The long awaited sequel to 'Kill Phil' has finally been published. Where 'Kill Phil' provided an effective long-ball strategy for neophyte tournament poker players to compete against expert players, 'Kill Everyone' takes the 'Killers of Phils' [who by now should have had a lot of playing experience] to another level of play.
This second book by Lee Nelson and his new collaborators [Tysen Streib and Kim Lee] details some very advanced tournament poker concepts and strategies. It is also based on the modern game [also sometimes called the 'new school'] of very strong aggression. Where 'Kill Phil' emphasized a long-ball strategy due to its target audience being beginning tournament players, this book teaches small-ball play in the early stages of a tournament, and provides further analysis of the long-ball tactics introduced in 'Kill Phil'. Thus, you now have both strategies in your arsenal to be utilized as befits the situation.
The book identifies two key phases of tournament play - the early game, where the objective is to accumulate chips, and then the end-game [when the blinds are escalating, and players are generally in the `move-in' stage], where the goal is to win it all. It is this last phase where the book excels. It is also the most useful, as this is the situation that most players find themselves in - short-stacked or average-stacked. It not only provides detailed guidelines and tables for the strategies to be used but the discussion is strongly backed up by sound game-theoretic analysis. A particularly useful discussion is equilibrium play when far from the money, .i.e. you become short stacked early in the tournament, and you can no longer play `cash poker' - how do you play your short stack optimally? The authors present a non-exploitative `jam-or-fold' strategy with adjustment guidelines to exploit your opponents should they not follow an equilibrium strategy against you. The end-game and equilibrium strategies discussion is a detailed expansion on the work presented in `Kill Phil' except that this latter work presents a deeper analysis and allows the [hopefully] now more experienced `Kill Phil-ler' to really grasp what he was doing by rote, and adapt to his opponents.
The next major section of the book presents a new and very important concept in tournament poker - `bubble factor' [new in that I don't believe that is has been discussed and developed to the extent that it has in this book]. This is defined as the `ratio of the cost of losing vs the gain from winning' when you're all-in and approaching the money in a tournament. This concept is important because it significantly affects your decision making, e.g. when would you fold aces pre-flop? Bubble factors are strongly tournament-strategic rather than poker-strategic - what is the prize pool and how is it paid out, the tournament structure, how many players are left, what is your stack size relative to other players, what is your relative position, how far from the money are you? Experienced pros have an intuitive feel for some of these issues, and now, thanks to this book, the `secrets' backed by solid mathematical analysis, are available to the rest of us. The discussion concludes by offering practical guidelines on utilizing `bubble factors' [`bubble factors' are calculated using the Independent Chip Model which makes it a tad difficult to work out at the table]. A good understanding of your opponents' bubble factors also allows you to apply `fold equity' more effectively. Chapter 7 of the book, `Specific Strategies for Different Tournament Types' then applies bubble factor strategies to different tournament types, including SnGs, MTTs and super-satellites. I have personally applied the concepts discussed here to dig myself out of trouble and end up at the final table.
And should you be fortunate enough to get heads-up against Gus Hansen, `Kill Everyone' presents you with information to not only hold your own, but to win the tournament. It has the most detailed heads-up strategy that I have seen in a poker tournament book. Again, it provides an equilibrium short-stacked strategy that would not be exploitable by the pro. It also presents a practical strategy for when the stacks are deeper.
The book then applies the concepts discussed in a detailed analysis of the Full Tilt Monte Carlo Invitational SnG. It is interesting to see how difficult it is, even for pros, to play optimally. The authors conclude by presenting a potpourri of topics including recent changes in modern tournament play, e.g. UTG steals, playing against the pros etc.
All in all, an exceptionally good book on a winning approach to the modern game of tournament poker. I personally find the chapters on equilibrium play, bubble factors, and heads-up to be very useful in my own development as a tournament player.
... and should you be unlucky enough to get knocked out of the tournament, you can read the bonus chapter on online short-handed cash games provided by the Australian pro, Mark Vos, and head up to your hotel room and login.
