Celebrity Poker Showdown is one of my favorite shows on TV. Not only did you get see celebrities like James Woods, Mekhi Phifer and Heather Graham really let down their hair but I now play a pretty good game of Texas Hold em as a result. A big part of my enjoyment and my skills comes from commentator and World Poker champion Phil Gordon who hosts along with Kid in the Hall Dave Foley.
Besides hosting that show Gordon has released a DVD called Final Table which allows you to listen in on Phil's every thought as he plays at the final table of a high stakes No-Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament. His newest book is Little Green Book which details what Phil Gordon would do in every hand of Texas Hold em.
Check out the official site for Phil Gordon
Daniel Robert Epstein: How are you today?
Phil Gordon: Im good. Im on a book tour for Little Green Book. It came out a few week ago and Im out touring around promoting and doing bookstore signings.
DRE: Ive watched Celebrity Poker since the beginning.
PG: Thank you very much.
DRE: Thats the show which taught me how to play Texas Hold em.
PG: I hear that quite a bit.
DRE: Do you think that thats the best part of the show?
PG: I think the show has a couple of appeals. I think first of all its one of the only places on television where you can watch celebrities actually be themselves. Theyre not there promoting anything. Theyre not there for any other reason other than to have a good time to raise a little money for their charity. Its Las Vegas so it isnt hard to get into the party frame of mind. Most of them are there for the right reasons and theyre having a great time which I think shows. The other good thing about the show is that the people are making the same mistakes that youre probably making in your home game. I think you can learn more from watching their mistakes than you can by watching the great players on the World Series [of Poker].
DRE: Do you miss Kevin Pollak's funny hats though?
PG: No. Some of his funny voices maybe, but not his funny hats.
DRE: You and Dave Foley are becoming the new Martin and Lewis.
PG: I love Dave like a brother and doing the show with him is a pleasure. Hes one of the most generous guys Ive ever met both on and off camera Id do anything for him. It is just a real pleasure to work next to someone that makes you laugh. There is nothing forced with him and he makes every day an adventure. You never know what hes going to say or pull on you.
DRE: Did you get the Celebrity Poker gig because youre a really nice guy? I say that because sometimes it seems like you want to just kill everyone on the show.
PG: Well theyre not professional poker players. I dont expect them to do the same things that professional poker players would do. That being said, I get a little upset sometimes when Ive spent three hours before each show telling them to raise before the flop. Then we go 40 hands before someone raises before the flop. That kind of pisses me off a little bit. Or when they do something boneheaded like throwing away the best hand possible. But for the most part, I try to keep my commentary positive and on the funnier and lighter side rather than calling them an idiot every three seconds.
DRE: I think if they got some of these other pro poker players to host they would have strangled a celebrity by now.
PG: Yeah, Im certainly very fortunate to have gotten the job and there are not a lot of people with credibility from a poker playing perspective that are going to be comfortable on camera and doing commentary. So I dont think Ive got a lot of competition in that respect and thats a good thing because I really love my job and it had been a great thing for me personally.
DRE: Has commenting on these very amateur games changed the way you play at all?
PG: No, not really. When Im playing it is usually against expert competition. One way its helped my game is because poker players watch the show. Then when I play in big tournaments Im very often Im up against people that watch me on television and maybe they might be more intimidated by my presence at the table.
DRE: What is the Little Green Book?
PG: It is exactly the way that I play the game. Its 300 pages of No Limit Texas Holdem exactly the way I play. Im not the best player in the world but Im certainly a winning player. Ive won a couple of World Poker Tour events. Ive made five final tables in No Limit Texas Holdem at the World Series of Poker including the $10,000 championship in 2001. That being said, there are a 100 different ways to play. Im not contending to know the only way to play; I can only tell you how I play. So the book is exactly how I play the game on every card and in every situation. What I want to do is give people a guide to how I think about the game critically. Im hoping to give you some scripts that you can run through your head. In fact the first chapter is, Decisions, Decisions, Pokers All About Making Winning Decisions. You may not win the pot; you may not make the most money. None of thats important. The best player in the world is the person that makes the most winning decisions.
