Just in time for the holiday season is a brand new book from Drag the Bar instructor Dusty Schmidt called “Don’t Listen to Phil Hellmuth: Correcting the 50 Worst Pieces of Poker Advice You’ve Ever Heard.” The book, the first for Schmidt since “Treat Your Poker Like a Business,” will be available in e-book format on December 6th at DustySchmidt.net.
Poker News Daily: Can you give us the background to your new book?
Dusty Schmidt: It started at the WSOP this year. I was talking with friend and we were going over all of these ideas. He has been a live player for years and is infatuated with the online game and the way we arrive at our decisions. I started thinking about all of these things you hear people say on TV and got an idea to do a book based on correcting misconceptions. We start each chapter with a misconception and move on to things loosely related to that. As we were going though the misconceptions we had, we realized that Phil Hellmuth dominated the list.
PND: How is the book structured?
Dusty Schmidt: It’s divided into three parts. The first part has the 50 misconceptions. We start off every chapter with the misconception and go through those. The second part is taking 25 really interesting hands I’ve played online and going through my thought process. We know that’s been a popular way to learn, so we incorporated that into the book as well. The final part of the book is a quiz.
PND: How can interested readers get a copy?
Dusty Schmidt: It’s only available on DustySchmidt.net right now. We’re releasing it as an e-book; the hard copy is at the printer right now and will be out in three weeks.
PND: Give us one of your most memorable misconceptions from the book.
Dusty Schmidt: One main misconception that sticks out is “Bring your big guns to the big war.” This is a Phil Hellmuth quote, but a large percentage of poker players believe that you want to save your big hands for when you win a big pot. I think an online poker player might approach it as, “Are the plays I’m making profitable?” If a player feels strongly that an opponent can’t call a bet on the flop, call a raise on the turn, and call an all-in on the river, then I’m all for playing a humungous pot without a good hand. That chapter also has good situations to run big bluffs – what types of cards, what types of opponents, and other possibilities.
One of the misconceptions we talk about was my own advice. I’ve always said in my videos, “Punish the limpers,” but I have not found that play to be too successful anymore. So, one of the chapters is on punishing the limpers. Some of these weren’t misconceptions 15 years ago, or even two years ago, but they’ve evolved over time. People are still hanging on to that old advice. We’re not opposed to picking on anyone, even ourselves.
PND: What kind of feedback do you expect to receive once the book is fully released?
Dusty Schmidt: I think it’ll be mixed. The title itself is probably going to turn people on or off. The focus is going to be so much on the title that at the end of the day when people have a chance to read it, we hope they’ll think the content is positive. With the last book, we got excellent feedback and I put as much or more effort into this one.
PND: From suing the USGA to calling out Hellmuth in a book, you tend to go against the grain. Talk a little bit about your persona.
Dusty Schmidt: I think that’s part of who I am. I’m a rebel spirit in a lot of ways. I like to examine accepted norms and look into them more to find the truth.
PND: Finally, what was the most notable poker story of 2010, in your opinion?
Dusty Schmidt: One of the most shocking things to me was all of the guys playing in the Ladies Event at the WSOP. That was pretty incredible. That one blew my mind and made me scratch my head.
