Customer Reviews

Every Hand Revealed

5 star:		(100)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've read at least 20 books on poker. David Sklansky's books give you vital, fundamental poker basics and even advanced theory -- but they aren't a lot of fun to read and make poker seem less than fun to play. Dan Harrington's books are better than Sklansky's because they are more informative, conversational, and easier to read. But make no mistake, Harrington's books are work. Gus Hansen's book was almost as informative, giving the reader an amazing insight into the thinking of a poker genuis as he makes his way, hand by hand, to heads up play. Like a great teacher, Hansen makes poker fun. He puts the reader in his head as he debates his next move. It's so witty, sometimes deadpan, and funny I couldn't put it down. At times, he goes into great detail regarding his mathematical analysis of his card strength and the pot odds and eventually the "correct" decision; then, he slyly concedes that he did just the opposite and can give no rational explanation for his action. Sometimes he says that simple curiosity got the best of him. When he misplays a hand, he's comically honest, "I played this hand like a novice, a fish, an idiot!"

I wanted to be more than entertained, I wanted to learn how a top poker pro analyzes his way through a tournament. Watching WPT six person final tables, while good, reveal very little about the players bobbed and weaved their way to the final table. Worse, WPT airs only the most entertaining hands, leaving on the cutting floor most of the final table action. With Every Hand Revealed, you get to see how play developed over the course of days, rather than minutes. Not only do you get the insights into Hansen's thinking, but you get to see what counter strategies his opponents adopt. Hansen provides a real education into applying pot odds to a variety of hands (329 hands to be exact), singular insight into winning strategy (I know of not one player that plays quite like Hansen), and how to interpret, and take advantage of, your opponents' playing style. Given the many terrible poker books released recently (like Daniel Negreanu's "Hold'em Wisdom for All Players" and anything by Phil Helmuth), I was skeptical that this book would be worth my time or money. I cannot recommend it more highly!

Everybody who rates this book highly is right. It's one of the better poker books around, especially at this price. Like they all say, it's excellent because Gus Hansen recorded his fresh thoughts into a voice recorder during a tournament (which he won!) and later compiled those thoughts (very honest and not self-serving) into this book.

But it's a great book for another reason: if you've seen Hansen play on TV (and I have, a lot), it might seem that he's a little nuts at times. He often has played very aggressively, even recklessly, but other times he'll seemingly be the tightest player at the table. I always wondered why this was. Well, apparently it's all part of a well-constructed master plan. He's not making it up as he goes. He has perhaps thought deeper in certain areas than some of his peers or at least come to contrarian conclusions. Most amazingly, he explains much of this deeper planning and thinking in the book. It's not just 300+ hands explained individually; there's a good dose of deeply-considered strategy, too.

Another of the book's strengths: the degree of math is just right -- not an inhumanly large amount like some books, but not zero, either.

The only negatives are very minor: the paper used is thin and rough (highlighting shows through the page), but that's why it's so affordable; and Gus's prose is a little awkward at times, but English is his second language and he more than makes up for any awkwardness with the cheery, honest attitude that shines through the writing.

Add another positive review to the pile! 4.5 stars out of 5 (5 out of 5 when the book's low price is taken into consideration).

I have to agree with others here. This one of the best poker books to come along in a long time.

While pros making videos of their poker tournament victories are common online, this is the first time a serious player has explained an entire tournament in print -- a live brick-and-mortar tournament!

The narrative is detailed and honest; it shows that even Hansen nods with some way-off decisions. This frankness only increases the usefulness of the book as other pro poker players tend to gloss over their trouble hands in their writing. Simply put, they often display the Phil Hellmuth attitude: "I'm great and when I needed to, I sucked out." You just know players like Mr. Hellmuth are getting uncanny reads on opponents' hands, but they don't explain the thought process.

Then too, sometimes Mr. Hansen makes the right decision, but the cards don't cooperate. It's enlightening to see him handle this and go on to win without getting tilted off his game. (Is it just me or why is it that best online players are unflappable? There's a Chuck Yeager quality to their voices.)

The book is easy to follow without making you slog through complex math, yet this player is always aware of the numbers involved in crucial decisions.

I hope Mr Hansen and other world-class players do more of this "poker tournament diary" writing, IF they dare. Hansen says he's not worried that other players will now read him like a book, because he claims he can change gears at will. I hope he didn't give away the store with this groundbreaking poker book.

You'll learn from this one. Reading it is as close as we'll ever get to actually tapping into one of the great minds of the game. As Gus himself says in the final sentence of the Preface: "Welcome to my mind ...."

