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Play Poker Like the Pros
In Play Poker Like the Pros , poker master Phil Hellmuth, Jr., demonstrates exactly how to play and win -- even if you have never picked up a deck of cards -- the modern games of poker, including: Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Seven-Card Stud, and Razz. Phil Hellmuth, Jr., a seven-time World Champion of Poker, presents his tournament-tested strategies to beat any type of player, including:
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
April 22, 2009
Pretty basic. There is some good information if you can get past the author patting himself on the back.
April 28, 2016
Lately I have been trying to learn more about poker, and while I'm practically swamped with Twitch coverage, I'm reading books on a "whatever's most easily available" basis—and not that much is easily available; the BPL has been letting me down on this front. I'll have to start asking real people if they've got books.
One book that was immediately to hand for me was Phil Hellmuth's Play Poker Like the Pros, which my cousin lent me. Phil Hellmuth is the all-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and has won nearly $20 million in live tournament cashes, plus God knows how much money in cash games. In theory, he should be a pretty solid person to learn poker strategy from, which is probably a large part of why he gets book deals.
There are, however, a number of problems with this theory, which become apparent when you read the book as an actual thing that exists now. They fit into roughly three categories: 1 is datedness, 2 is questionable editing, and 3 is Phil Hellmuth. Many of the criticisms I have of this book could be considered type 2 or type 3, in that I think a tighter editorial hand could have done more to rein in the Phil Hellmuth-ness of the book.
The dated stuff couldn't possibly have been avoided, considering that the book was written in 2002, and back in 2002 that was about as modern as you could get. That said, 2002 is a really hilariously bad year to be dated from, since 2003 was the year Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event and the "poker boom" went into overdrive. A lot of the numbers Hellmuth throws around look adorably small, and a lot of the people he mentions, while still highly respected, are undoubtedly the "old guard" of poker now. There are also a couple of people he mentions who are, uh, less highly respected now than they were back then (you can probably guess who they are if you know about the Full Tilt scandal). Most cringe-inducingly, Hellmuth spends a fair amount of time plugging Ultimate Bet, one of the online card rooms at the center of the "superuser"/"God mode" cheating scandal. And it's sort of sad how confident the book is that easily accessible online poker will only ever grow more popular and widespread, because what a wonderful thing is the Internet.
(Man, I still can't believe I missed the entire poker boom. It sounds like a fun time.)
The second class of errors I cannot blame on 2002. Editing existed in 2002; it was probably in better shape as a field than it is now. AND YET. There are about eleventy billion exclamation points in this 350-page book. There are way too many parenthetical asides. There is a GLARING mathematical error on page 63, in which a percentage is calculated but the "convert to percentage" step is skipped. (It is a copy editor's job to double-check arithmetic, alas, even though most of us are English majors.) On the upside, I did not catch any hand histories/examples in which the card notations were wrong, which is not necessarily true for all poker publications, I have found. There is a misnegation on page 200, which, considering it is right in the middle of explaining starting hand strength in Omaha Eight or Better (High-Low Split) to an audience who has presumably never played Omaha Eight or Better (High-Low Split) before, is extremely confusing. (After rereading the paragraph I am sure he meant to say that A-2 as a starting hand can't be overstated and shouldn't be underestimated; i.e., that is is an extremely strong hand; not actually that it cannot be underestimated, i.e. that it is a garbage hand and the proper estimation of its utility is zero.)
Bridging the gap from error class 2 to error class 3, it appears that Hellmuth either convinced or stetted his editor into accepting his own personal, idiosyncratic definition of the word "megalomaniac." In the book it is defined as "poker slang" for an extremely "maniac" type of player ("maniac" actually does seem to be a term for people who raise all over the place). Fourteen years later, Phil Hellmuth is still the only person in the poker community I have heard use the word "megalomaniac" in that way, and poker editors far more veteran than myself have grumbled that that is not what that word means, dammit. My guess is still that somebody called Hellmuth that way back in the day and he decided something self-serving about table image instead of looking it up in the damn dictionary, and has just stuck with it ever since.