DRE: The best winning decision is to bet aggressively before the flop.
PG: Well one of the things that I do that gives me an advantage is to play aggressively before the flop. Once I choose to play a hand, I play it aggressively. There are certainly some people that have great success without raising before the flop. Im not one of them. If Im playing a hand I want to give myself two ways to win. I either want to win with the best hand or force my opponent to fold a better hand and Ive found that raising before the flop affords me great opportunities in both those respects.
DRE: How does a person have a poker style?
PG: A style is the number of hands that youre willing to play before the flop. The hands that youre willing to raise with and the hands that youre willing to call raises with. Whether you like to check your bad hands and bet your good hands or the opposite. Everyone has a certain style or demeanor at the table and I certainly have one. I tend to be the guy that keeps betting. Very often, I find that I can exploit peoples tendencies to play too conservatively.
DRE: Can releasing this book put you at any kind of disadvantage like if your future opponents read this book?
PG: So what. I think a lot of the stuff that Ive written in the book is unbeatable. No matter if you know exactly what Im doing or not because a lot of the stuff that I do is based very soundly in whats known as game theory. In game theory you may know exactly what Im doing but theres no optimal solution to how you play against me. Theres no real counter strategy.
DRE: When you lose a game, have you discovered a weakness in yourself?
PG: Every time I play a hand I learn something and the better competition that I play against the more I learn. Im always thinking about the game and analyzing my play. There are great opportunities to learn by watching better players. There are good things to learn by watching worse players and there are always good things to learn from self instruction and analyzing the hands and determining what you played well or played poorly.
DRE: How has the poker craze changed the scene?
PG: There are a lot more people playing. The first year I played in the World Series of Poker there were about 500 entrants. This year there were 5,618 players.
DRE: Wow!
PG: So the fields are enormous. Five years ago there was one $10,000 buy-in tournament in the world. You had to wait once a year to play at that time and that was the World Series of Poker Championship. Now there are fifty $10,000 dollar buy-in tournaments and you can play one a week if you want.
DRE: How do you think Dave Foley would do?
PG: Dave Foley is dead bet money but he likes it that way. I wouldnt change anything about his game.
DRE: [laughs] What celebrity has surprised you the most in terms of how good they are?
PG: I was probably most surprised by Mena Suvari. She has a real intimate knowledge of the game. She plays, she studies the books and shes a fierce competitor. Just based on looks alone you wouldnt necessarily expect that. Shes kind of short and meek and beautiful and those arent real qualities that you associate with good poker players.
DRE: Its really funny to watch these guys like James Woods and Doug Savant who are really good poker players lose against people who have barely played at all.
PG: One thing about novice players is that theyre very unpredictable and youre never as far ahead in Texas hold em as you think you are. Almost always your opponent will have the chance to draw out on you. In our show the blinds go up pretty rapidly and its not uncommon for the best player to be first out and for the worst player at the table to win.
DRE: Do you play poker for fun anymore or is it just a job now?
PG: When it becomes a job Ill stop and go do something else. I still love the game. I play online more than I play live now. Theres a lot less investment in me getting into the car and driving down to the casino and playing 40 hands an hour when I can just log in and play 200 or 300 hands an hour at Full Tilt Poker in my underwear.
As far as the tournaments go I have to play a reduced schedule because of my business commitments both in TV and writing. But truth be told Im enjoying teaching the game right now more than Im actually enjoying playing.
DRE: So besides poker what other skills do you have?
PG: I like to play golf and tennis and do a lot of traveling. Im definitely writing a lot more. I write for ESPN every week. I love teaching the game and corporate speaking and poker seminars and things along that nature. Im keeping myself very, very busy.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
PG: No.
DRE: If you had one, what would you get?
PG: Phil Hellmuth on my ass.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Besides hosting that show Gordon has released a DVD called Final Table which allows you to listen in on Phil's every thought as he plays at the final table of a high stakes No-Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament. His newest book is Little Green Book which details what Phil Gordon would do in every hand of Texas Hold em.
Check out the official site for Phil Gordon
Daniel Robert Epstein: How are you today?