If you watched the 2007 Aussie Millions Tournament on TV you may remember that Gus Hanson stepped away from the table after practically every hand to speak into a digital recorder. Now we know what he was doing - he was recording his thought process for each hand. His thoughts have since been transcribed and this book is the result.

When I saw what Gus was doing I felt vindicated. I began playing online tournaments a few months ago and quickly found that one of the most valuable things I could do was to think carefully through each situation and to record my thoughts. After the tournament was over I'd review my actions in light of my recorded thoughts. It has proved to be an invaluable tool in improving my game. Now we have the benefit of Gus Hanson's thoughts along with the outcome of each hand.

In the non-stop Internet Age where the objective sometimes seems to be maximizing the number of hands played we've seen poker become somewhat of a lottery. However, it is thought and analysis - deep analysis - that leads to insight and expertise. And playing hands at breakneck speed is the very antithesis of thought and analysis. Gus has done us all a huge favor by sharing his hand-by-hand analysis of the 2007 Aussie Millions Tournament. This book reveals the thought processes of one of todays outstanding poker professionals and careful, thoughtful reading of this transcript can only improve your game.

I agree wholly with every 5 star review. So why did I give the book 4 stars?

I noticed a strange thing. After reading the book for a while and then going online right away to play some, I would lose and lose badly. This happened several times, so much so that while I was sorry to get to the end of the book, I was glad too so I could stop losing money. All in all, this book has cost me several hundred dollars.

Several hundred dollars, I figure, equals one review star.

Don't be a donkey like me. Don't think you can read some of Hansen and take it to the tables with instant results. Stick with your own game, very slowly insert a little Hansen and proceed carefully. No need to thank me for saving you a bundle! :-}

PS -- Gratuitous tip (i.e. take it for what it's worth): This book has no index. Imagine how useful an index might be if you have 300+ hands thrown at you randomly. Solution: take less than 2 hours and categorize the hands. I was interested particularly in gathering all the same kind of opening hands together, since which hands to play are a big deal with Mr. Hansen. I created eight categories, and now I can easily look up the same kinds of starting hands in each category. For example, I can quickly find and compare all the hands which started with small suited connectors. I'm sure you get the point. It really is useful, but it's up to you.

Here's the sequence of the books I've read about NLHE Tournaments:

Step 1: T.J. Cloutier/McEvoy - Survive, survive, survive... Maybe you get a lot of chips somewhere and win a tournament.

Step 2: Dan Harrington - Survive, but if all conditions are right, play a hand like J-T suited or 9-8 suited if you have three callers, tight players in the blinds, and then proceed from there.

Step 3: Gus Hansen - Survival sucks. Accumulate chips. Get the blinds. Know BEP. GO FOR IT.

For years I was in Step 1 mode: Play your coin flips with 99 vs. AK and pray they hold up. Double up a few times, don't play the "chip burners" like J-T suited or K-Q suited. Waaaaaaaaay too tight to consistently win let alone confuse my opponents with my play.

Now, Step 2 was nice, but how often do you really get 3 or 4 callers in front of you AND tight players in the blinds? Basically, you're always in Step 1/Survivor mode unless all the stars and planets align at the poker table and we know that doesn't happen very often.

Step 3. Go for it. Raise with a K-T suited in middle position 3 x the BB and see what happens. If you get raised and can make the call and get a great flop then go for it.

Yeah, it sounds crazy to "go for it" but you know what I've discovered?

Sitting around getting blinded to death watching people get chips and win millions of dollars while I hope my caveman coin-flip strategy holds up doesn't work. You have to get in there with a Q-J suited in late position for some of your chips. You don't get the AA or KK often enough, and if you do get those hands do you really accumulate enough chips to win the tournament? No.

I liked Gus Hansen's book. I think people TALK about shifting gears, but don't do it enough. I know I don't. But I've gone further in tournaments and actually been the chip leader or in the top 10 more often during the tournament since I read this book and used his advice.

You can still incorporate the wisdom from Step 1 and Step 2. Just make sure that you have Step 3 in the tool box or you're never going to win unless EVERYTHING goes your way in a tournament. It can happen, but don't hold your breath. Get this book if you want to win NLHE tournaments.

Gus Hansen, Every Hand Revealed (Lyle Stuart, 2008)

It should be noted first and foremost that the premise behind this book makes it pretty certain that this is about as vertical-market a poker book as you're going to find. Casual fans probably won't cotton to the idea of reading Gus Hansen discussing the almost three hundred hands he played at the 2007 Aussie Millions. If you're a serious student of the game, however, and you've always wondered at the method behind the seeming madness of a "maniac" player like Hansen, then this is definitely the book for you. Hansen lays out each hand, shows you the reasons he made each of his plays, talks pot odds (and shows why the person at the table calling you a donkey for making that call is more likely a donkey himself), and isn't afraid to tell you when he messed up. And yes, contrary to the beliefs of some folks (but right in line with the beliefs of many others), Gus Hansen does, in fact, make the occasional mistake. Sometimes they cost him almost a million chips. And yet he still ends up with all the chips in the end. Variance, as they say, is a harsh mistress. (Actually, "they" usually use language a lot cruder to describe variance. So do I, when I'm not writing Amazon reviews.)