Error class 3 consists of things that are not really errors so much as reasons Phil Hellmuth is annoying. His nickname is "the Poker Brat" for a reason, and the reason is that he is egotistical to the point of comedy—if you have not already had your lifetime fill of male egotism being passed off as cute and funny, a point that I and every other woman I know has passed by the end of our first year of college at the latest. Anyway: Phil Hellmuth likes to drop names about all the cool people he hangs out with and brag about how much money he has won and lost. He likes relate his internal monologues to himself a lot—and while he usually refers to himself as "Phil," there is at least one occasion where he addresses himself as "baby." He's made up his own system of "animal personalities" to refer to different types of players instead of using existing community terminology, which might not necessarily be a terrible writing crime in and of itself, it's just that the result sounds really freaking goofy.
As far as being an introduction to the games goes, the book is just fine. It introduces a number of different games on a basic level, first the rules, then a little bit of advice on approaching play. This is good if you're totally unfamiliar with the games. The most attention is given to various forms of Hold'em, both limit and no-limit, which also makes sense. The more basic Hold'em strategy given is pretty easily actionable—like, "Here are the 10 best starting hands"—and it's pretty light on the math, which is nice.
The more advanced strategy given seems like it'd be more useful for following the action when watching poker on TV than actually playing, since a lot of it basically comes down to "this works great when you do it right," and in order to get to a point where you can do it "right" you'll probably need to either do a lot more reading or play a lot more poker, or most likely both. Frankly, the "advanced" section is largely just an excuse for Hellmuth to tell stories about tricky plays he's pulled off or witnessed. It is even lighter on the math than the basics section.
I would be unsurprised if some of the strategy advice isn't actually somewhat dated by now too, since the game has evolved so much since 2002, but I'm supremely unqualified to comment as to how. For me, the most useful portion of the book was probably the bits on Hold'em strategy that overlapped with the material covered in Phil Gordon's Poker: The Real Deal, so I could get a sense of what's the same and what was approached differently. For example, the Phils group what they consider to be "playable hands" differently, but overall there's not much disagreement over how strong various starting hands are. It would have been interesting to look at the advice side by side, but I gave the Gordon book back to the library.
To be frank, for me, the most enjoyable aspect of the book was reading the section about playing in fancy high-roller tournaments while simultaneously watching Hellmuth lose his shirt to Cate Hall on Poker Night in America's Twitch channel. I would read the hell out of a poker book by Cate Hall, by the way.
I think this book may be interesting to people for whom poker is an entirely foreign country that they're curious about (and who have a high tolerance for gregariously smug tour guides). But I think my next poker book is going to have to be something a bit more in-depth—and, alas, probably much heavier on math. Recommendations and/or things I could borrow would be most welcome.
One book that was immediately to hand for me was Phil Hellmuth's Play Poker Like the Pros, which my cousin lent me. Phil Hellmuth is the all-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and has won nearly $20 million in live tournament cashes, plus God knows how much money in cash games. In theory, he should be a pretty solid person to learn poker strategy from, which is probably a large part of why he gets book deals.
There are, however, a number of problems with this theory, which become apparent when you read the book as an actual thing that exists now. They fit into roughly three categories: 1 is datedness, 2 is questionable editing, and 3 is Phil Hellmuth. Many of the criticisms I have of this book could be considered type 2 or type 3, in that I think a tighter editorial hand could have done more to rein in the Phil Hellmuth-ness of the book.
The dated stuff couldn't possibly have been avoided, considering that the book was written in 2002, and back in 2002 that was about as modern as you could get. That said, 2002 is a really hilariously bad year to be dated from, since 2003 was the year Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event and the "poker boom" went into overdrive. A lot of the numbers Hellmuth throws around look adorably small, and a lot of the people he mentions, while still highly respected, are undoubtedly the "old guard" of poker now. There are also a couple of people he mentions who are, uh, less highly respected now than they were back then (you can probably guess who they are if you know about the Full Tilt scandal). Most cringe-inducingly, Hellmuth spends a fair amount of time plugging Ultimate Bet, one of the online card rooms at the center of the "superuser"/"God mode" cheating scandal. And it's sort of sad how confident the book is that easily accessible online poker will only ever grow more popular and widespread, because what a wonderful thing is the Internet.
