Hello!

What are the key differences between Kill Phil Vol1 and Vol2 (advanced) ? I have played for years and wanted to focus more on MTTs - should I start with the advanced version? Any other raccomandations for Online MTTs?

Thank you.

You might want to look at Harrington on Modern Tournament Poker. You can buy it directly from us for a pretty good price and shipping is free in the U.S.

https://www.twoplustwo.com/store/

Best wishes,
Mason

Kill Phil Vol1 presented a simple system for tournament beginners to play and go deep in no limit holdem tournaments. It was limited and robotic.

Kill Everyone was the follow up and is of much greater value. Buy that as well as many other books as the need arises.

Thanks - I'll start w/ Harrington on MTP

Any opinions on Curtis' "Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist?"

Thank you, Mason! I've enjoyed reading these reviews and found them helpful because a few of these books, like Tendler's, left me more confused and feeling like I'm spinning my wheels, and these reviews have been a good reminder that not all published content is good content.

I look forward to any future reviews you choose to share with us.

Hi metalme:

I think books, like the first book by Tendler (which is the only book by him I read), are at best confused works and often much much more bad than just confused. For example, when you see stuff like poker players need a warm-up, that should be enough to stop reading. It shows right there that the author doesn't understand that poker is much different from an athletic sport since the execution component, which includes things like speed, timing, and coordination, can at most play only a very small role in poker. So a warm-up, which is designed to loosen your muscles and peak our coordination, just can't have much value in a game like poker which is mainly based on knowledge and not execution.

Mason

Is Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big with Expert Play updated version? I see on amazon 2023 date

No. The only changes were some minor editing.

Mason

Mason,

From personal experience I’ll just chime in to say my pre-session routine before I leave home to play poker is very important to me. That includes optimal sleep the night before. I try not to take any short cuts lest it impact my play. It’s like building “tilt resistance.”

I don’t know in what context “warm up” was used in the book - maybe Tendler meant play a smaller game first in which case I disagree - but if he meant getting in a good mindset to play, I actually agree with him.

His hold warm-up thing in my opinion is beyond stupid. It's for 3 to 15 minutes and includes a quick review, some deep breaths, reviewing long-term goals, take notes on your personal life, exercise, medittating, and a bunch of other stuff.

Mason

I think Mason makes valid points more often than not but the idea that knowledge and execution are similar when it comes to poker does not align with everything I have seen in over 19k posts.

Knowledge in poker and the execution of knowledge differ to me in the way that being a good poster on a poker forum does not translate into being a good player.

Just having knowledge of a spot or a concept is not enough to be good, it's a passive act.

The execution of knowledge means not only do you have to have the baseline knowledge, you also have to have the mental strength of uncertain outcomes with money involved. These are not the same thing.

One is passive and has no skin in the game.

One is aggressive and has all the skin in the game.

This is why no poker authors are world class players (or even close). You need much more than a passive knowledge base to be the best in a competitive game.

I'm sorry, Mason. Something was wrong with the mobile app, so I had to wait until I remembered to get back to this from my desktop.

I was wondering if you had ever gone back and reviewed the book Easy Game. It is on Amazon now, and the price is not that bad. It is also in its third version.

Additionally, do you have a recommendation for something that would be good reading for someone who used to play professionally and now plays for fun but hates losing?

I have a copy of Easy Game but only read part of it, thus no review. Perhaps I'll get back to it some day.

As for your second question, I would need to know what game you play.

Mason