The book's biggest failings aren't necessarily Hansen's fault; a good editor could have whipped this manuscript into shape with little effort. Toning down Hansen's excessive use of exclamation points and doing a quick run-through for egregious spelling and grammatical errors would have done this manuscript a world of good, and a real combing-through might well have come up with something approaching the perfect poker book. But what we got is fine indeed, and well worth your time. ****

When I got back into poker Hansen was the player that fascinated me the most from the TV pros because nothing he did seemed to make any sense. But it had to make sense because it obviously worked. To finally get a chance to get inside his head, hand by hand, is fascinating.

I couldn't recommend this book high enough. The most critical hands in poker are often the dullest. The hard slog. The patient grinding of people's souls. You miss that on TV. It creates a fun house mirror image of the players. No one more so that Gus Hansen. This book removes that. He explains his actions behind every hand he plays. If I have any criticism, it is that he doesn't show the hands he folds. I'd like to have heard him talk about that too.

As crazy as his style seems, it is still rooted in the fundamentals: good reads, solid math, brutal self awareness, and a good understanding of tournament psychology.

If nothing else, the book is a great lesson on the power of the all-in move in No Limit Holdem'. Gus's style in this tournament is that of a cave man. He rarely gets fancy, choosing to instead use his stack as a misshapen club to bonk people over the head with. Mongo, kill!

The book is a powerful testament to the loose-aggressive style of poker.

Gus Hansen achieved fame early on in the World Poker Tour from his seemingly reckless and erratic style of play. As seen on TV, Hansen would play any two cards in position and apply maximum aggression with absolutely no hand and no draw. And somehow this strategy seemed to work: he'd frequently get his opponents to lay down hands as strong as top pair to his well-timed moves of aggression.

But "Every Hand Revealed" lives up to its name: Gus Hansen's secret is revealed. As many poker authors have cautioned their readers, the hands actually *shown* on television are entirely atypical. The producers edited out all the mundane hands where nothing much happened and no one attempted any wild bluffs. Also, they edited out the entire first part of the tournament, where 95% of the players were slowly eliminated. By focusing on high-blind, final table action (and only the most unusual and exciting hands), we all got a distorted view of Gus Hansen's game.

Here, Gus Hansen walks his readers through every hand he played in a successful big money hold em tournament. It's fairly clear that Gus, unlike many poker professionals, actually wrote this book himself (or had it transcribed from his voice recordings taken at the table). We truly get a look inside the reasoning process of a top poker professional. Gus Hansen is still a somewhat loose player, and very aggressive, but now we see the method behind his madness. More importantly, we see how he can make tough folds when he's in trouble.

The only unfortunate aspect of this book is its extremely poor (or non-existent) editing. I can't blame Gus for a lack of fluency in English, his second language. I can blame the editors at Citadel for not doing a professional job in clarifying his use of words. Of course, perhaps the low, low cover price reflects the lack of editing. Either way, it's bad enough to slightly mar an otherwise excellent book.

If you like this style of learning poker through detailed hand-by-hand analysis, I'd also recommend The Poker Tournament Formula and Poker Tips that Pay: Expert Strategy Guide for Winning No Limit Texas Hold em, both of which also walk the reader through the reasoning process in dozens of interesting poker hands.

Gus Hansen takes us to a journey through his astonishing way of play, that most Hold'em players might find not only aggressive, but even in some cases absurd.

I enjoyed reading this book. However, this is definitely not a comprehensive poker strategy book. It's merely a review of every hand of the Aussie Millions Poker Tournament 2007 Gus took part in and how it was played, with some notes by Gus on why he decided to play it like that. He takes stack size, possible chip lead, his reads, bet sizes and much more into consideration before making a play, and the way he thinks and bets is presented briefly for every hand.
After each chapter Gus does actually propose a way of play for various stages of a tournament, but if you seek in depth analysis of such matters, you should probably read another book.

I do not regret the purchase of this book, because it provided some insights on the game of an acclaimed poker pro and could prove to be helpful in terms of enhancing my own play. Overall, it provides info on the (super)aggressive poker play and how Gus handles it. Judging by the first place and the money he won from this tournament, he does have his way.