Phil Gordon: Im good. Im on a book tour for Little Green Book. It came out a few week ago and Im out touring around promoting and doing bookstore signings.
DRE: Ive watched Celebrity Poker since the beginning.
PG: Thank you very much.
DRE: Thats the show which taught me how to play Texas Hold em.
PG: I hear that quite a bit.
DRE: Do you think that thats the best part of the show?
PG: I think the show has a couple of appeals. I think first of all its one of the only places on television where you can watch celebrities actually be themselves. Theyre not there promoting anything. Theyre not there for any other reason other than to have a good time to raise a little money for their charity. Its Las Vegas so it isnt hard to get into the party frame of mind. Most of them are there for the right reasons and theyre having a great time which I think shows. The other good thing about the show is that the people are making the same mistakes that youre probably making in your home game. I think you can learn more from watching their mistakes than you can by watching the great players on the World Series [of Poker].
DRE: Do you miss Kevin Pollak's funny hats though?
PG: No. Some of his funny voices maybe, but not his funny hats.
DRE: You and Dave Foley are becoming the new Martin and Lewis.
PG: I love Dave like a brother and doing the show with him is a pleasure. Hes one of the most generous guys Ive ever met both on and off camera Id do anything for him. It is just a real pleasure to work next to someone that makes you laugh. There is nothing forced with him and he makes every day an adventure. You never know what hes going to say or pull on you.
DRE: Did you get the Celebrity Poker gig because youre a really nice guy? I say that because sometimes it seems like you want to just kill everyone on the show.
PG: Well theyre not professional poker players. I dont expect them to do the same things that professional poker players would do. That being said, I get a little upset sometimes when Ive spent three hours before each show telling them to raise before the flop. Then we go 40 hands before someone raises before the flop. That kind of pisses me off a little bit. Or when they do something boneheaded like throwing away the best hand possible. But for the most part, I try to keep my commentary positive and on the funnier and lighter side rather than calling them an idiot every three seconds.
DRE: I think if they got some of these other pro poker players to host they would have strangled a celebrity by now.
PG: Yeah, Im certainly very fortunate to have gotten the job and there are not a lot of people with credibility from a poker playing perspective that are going to be comfortable on camera and doing commentary. So I dont think Ive got a lot of competition in that respect and thats a good thing because I really love my job and it had been a great thing for me personally.
DRE: Has commenting on these very amateur games changed the way you play at all?
PG: No, not really. When Im playing it is usually against expert competition. One way its helped my game is because poker players watch the show. Then when I play in big tournaments Im very often Im up against people that watch me on television and maybe they might be more intimidated by my presence at the table.
DRE: What is the Little Green Book?
PG: It is exactly the way that I play the game. Its 300 pages of No Limit Texas Holdem exactly the way I play. Im not the best player in the world but Im certainly a winning player. Ive won a couple of World Poker Tour events. Ive made five final tables in No Limit Texas Holdem at the World Series of Poker including the $10,000 championship in 2001. That being said, there are a 100 different ways to play. Im not contending to know the only way to play; I can only tell you how I play. So the book is exactly how I play the game on every card and in every situation. What I want to do is give people a guide to how I think about the game critically. Im hoping to give you some scripts that you can run through your head. In fact the first chapter is, Decisions, Decisions, Pokers All About Making Winning Decisions. You may not win the pot; you may not make the most money. None of thats important. The best player in the world is the person that makes the most winning decisions.
DRE: The best winning decision is to bet aggressively before the flop.
PG: Well one of the things that I do that gives me an advantage is to play aggressively before the flop. Once I choose to play a hand, I play it aggressively. There are certainly some people that have great success without raising before the flop. Im not one of them. If Im playing a hand I want to give myself two ways to win. I either want to win with the best hand or force my opponent to fold a better hand and Ive found that raising before the flop affords me great opportunities in both those respects.
DRE: How does a person have a poker style?
PG: A style is the number of hands that youre willing to play before the flop. The hands that youre willing to raise with and the hands that youre willing to call raises with. Whether you like to check your bad hands and bet your good hands or the opposite. Everyone has a certain style or demeanor at the table and I certainly have one. I tend to be the guy that keeps betting. Very often, I find that I can exploit peoples tendencies to play too conservatively.
