million poker Review

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1. Nyczak says

   Play Poker to Win is filled with many of Amarillo Slim’s famous anecdotes, as well as some advice about the game itself. You can go into this book not understanding much about the game, and after 1 or 2 reads, play a decent hand.

   Not great if you are looking for a book on playing poker really, but good if you want poker humour, and action.

   June 12, 2010, 9:55 am
2. Balderama says

   I was still mad that I even rented it. This DVD offered no strong srategy, was poorly organized, poorly articulated, and overall poor. It is bad 80′s graphics coupled with whimsical antecdotes about playing cards. This DVD will not help you bring anything to the table.

   June 12, 2010, 9:12 pm
3. Delgadillo says

   I was pretty skeptical when I sat down to watch this DVD. I had seen Howard Lederer’s pile of crap and I thought this might be similar… Boy was I wrong! This DVD is filled with useful tips for all levels of play. Phil Hellmuth is actually quite likeable in his recounting of poker “war stories” and his real knack is as a teacher! There are tons of different stratagies that you yourself can use at any poker table, and watch the money start to flow your way. I’ve become a better player since watching this DVD… It’s that simple!

   June 13, 2010, 9:20 am
4. Earl says

   I’ve been playing poker for many years and consider myself a real STUDENT of the game. I’ve read every poker book and watched every DVD on the market and I must say Phil Hellmuth’s Million Dollar Poker System is certainly one of the best! In 1989 Phil Hellmuth was the youngest player ever to win the World Series of Poker and has gone on to capture nine titles. He is considered one of the biggest “personalities” on the Profesional Poker Tour as well as the most succesful. These facts make him an ideal host and teacher for this DVD. Phil gives you an entertaining inside look into the life of a poker player with refreshing honesty. However the real strength of this DVD is what it teaches you! It covers everything from beginners stratagies to advanced poker theory, which Phil makes easy to understand! Regardless of your cuurent level of play, after watching this you’ll have the confidence to sit down at any table and KNOW that you are going to win money! I’ve always been a decent player, but since Phil’s DVD I have been raking in the CASH! Thanks Phil!

   June 13, 2010, 9:56 pm
5. Berridy says

   I was really disappointed with this DVD. If you are looking for play strategies, odds, tells, etc. — you won’t find it here. Phil talks more about himself (and in an almost arrogant manner) about his conquests…and how he raised a table 22 times before anyone would challenge him (“but, don’t try this strategy”, he says)..and how he has placed in other tourneys..yada, yada, yada…without offering any sound advice that has any substance. Just a few nuggets here and there…almost as if he is throwing us “underlings” a bone. Very disappointing. In my opinion, Howard Lederer’s DVDs are far more intelligent than both of Phil’s (Phil has another DVD on bluffing and tells that goes down the same pathetic path as this one). Fortunately, I checked Phil’s DVDs out at my local library instead of wasting (yes, I mean wasting) my money by purchasing them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Phil-basher — he already has many of those…in fact I like one of his books…but, these videos are really disappointing..if not patronizing.

   June 14, 2010, 9:47 am
6. Ehrlich says

   So many people think this guy just got lucky. Don’t get me wrong, luck plays a major role in winning a poker tournament. All the luck in the world won’t help however if you don’t have your head in the game and know what your doing. Chris tells a very captivating tale about how he grew up a gambler, turned to online poker as an outlet after he got married, and then earned a shot at 2.5 million dollars and took down the biggest poker tournament in the world. I picked up the book and honestly read it from cover to cover before putting it down. FYI this is not a biography. It’s simply the story of his huge win, with enough previous life story included so you understand what brought him there. Hell I’d like to buy him a beer for not holding back. It was a great story told without the spin the ESPN analysts put on it. Well done Chris!

   June 14, 2010, 9:00 pm
7. Kittleson says

   Moneymaker in many respects reminds me of John Daly, the professional golfer who was sporadically great and always wanted to “grip it and rip it”. But Daly is known for his aggressive style and addictions to drinking and gambling which have kept him from truly being a great player. Moneymaker had the same problems but improbably was able to rise, at least once, to the top of the poker world. He’s only had limited success in tournament poker since, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t play.