(Man, I still can't believe I missed the entire poker boom. It sounds like a fun time.)
The second class of errors I cannot blame on 2002. Editing existed in 2002; it was probably in better shape as a field than it is now. AND YET. There are about eleventy billion exclamation points in this 350-page book. There are way too many parenthetical asides. There is a GLARING mathematical error on page 63, in which a percentage is calculated but the "convert to percentage" step is skipped. (It is a copy editor's job to double-check arithmetic, alas, even though most of us are English majors.) On the upside, I did not catch any hand histories/examples in which the card notations were wrong, which is not necessarily true for all poker publications, I have found. There is a misnegation on page 200, which, considering it is right in the middle of explaining starting hand strength in Omaha Eight or Better (High-Low Split) to an audience who has presumably never played Omaha Eight or Better (High-Low Split) before, is extremely confusing. (After rereading the paragraph I am sure he meant to say that A-2 as a starting hand can't be overstated and shouldn't be underestimated; i.e., that is is an extremely strong hand; not actually that it cannot be underestimated, i.e. that it is a garbage hand and the proper estimation of its utility is zero.)
Bridging the gap from error class 2 to error class 3, it appears that Hellmuth either convinced or stetted his editor into accepting his own personal, idiosyncratic definition of the word "megalomaniac." In the book it is defined as "poker slang" for an extremely "maniac" type of player ("maniac" actually does seem to be a term for people who raise all over the place). Fourteen years later, Phil Hellmuth is still the only person in the poker community I have heard use the word "megalomaniac" in that way, and poker editors far more veteran than myself have grumbled that that is not what that word means, dammit. My guess is still that somebody called Hellmuth that way back in the day and he decided something self-serving about table image instead of looking it up in the damn dictionary, and has just stuck with it ever since.
Error class 3 consists of things that are not really errors so much as reasons Phil Hellmuth is annoying. His nickname is "the Poker Brat" for a reason, and the reason is that he is egotistical to the point of comedy—if you have not already had your lifetime fill of male egotism being passed off as cute and funny, a point that I and every other woman I know has passed by the end of our first year of college at the latest. Anyway: Phil Hellmuth likes to drop names about all the cool people he hangs out with and brag about how much money he has won and lost. He likes relate his internal monologues to himself a lot—and while he usually refers to himself as "Phil," there is at least one occasion where he addresses himself as "baby." He's made up his own system of "animal personalities" to refer to different types of players instead of using existing community terminology, which might not necessarily be a terrible writing crime in and of itself, it's just that the result sounds really freaking goofy.
As far as being an introduction to the games goes, the book is just fine. It introduces a number of different games on a basic level, first the rules, then a little bit of advice on approaching play. This is good if you're totally unfamiliar with the games. The most attention is given to various forms of Hold'em, both limit and no-limit, which also makes sense. The more basic Hold'em strategy given is pretty easily actionable—like, "Here are the 10 best starting hands"—and it's pretty light on the math, which is nice.
The more advanced strategy given seems like it'd be more useful for following the action when watching poker on TV than actually playing, since a lot of it basically comes down to "this works great when you do it right," and in order to get to a point where you can do it "right" you'll probably need to either do a lot more reading or play a lot more poker, or most likely both. Frankly, the "advanced" section is largely just an excuse for Hellmuth to tell stories about tricky plays he's pulled off or witnessed. It is even lighter on the math than the basics section.