DRE: Can releasing this book put you at any kind of disadvantage like if your future opponents read this book?
PG: So what. I think a lot of the stuff that Ive written in the book is unbeatable. No matter if you know exactly what Im doing or not because a lot of the stuff that I do is based very soundly in whats known as game theory. In game theory you may know exactly what Im doing but theres no optimal solution to how you play against me. Theres no real counter strategy.
DRE: When you lose a game, have you discovered a weakness in yourself?
PG: Every time I play a hand I learn something and the better competition that I play against the more I learn. Im always thinking about the game and analyzing my play. There are great opportunities to learn by watching better players. There are good things to learn by watching worse players and there are always good things to learn from self instruction and analyzing the hands and determining what you played well or played poorly.
DRE: How has the poker craze changed the scene?
PG: There are a lot more people playing. The first year I played in the World Series of Poker there were about 500 entrants. This year there were 5,618 players.
DRE: Wow!
PG: So the fields are enormous. Five years ago there was one $10,000 buy-in tournament in the world. You had to wait once a year to play at that time and that was the World Series of Poker Championship. Now there are fifty $10,000 dollar buy-in tournaments and you can play one a week if you want.
DRE: How do you think Dave Foley would do?
PG: Dave Foley is dead bet money but he likes it that way. I wouldnt change anything about his game.
DRE: [laughs] What celebrity has surprised you the most in terms of how good they are?
PG: I was probably most surprised by Mena Suvari. She has a real intimate knowledge of the game. She plays, she studies the books and shes a fierce competitor. Just based on looks alone you wouldnt necessarily expect that. Shes kind of short and meek and beautiful and those arent real qualities that you associate with good poker players.
DRE: Its really funny to watch these guys like James Woods and Doug Savant who are really good poker players lose against people who have barely played at all.
PG: One thing about novice players is that theyre very unpredictable and youre never as far ahead in Texas hold em as you think you are. Almost always your opponent will have the chance to draw out on you. In our show the blinds go up pretty rapidly and its not uncommon for the best player to be first out and for the worst player at the table to win.
DRE: Do you play poker for fun anymore or is it just a job now?
PG: When it becomes a job Ill stop and go do something else. I still love the game. I play online more than I play live now. Theres a lot less investment in me getting into the car and driving down to the casino and playing 40 hands an hour when I can just log in and play 200 or 300 hands an hour at Full Tilt Poker in my underwear.
As far as the tournaments go I have to play a reduced schedule because of my business commitments both in TV and writing. But truth be told Im enjoying teaching the game right now more than Im actually enjoying playing.
DRE: So besides poker what other skills do you have?
PG: I like to play golf and tennis and do a lot of traveling. Im definitely writing a lot more. I write for ESPN every week. I love teaching the game and corporate speaking and poker seminars and things along that nature. Im keeping myself very, very busy.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
PG: No.
DRE: If you had one, what would you get?
PG: Phil Hellmuth on my ass.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
Phil Gordon does a good job as commentator though ...
Madusow and Tony G. tend to be putting on a show but not Phil. Once he's pissed he's pissy. I don't like the lumbering giant myself. One of my least favorite people in poker. Meeting and spending time around him blew it for me.
Every word I read in this article about him fawning over Dave for instance left a sour taste in my mouth because I know under his breath or in his head he's berating him, calling him an idiot, a homo, what have you.
Sorry for the rant. If you want to know who some really great guys and gals are I'll tell you my faves. Maybe not at the poker table but at the dinner table. They are:
1. Perry Friedman
2. Keith Sexton
3. Clonie Gowan
4. Mike Madusow
5. Berry Greenstein
6. Chris Ferguson
7. Jennifer Harmon
8. Sam Farha
Least faves:
1. Phil Gordon
2. Kathy whatthefuckisherwhinnyassedproblem Liebert
3. Cindy I'msofullof myself Violet
4. Hellmuth (that goes without saying)
5. Shawn Sheikan
None of the lists above are in any order really, other then like and don't care for. With all that that you don't care about being said I'll wrap with this...