Has anyone tried the Kill Phil strategies?

did you win, are you doing better, does it work?

Tried it in some turbo SNG's for a short spell. So to sum up your question with some simple answers: a little, no, kinda.

I found it very boring to play this way. No fun at all, very automatic. Went back to figuring out my own style.

Very briefly it is how to bet in a way that puts your opponents all in if they call you if you have certain cards in certain positions. It is a very aggressive plan on winning tournaments.

I actually played against this type of player. He would go all in on any two cards, I called him twice and once I beat him and the other time her rivered out on me.

I feel like your explanation contradicts itself, or at least the description of the way the player who was using this strategy does. Is it actually dependent upon what cards you have at all or is it just simply playing position extremely aggressively?

The way you talk about the guy that was using this strategy he was going 'all in on any two cards". To me this doesn't seem like much of a strategy as these people usually end up getting out of the tournament pretty quickly....

Thanks in advance for the clarification...

I know the Kill Phil book took a point of view of taking a beginner and giving them a strategy they could easily follow in a big tourney (I think it was even assumed to be the wsop). By playing hyper aggressive, you put all the pressure on someone else and the decisions are basically go all-in or fold. No deciding if calling is correct or not. It's not for me, but I'm sure some people can adopt it and do well.

Yea, the premise is that no pro would want to risk all of their chips in one hand. Also the strategy does not apply until the 4th round of blinds.

Seems a bit of a crap strategy to me.So you risk going bust on a pair ? When actually the person could of hit a set or something better or even just have a better pair? Seems like the normally strategy thats used at micros. You raise Ace,K get called and hit your ace or King then some idiot decides to go all in and shows a K,2os lol.

If he was implanting this strategy then it seems a really bad one. May as well just go all-in preflop every time lol.

dsanga01 said:

Yea, the premise is that no pro would want to risk all of their chips in one hand. Also the strategy does not apply until the 4th round of blinds.

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Even the 4th round of blinds, this seems a daft strategy as you will still have quite a few BB's left. Why risk it on a pair? Who thought of this strategy?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure over time this is a BIG -EV

Hmmm... I might check this out and im not really buying this if its Phil Hellmuth because I hate him and the way he plays.

There are some rules for going all in, you must meet certain criteria, such as going all in if two of your cards match the flop.

Hmmm... I just ordered this so I'll have to wait and see what I think of it. I'm a cash game player and thought something that would get me going quickly in tournaments would be nice. Hopefully there is more to it than "shove post-flop if your hand connects with the flop".

Its NOT written by Phil Hellmuth. It's written by Blair Rodman although I think Hellmuth wrote the intro or an endorsement for it. Something like that.

Anyway, hope I get at least a few useful tips from it.

Big_Rudy said:

Hmmm... I just ordered this so I'll have to wait and see what I think of it. I'm a cash game player and thought something that would get me going quickly in tournaments would be nice. Hopefully there is more to it than "shove post-flop if your hand connects with the flop".

Its NOT written by Phil Hellmuth. It's written by Blair Rodman although I think Hellmuth wrote the intro or an endorsement for it. Something like that.

Anyway, hope I get at least a few useful tips from it.

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Get the 'Kill Everyone' volume.. & latest edition with 'Elky' supplement.

Instead of the 'Kill Phil' I think anyone would be better off to just read Harrington On Holdem Series (Vol.1 & 2 - Tournament PLay). It'd give you a decent base to get going with (well-written, excellent books!!!)

Thanks for the tip. I did plan to try "Kill Everyone", bit it was on backorder so I went with "Kill Phil" instead. If I like it, I might still read "Kill Everyone" sometime in the future.

I agree with your advice about the Harrington books and from the brief skimming I gave them (very brief) they do seem quite good. However, as much as I admire Harrington and as good as the books seem to be, the man is definately not blessed with the gift of brevity. I get a headache just looking at his books setting on the shelves.

I'm not necessarily knocking his expansive writing style, and I'm sure I'll eventually get to his books, but since I'm 99% a cash game player and only very rarely dabble in tournaments I wanted something simpler and quicker just to get me going in the tournies. If I evetually decide to be a more serious tournament player, I'll definately get the Harrington books.

Big_Rudy said:

I agree with your advice about the Harrington books and from the brief skimming I gave them (very brief) they do seem quite good. However, as much as I admire Harrington and as good as the books seem to be, the man is definately not blessed with the gift of brevity. I get a headache just looking at his books setting on the shelves.

I'm not necessarily knocking his expansive writing style, and I'm sure I'll eventually get to his books, but since I'm 99% a cash game player and only very rarely dabble in tournaments I wanted something simpler and quicker just to get me going in the tournies. If I evetually decide to be a more serious tournament player, I'll definately get the Harrington books.

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I'm currently reading the Harrington books and would have to agree with Poker Orifice in that they are excellent. You're correct in that they aren't short but that's mainly because he stacks them full of real life examples of hands that were played out - this reinforces the messages he makes which aren't long in nature and well explained. Without those examples the book would be around a third less pages but far less valuable.

Yeah, I agree about your point on the Harrington books. I didn't mean to knock their quality at all, I just think they are beyond what I need right now since I play (maybe) 1-2 tournaments a week and play 99% cash. Right now the Harrington books are overkill for me, so I decided to start with Kill Phil. It still hasn't arrived though, so no thoughts on its quality.

I wasn't too impressed with the Kill Phil book, but really liked 'Kill Everyone'. As with others I'd agree that you can't go wrong with the Harrington books as a base. I bought all of his tournament and cash game books and loved them. The Harrington books are mostly how to think in hands they would likely benefit your cash game as well as tournament play. The really tournament specific things are just related to M (essentially the size of your stack and the speed with which the blinds and antes increase determine the type of hands you can play and how aggressively you need to build your stack to survive). I'd say that Kill Phil would be of almost no value to you. Just doing the Skalansky simple tournament strategy (Jam or Fold) is about the same likelihood for success (extremely low) and the same ultra dull approach.

So the Kill Phil strategy is basically just pushing all-in with an average hand?

Just got it, so I've only skimmed it quickly so far. It gives you hand ranges and tells you which of those ranges to shove based upon your stack size in relation to blind levels. The goal seems to be to get all the money in either pre-flop, or on the flop at the latest. The theory is that more experienced tournament players will be able to out-play relatively new players on the later streets, so by confining all the decisions to the early part of the hand you limit their advantage and reduce your chance to be outplayed.

I think it's a good tool to have in your arsenal. I don't like shoving early in the tournament, but it's a good way to steal pots when the blinds are high and your stack is shortening. But after all, the authors themselves state that this book is written for the tournament poker novice. "Kill Everyone" is more advanced (haven't read it yet) and the Harrington books are a must for every poker tournament player.

Kill phil strategies

I've read about harrington's strategy all in or fold this is pure donkey style bingo poker .I've been in hundred free rolls I see this crap all the time I've followed people using the all in every hand strategy ,which harringtons strategy isn't much different just because your doing certain cards in certain positions it's still all in or fold .These people will get huge stacks but they never win,tell me I'm wrong ,if some one has won any tourney like this let me know.If every one starts playing like this, no limit texas holdem will be dead,you might as well call it texas bingo.