his bet size based on his hand strength. I'm not a fan of that sort of thing, as I worry about the information that provides to one's adversaries. However, he's generally not adjusting his bets by that much, so the potential danger isn't as great as it might first appear.

I also wish that the decisions he makes on any given betting round were more directly informed by the decisions he knows he'll have to make on later streets. With the limited stack size typical of most poker tournament situations, a flop bet size should depend on stack size such that a player isn't forced into certain actions on later streets. Gordon does provide examples where pot commitment and the like are mentioned, but I'd like to see more evidence that our hero is thinking further ahead than the present, or even next, betting round. In my opinion, before I make a bet on the flop, I need to already have a good idea how I'm going to proceed if my opponent(s) calls or raises.

One feature that I really like is that Gordon provides a section that contains references in the green book for each hand included in the blue book. I didn't realize this appendix was there until after I had finished the book. Maybe it's existence was mentioned earlier and I just missed it. In any case, those reading the blue book might find it valuable to know that this exists up front.

The book is well written. The writing is conversational, but I think it's a significant step up from the green book. Despite its page count, the book flies by pretty quickly, both due to the relaxed tone and because of its small format. I peg the book as intended for an intermediately skilled audience. It's a good companion to Gordon's green book.

Of the two, I believe that The Little Green Book contains more valuable poker knowledge, but for those who are studying at that level, The Little Blue Book works as it is intended. For those who read the green book when it came out and have advanced their poker knowledge considerably since that time, reading the blue book now may seem a little basic. However, it's entirely appropriate for its intended audience, and it makes a good follow on to the green book.

Capsule:

Phil Gordon's The Little Blue Book is a companion volume to his Little Green Book that is filled with no-limit tournament hand examples mostly taken from poker tournaments in which the author played. By no means do I think the book is perfect, but it works well in conjunction with the green book for no-limit tournament players of intermediate skill level.