I would be unsurprised if some of the strategy advice isn't actually somewhat dated by now too, since the game has evolved so much since 2002, but I'm supremely unqualified to comment as to how. For me, the most useful portion of the book was probably the bits on Hold'em strategy that overlapped with the material covered in Phil Gordon's Poker: The Real Deal, so I could get a sense of what's the same and what was approached differently. For example, the Phils group what they consider to be "playable hands" differently, but overall there's not much disagreement over how strong various starting hands are. It would have been interesting to look at the advice side by side, but I gave the Gordon book back to the library.
To be frank, for me, the most enjoyable aspect of the book was reading the section about playing in fancy high-roller tournaments while simultaneously watching Hellmuth lose his shirt to Cate Hall on Poker Night in America's Twitch channel. I would read the hell out of a poker book by Cate Hall, by the way.
I think this book may be interesting to people for whom poker is an entirely foreign country that they're curious about (and who have a high tolerance for gregariously smug tour guides). But I think my next poker book is going to have to be something a bit more in-depth—and, alas, probably much heavier on math. Recommendations and/or things I could borrow would be most welcome.
July 13, 2020
I've been a fan of Phil Hellmuth, the poker brat, for several years, so I bought and read this book a long time ago and thought it was great. I had been a recreational poker player for many years, but I only played for fun; never won or lost more than a few dollars in a night. When online poker became very popular, I decided I wanted to learn a smarter way to play. This book was perfect for me. I was really not much more than a beginning player and I believe this book is aimed at beginners or at least fairly new players. The strategies Hellmuth describes, particularly the idea of playing only top ten hands in no-limit Hold Em worked very well for me and made the game much more enjoyable.
When the laws changed and it was made illegal to play online poker I lost interest for several years, but recently I have started playing again. It's not the same, because now I play in free games; not for real money, but I still enjoy it. So I read the book again, and I think I got almost as much out of it this time as the first time. I was surprised at how much had become an intuitive part of my game, even after not playing for so long, and I think the refresher has helped my game quite a bit. I wish I lived close enough to go and play in a real money tournament.
If you want to learn how to play poker and win, this book is a great starting point.
When the laws changed and it was made illegal to play online poker I lost interest for several years, but recently I have started playing again. It's not the same, because now I play in free games; not for real money, but I still enjoy it. So I read the book again, and I think I got almost as much out of it this time as the first time. I was surprised at how much had become an intuitive part of my game, even after not playing for so long, and I think the refresher has helped my game quite a bit. I wish I lived close enough to go and play in a real money tournament.
If you want to learn how to play poker and win, this book is a great starting point.
Read
December 20, 2023DNF because I don't need another job. The book does seem like it has useful tips for people who do want to try to make money playing poker.
I looked at the book because I recently read this other book about life lessons from poker that didn't say much and I wondered if actual poker advice would be better life advice. I think so. What Helmuth does is immediately get into all kinds of very specific technical information about tactics for playing the game so you can win more often. He is very clear that "Playing like a Pro" has nothing to do with your friendly home poker game. It is a job. It requires knowledge and practice and disciplined thinking.
So that is a life lesson: Know Your Stuff/Dreams Mean Work/Ain't Nothing Easy/Results Matter.
I looked at the book because I recently read this other book about life lessons from poker that didn't say much and I wondered if actual poker advice would be better life advice. I think so. What Helmuth does is immediately get into all kinds of very specific technical information about tactics for playing the game so you can win more often. He is very clear that "Playing like a Pro" has nothing to do with your friendly home poker game. It is a job. It requires knowledge and practice and disciplined thinking.
So that is a life lesson: Know Your Stuff/Dreams Mean Work/Ain't Nothing Easy/Results Matter.
December 28, 2024
Re-Read
I really enjoyed this book the first time I read it 15 years ago.
This book contains the basics and how to play on many of the most popular casino card games along with beginner and intermediate strategies for success at higher stakes games. I enjoy Hellmuths insights, while others may be turned off by his stories.
If you can get your hands on it, its easy to read and can be used as a manual reading the first few chapters and then skipping ahead to the game that interests you most.
I really enjoyed this book the first time I read it 15 years ago.