   His life story is fascinating and very funny in places, but it also is a cautionary tale. I’ve read a number of poker books recently that focus more on the personality of the pros rather than the strategy underlying their games and there always seems to be a dark undercurrent of gambling addiction and other problems. I thought Daly was just an accountant who through pure luck won the World Series of Poker main event. His actual story is much more interesting.

   Why I’d recommend the book:
   *interesting portrayal of a World Series main event from the perspective of someone who never expected to be there
   *an insight into how someone might be attracted to pro poker
   *it’s a funny read in places
   *how the element of luck plays out even in a strategic skill game
   *it’s definitely a cautionary look at the perils of drinking and gambling from an early age.

   Cons against reading it:
   *if you are looking for a strategic playing or instructional book, this isn’t it.

   June 15, 2010, 9:44 am
8. Coffey says

   I picked up this book on a whim at my favorite book store’s bargain table for only a few dollars….and it was a first edition. I read the book very quickly. It was entertaining in all aspects. He does a good job in describing what is going through his mind during the tournament but it is not a how-to play poker book (fortunately). However, you can pick up some good tips.

   He also describes his life prior to making his name known in the world of poker and I found this to be the most interesting. He always had some type of bets going with his neighborhood friends, he had some hard knocks in sport betting and spells it all out clearly. It’s a fun book that is truly rags to riches.

   What would you do immediately after winning millions? Ha Ha, he did exactly what I would’ve done.

   June 15, 2010, 9:41 pm
9. Archibald says

   Should give you that extra umph youll need to make poker a more serious venture considering how this amateur came from nowhere to win the 2003 wsop main event.

   There are some areas where it seems like the editor of the book told chris to embellish or make his story seem more exciting although it makes it seem less believable in my opinion-you be the judge. A must add for your library, probably the first book to get.

   June 16, 2010, 9:23 am
10. Halberstadt says

    This is not a book on playing strategy. It’s more an autobiographical account of how the author extracted over a million dollars from the casinos. Many of his tactics are described in great detail. The really amazing thing is that anyone would be so candid about his personal life and the things he’s done, and how he rationalizes doing things that many people might consider unethical, immoral or perhaps even illegal. One sentence on page 170 is especially revealing: “I’d had a lot of people work with me, get mad at me, and want nothing more to do with me.” He seems to delight in being disliked.
    There are many good recommendations, such as learning a game thoroughly before playing it and continuing to practice on a trainer program so that your skills don’t deteriorate. I especially liked the section titled “The care and feeding of slot hosts.” Flattery and gifts (bribes) will get you over a lot of hurdles.
    On the very first page of the text, Bob shows his disdain for less than perfect players. Consider a Jacks or Better hand containing a suited J-10, an off-suit King, and two low cards, one of which may or may not be a flush penalty card. The “best” play when there is no penalty card is the J-10 (highest EV by 0.01). I could go into a mathematical analysis discussing how infrequent such a decision occurs, and how frequently there is a penalty card, thus making the K-J the best play in the vast majority of cases, but Bob would come back with dozens of other trivial situations. Therefore, I’ll simply point out that several respected analysts have shown that a penalty-card-free strategy comes much closer than 0.01% off of perfect play, and even my easy-to-follow Precision Play rules come within 0.01% of the game EV. That’s less than one dollar (a cheap cup of coffee) on $10,000 action, not just on the example type of hand, but the total for all penalty card situations. That may be important for the 50 or so truly professional players (Bob’s estimate), but the rest of us would probably lose more expected gain through playing errors and reduced playing speed when trying to follow perfect strategy.
    In spite of Bob’s insistence upon perfection in playing strategy, he says he never uses a mathematical risk of ruin calculation. He uses the “3-to-5 royals rule” instead. For example, for a game with a $1000 royal, he is happy with a $3000 to $5000 bankroll. On Deuces Wild that figures to a modest 7.4% to 21% risk of ruin, but on Double Bonus Poker (one of Bob’s favorite games), it’s 61% to 74%. Most serious players would feel that he is often playing way over his bankroll. A few pages later he says, “…I learned that one pro had lost $80,000 on the [$5 15/10] Loose Deuces play at the Frontier. Wow! I had no idea that a loss of this magnitude was possible.” A quick run with the Sorokin formula reveals a 39.5% probability of losing an $80,000 bankroll on that game. $80,000 is four royals. So much for the “3-to-5 royals rule.” I might risk a few hundred dollars with a 40% risk of ruin, but not $80,000.
    To be fair, however, we must acknowledge that Bob doesn’t play where his advantage is only about 0.1% on the game itself. Slot club rebates, comps and promotions add a lot to the expected value, with a corresponding reduction in risk of ruin. Still, I would want to estimate the total value to me of such amenities and incorporate that into a mathematical risk of ruin calculation.
    As he has done so often in the past, Bob goes out of his way to criticize others’ work, and the facts be damned. On page 41, he says, “I’d picked up Dan Paymar’s 8th edition of Video Poker Precision Play. His Jacks or Better strategy was an eye opener. It was considerably more complex than Wong’s, but, as I learned as I went along, full of mistakes. Still, it gave me added insight. In a footnote in one of Paymar’s appendices, he’d written that you should hold a suited high card-10 over two unsuited high cards unless there was another card suited with the high card-10.”
    That’s apparently his best example that my strategy is “full of mistakes,” but the error is entirely his. The footnote in question can be none other than note “m” on page 57. Quoting verbatim from that edition, “`Honor-10 suited’ means A-10, K-10, Q-10 or J-10 of the same suit. Don’t hold a suited 10 with an ace if the jackpot is less than 940-for-1, and don’t hold a 10 with any honor if any discard is the same suit or a straight card.” Nothing at all is said of two unsuited high cards in this note, but in the hand rank table to which it refers, “Two honors (unsuited)” is just above “K-10, Q-10, J-10 suited.” How does Bob interpret this to say that a suited high card-10 should be held over two unsuited high cards? Moreover, his error was pointed out to him when he wrote the same thing several years ago.
    On page 125 he says, “… Jokers Wild is an extremely difficult game to play…. Paymar’s [strategy] was probably the best and I estimate it generated a return that was still at least .25% less than perfect.” Actually, unless you’re trying to be as perfect as Bob, Joker Wild is much easier to learn than Double Bonus, and an independent expert has determined that my hand rank table comes within 0.02% of perfect. Bob’s “estimate” was off by more than an order of magnitude.
    On page 175 Bob says, “Today, Dan Paymar’s Video Poker Optimum Play… is currently the best book on how to play video poker on the market.” Thanks for the compliment, Bob. It’s too bad you were unable to resist the temptation to say that it’s full of errors. You wrote a long harangue (your word) on those “errors” several years ago, and I showed that altogether they added up to less than 0.01% of the total game EV. Jazbo Burns confirmed that, using his proprietary strategy analysis software.
    It’s a minor point, but many places in the book Bob refers to a payoff as, for example, 800 to 1. I’m surprised that Anthony Curtis didn’t edit this to the mathematically correct 800-for-1 (the “1″ is not returned with the payoff). The difference is small on a royal flush (but still large if you view small errors as Bob does), but on a pair of jacks there’s a 100% difference between 1-for-1 (returning your bet, which is just a push) and 1-to-1 (a real win of an amount equal to your bet, as on a winning craps pass bet).
    In summary, Million Dollar Video Poker is a very important book for anyone considering doing business with Bob, as it gives great insight into his ethics and morals. It is also important for anyone intent on becoming a professional gambler, no matter whether your game of choice is video poker, blackjack or anything else. Perhaps the most important lesson is that Bob spent several years learning how to take advantage of every potential opportunity, during which he made far less than he could have earned in a regular job in spite of admittedly stealing from the casinos (page 88). If you are not up to the task, the book will hopefully dissuade you from the attempt.
    By far the most valuable part of the book is the final chapter, “Winning is a Process, Not an Event.” These four pages give the best advice I’ve ever read for a wannabe professional gambler. If you buy the book, do it for this section.
    The goal of making big money playing video poker boils down to a lot of hard work that would likely have yielded even greater rewards in a productive endeavor. And it’s getting even harder as the casinos learn to structure promotions to be less vulnerable to pros.
    On page 210 Bob says that Deuces Wild is much more fun than Jacks or Better. I consider it very significant that this is the only time in the book where he says anything about video poker being fun. But don’t despair; you can still have fun playing video poker as a skilled recreational player and supplement your income without all that work if you start with the strategy book that Bob recommends.

    June 16, 2010, 9:17 pm
11. Garvin says

    This book will be very interesting to anyone who is interested in conning the casinos, cheating, and then finding religion after winning at gambling. The book offers nothing in the way of video poker technique. You would do just as well spending the $20.00 on one hand of black jack.

    June 17, 2010, 9:58 am
12. Beaver says

    Even though he won over $1 million in a five-month period, he had to put most of his winnings back into the machines in order to win the next big jackpot. Mathematically his strategies are probably perfect, but that doesn’t put money into my pocket. I’ve played video poker using his strategies and I lose every time. I guess if I had a bankroll of $80,000 to spend I would eventually win a jackpot, but then what’s the sense if I win a jackpot of $40,000 when I’m already down by $60,000??!!! The book is a nice story about his life while earning a living at video poker, but his real earnings these days are from the sale of books, strategy cards, and video poker CDs.

    June 17, 2010, 9:44 pm
13. Blancher says

    Thought this was a how to book to playing video poker. Instead it was the author bragging about how good he was at the game. Boring!!!!!!

    June 18, 2010, 9:54 am
14. Ignacio says

    Like the previous reviewer, the video was actually the online poker secrets. Thought (being a library copy) that the wrong disc was put into the jacket. Nope, the disc label said it was “Tournament Strategies” Ok, fine – I’m learning to play online poker anyway.

    Production values are poor. Sure, each new topic is introduced with fancy computer generated graphics, but they’re pointless and distracting rather than providing any actual benefit. The meat of the video consists of Phil staring directly into one camera in front of him, while a second camera cuts in often as he’s still staring into the first.

    Most important the information was weak at best and terrible advice at worst. Phil stresses repeatedly to play his “Top Ten Hands”. As someone who’s yet to post a blind, (online or off) I’ve learned enough to know that a pair of 7′s is generally a lousy starting hand and should probably be folded unless you’re calling from the blinds. But no, that’s a top ten hand according to Phil. Never mind it’s ranked mathematically as 30 of 169. Missing from these hands are several stronger hands. (KQs for instance) And absolutely no discussion about your starting position.

    Perhaps he has a legitimate reason for including relatively low pairs, and of course, he’d like to sell you his “Million Dollar Secrets” which is supposed to go into more depth. Given that I have little confidence that the contents will match the label, be particularly informative, or that it would be an honest strategy guide; I think I’ll pass.

    As a total newbie with a few math skills, this book seems to be teaching bad habits. So sure, one might *want* to recommend the book to increase the number of “fish” at the tables. But it’s egregiously dishonest of Mr. Hellmuth to line his pockets selling bad advice in a how-to guide. If someone asks for advice at the poker table, they deserve what they get. That is where I thought he made his money in the first place. I suspect few fish frequent the high stakes tables he’d haunt, so I guess this is his way of continuing to reel in suckerfish. Don’t bite!

    June 18, 2010, 9:31 pm
15. Cai says

    There is no information on this DVD whatsoever. Save your Money. I cannot believe it is called Tournament Strategies?
    The only mention of tournaments is that “in tournaments you get to play 9 handed, 8 handed, 7handed, 6 handed etc…..”
    That is it.

    June 19, 2010, 9:38 am
16. Hooker says

    I bought the Phil Hellmuth Super Course with all 4 of his videos. I thought the videos were very disappointing and misleading. There were two major problems:

    1. The top ten hands are very misleading and only the smallest limit games can be beat by using that strategy.

    2. The tournament Strategies DVD spent most of the time discussing how to enter the WSOP main event instead of teaching how to play the game.

    I thought the DVD’s were very misleading because they gave a strategy that will only work in the smallest limit games and then gives the impression that by following his top ten hand system you will be able to enter the World Series. And to go a step farther, Phil did a poor job of showing how to use these ten hands. He makes little attempt to show the difference between pocket sevens and pocket queens. He also failed to show how position can affect the hands preflop. If you were under the gun in No-limit, then only half of the top ten hands could be played, and if you were on the button, then all of the ten plus Ace-X suited and connectors should also be played because they rate to win. Phil should have mentioned this in his DVD’s.

    The bottom line is this…Beginners who buy these DVD’s will be WORSE OFF than they would be if they just never purchased them.
    Thats a big problem.
    My advice is to get Doyle Brunsons SuperSystem or any book by Dan Harrington.

    June 19, 2010, 9:27 pm
17. Geibel says

    PREFLOP:
    It’s Full-screen, in 2.0 channel stereo. Total running time= approx. 90 minutes. Filmed in early 2004.

    The main feature is 52 minutes long (not including titles, promos and end credits), plus, there’s 37.5 minutes of special features (same ones that are on all his Dvd’s though)–see ‘The Turn’ section, of this review, for the details.

    Like most people, I got hooked on poker during 2003, when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP championship. I then started watching poker on tv, like a man possessed. Since one of the most entertaining players I watched was Phil Hellmuth, I chose his book, “Play Poker Like the Pros”, as my first poker book. I learned that I should usually just jam the pot when I had the best hand, rather than slowplay. I learned about Phil’s animal types (mouse=very tight player, etc.) and also about other poker games like Omaha, etc.

    So, when I previously watched both his “Million Dollar Poker System” and “Secrets to Bluffing and Tells” Dvd’s, I was bored and disappointed. They briefly touched on various topics, but they were just too basic.

    Recently, however, I got a chance to rent this “Tournament Strategies” Dvd, and found it to be my favorite. Not because I learned any new poker strategy, but rather because it was the most entertaining and relaxing one to watch. Phil basically runs through the basics of how to enter the WSOP tournament and offers some tips on how to play in big tournaments.

    What makes this Dvd at least mildly entertaining, is that Phil recounts actual situations from some of the many tournaments he’s played in, which helps to better emphasize his various strategies. Such as, when he raised more than 20 consecutive times (to steal the blinds and antes), and rarely got called, because the other players were worried about being eliminated from the tournament (on the bubble).

    FLOP:
    This Dvd, like his entire “Master of Poker” series of Dvd’s, has Phil once again sitting down behind a poker table, with some poker chips in front of him, talking to the camera. It looks silly when they film him from the side as he faces towards the other camera, but somehow he manages to keep it light and informative enough. He also seemed very happy. One annoying thing that occurred near the beginning though, was when Phil raised his hand to show his 1989 WSOP bracelet, and the cameraman didn’t zoom in fast enough to let us see it up-close. I guess the budget was too low for a reshoot.

    Phil talks about the way he likes to play just his top 10 hands, during the first 3-4 hours of tournaments (like the WSOP) with fast rising blinds. Then, when the blind structure slows down and the antes are introduced, he likes to open up and play less appealing hands. He mentions the all-in strategy beginners often use, and how they win a lot of pots this way, except for the last one. He also admits it works well against pros, but suggests that often enough, a raise of just half your stack is good enough to push players out of the pot. “Never bluff ALL your chips”, he says. If the pot, is for example, $20,000 , Phil suggests a bet of $6,000 or so, would usually accomplish the same thing, without taking such a big risk.

    THE TURN (Bonus Features):
    Each of Phil’s “Master of Poker” Dvd’s, includes the same bonus features. You get the ‘poker dictionary’ (which accidentally leaves out A-K, from Phil’s Top 10 hand list), and 37.5 minutes of extras. They include the following brief topics: Bad Beats, The Rake, Crazy Home Games, Tournaments Vs. Side Games, Knowing When to Quit, Love of the Game, Will Phil’s Secrets Work for You? (13.5 minutes in length); Rank of Poker Hands, Phil’s Top 10 Hands, and his Majority Play Hands (A-x suited, etc.)(12.5 minutes in length). As well, he explains the rules of Texas Hold’ em, Seven Card Stud and Omaha (in only 11.5 minutes).

    THE RIVER:
    Is it worth buying? Not really, but Hellmuth fans should give it a rent. I found it relaxing to watch and it got me in the mood to play some poker, even before I finished watching it. Thanks Phil.

    June 20, 2010, 9:34 am

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