This book contains the basics and how to play on many of the most popular casino card games along with beginner and intermediate strategies for success at higher stakes games. I enjoy Hellmuths insights, while others may be turned off by his stories.
If you can get your hands on it, its easy to read and can be used as a manual reading the first few chapters and then skipping ahead to the game that interests you most.
August 21, 2025
I expect that this would serve well as a manual to study and re-read sections as relevant. I approached this as a casual poker fan who loves to watch the games and wanted to understand more fully what I was watching, so I read this from cover to cover. Phil covers a lot of ground in this book, and the insight into a variety of different poker games was very interesting, and it’s all explained in a way that’s easy for a beginner to understand (even the intermediate and expert content). Reading it in 2025, it’s a bit dated now, but I got out of it what I wanted.
February 9, 2025
It's a good book on poker. As both compliment and criticism, this is a very technical and detailed breakdown of poker strategy. It's intriguing to peak under the hood, but there are multiple pages of technical notes that require a lot of patience for the reader. Hellmuth could have used a co-author or better editor for these issues. Ultimately, it's not enough to detract from a good recommendation. If you want to get a better understanding of poker, this book will deliver the goods.
October 4, 2025
I appreciated his tips on the strategy of the game. The author has won more WSOP championships than anyone else in history, after all. For example, thinking about players’ styles of play as animal types (jackal, mouse, elephant, lion) works as a helpful shorthand for me. However, the book is a little dated in the games it focuses on. I was hoping for a focus on No Limit Hold’em, but instead the book spends more time on Limit Hold’em.
June 17, 2019
Loved this one. A lot of reviewers are bitching about the book being basic. But I found it a really interesting read on how to play a tight style (especially online)
February 6, 2020
Every online or in person tournament I ever won was because I read this book. It also ruined my cash game.
December 20, 2020
I felt like the book has good information, but only after each three pages...Unnecessary long, and hard to follow for beginners....Couldn't finish it, maybe will come back to it one day...
September 3, 2025
Only if you're a fan of Phil Hellmuth
August 21, 2019
1. Jack of all, Master of None kind of book. Has something about each of different types of poker, but doesn't dive deep.
2. Very verbose.
There are better books out there.
2. Very verbose.
There are better books out there.
August 19, 2007
Grade: B+
Everyone can agree that Phil Helmuth is a good poker player. Thus his style of poker playing is good and requires a book. What you will find in this book is a good beginner poker lesson that will teach you a lot of helpful techniques/theories on how to improve your poker game. I gave this book a B+ because many poker books out there today, suck ass, waste paper and your time. After reading some books I find that the information they have given me doesn't add anything to my game, and I don't visible see a change in my play/results. Helmuth book however will add to your game, and if you practice some of his techniques he gives you, your game will get better and you will see some results. The only complaint I have about Helmuth's book is that the goal of the book seems to be to make the reader into a mini-Helmuth player,even though he knows that everyone has their own poker style. I'd say that his book is second best (on poker information) only to Doyle Brunson Super sytem. Which is the best. Sorry Phil, until Brunson is gone you'll always be number 2 in my book.
Everyone can agree that Phil Helmuth is a good poker player. Thus his style of poker playing is good and requires a book. What you will find in this book is a good beginner poker lesson that will teach you a lot of helpful techniques/theories on how to improve your poker game. I gave this book a B+ because many poker books out there today, suck ass, waste paper and your time. After reading some books I find that the information they have given me doesn't add anything to my game, and I don't visible see a change in my play/results. Helmuth book however will add to your game, and if you practice some of his techniques he gives you, your game will get better and you will see some results. The only complaint I have about Helmuth's book is that the goal of the book seems to be to make the reader into a mini-Helmuth player,even though he knows that everyone has their own poker style. I'd say that his book is second best (on poker information) only to Doyle Brunson Super sytem. Which is the best. Sorry Phil, until Brunson is gone you'll always be number 2 in my book.
September 24, 2008
If you're into poker, this book is great for learning how to go from decent to really good. Some aspects of it - like the use of "animal personalities" I thought were kind of over-simplified and over-done for dramatic effect, but the strategies are pretty easy to understand (although it would take a long time to consistently use them well) and it lets you consider many aspects of the game in a new light. If you're not playing poker consistently, you're probably not going to be very good no matter what you're reading, but this book took my skills at Omaha from "terrible" to "quite good" and in NL Texas Hold Em from "decent" to "very good".
It is very well-written and not overly complicated, which I appreciated. It also didn't require an in-depth aptitude for probability and number-crunching, which I quite appreciated since I was an English major in college and I'm terrible at math.
It is very well-written and not overly complicated, which I appreciated. It also didn't require an in-depth aptitude for probability and number-crunching, which I quite appreciated since I was an English major in college and I'm terrible at math.
February 10, 2019
I've read this book for the second time now, a year apart. I was better able to understand the concepts a year later. That said, this book is still poorly edited. There were too many parenthetical asides and other basic readability issues. All things considered, I will still use this book by going through the Limit Hold'em Beginners Strategy and Limit Hold'em: Intermediate Strategy sections by subheading, trying out each of the concepts in turn as I am doing with Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em. I now know enough not to touch the Advanced sections, since I don't yet have the judgement. When I get around to attempting PLO, I will try using Hellmuth's suggested starting hands.
May 20, 2011
This is the first poker book I've ever read so I don't know how it compares to the others that are out there. My mom found an autographed copy at a garage sale! How random is that? Anyway, I consider myself to be a pretty savvy poker player so I was curious what I would learn. At the end of the day, I didn't really learn much. There were a lot of "hand scenarios" with pot odds and player tendencies, but those can only help you to a point. So much of poker is the "feel" you get from your opponents when you're sitting around the table, at least it is for me because I don't play online. I guess I did learn more about hand percentages and pot odds, which is helpful, but at the end of the day it's about the mental game and you can't get that from a book in my opinion.
October 31, 2012
This book was essentially to curbing my strategy in different poker environments (live or on the internet). It helped me learn to count outs. It helped me learn table position and calculating pot odds at all moments. If you can manage your money while making high percentage risks, you will have success.
The info on Omaha was a huge boost to my game also. I also learned what kind of player I am when other "Lions" see me at the table. I have learned how to change styles mid-Tournaments to my benefit.
A great read.
The info on Omaha was a huge boost to my game also. I also learned what kind of player I am when other "Lions" see me at the table. I have learned how to change styles mid-Tournaments to my benefit.
A great read.
July 17, 2017
This book is entirely too basic, which is fine, but it should be called out and marketed that way. If you are looking for very basic concepts and general strategy, this book could be useful. If you are looking for in depth strategy or any sort of theory, this book is not for you.
Disappointed overall.
Disappointed overall.
July 23, 2008
While the poker brat is tough to endure on television, his book offers insider information to the poker world. Easy to understand and plenty of examples of how to react and perform in certain situations.
October 19, 2015
Laughably bad. This was one of the first poker books I read and it's a wonder I survived the early, low stakes, games at the Palms. The discussion often lacks specific game context and leaves you trying to figure out what animals have to do with playing poker.
July 1, 2007
Superfluous, pompous and overrated - much like Hellmuth.
Read
October 18, 2007great book about poker.
Read
December 20, 2007First poker book I read which was appropriate b/c after reading this book, you have truly advanced your game to a higher level for a beginner. Good starting point.
February 16, 2008
When I first started playing poker, this book helped me to understand a lot about the game.
June 15, 2009
This book is crap.
January 24, 2010
Colorful animal analogies but hardly the best poker book I've read.
December 25, 2010
You can learn more strategy from Wikipedia.
February 25, 2019
If you want to play like Phil Hellmuth, than its worth a read
August 8, 2013
An ok book, doesn't feel like a lot of time went into writing it.
Unlikely you'll learn much from this book, because it focuses too much on specific hand examples.
Unlikely you'll learn much from this book, because it focuses too much on specific hand examples.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews