DVD / POKER: Win at Poker with Phil Tufnel

Xmas Poker Cash-in

There are lost and lots of poker DVDs out for Christmas, trying to cash in on the current craze. If I can give you one recommendation, it's NOT to buy Win at Poker with Phil Tufnell.It's like buying a celebrity fitness video, where the celeb is just the face for the DVD and they take orders from the fitness guru who knows what they're doing.

Knocking a few pounds off our Tuffers is The Hendon Mob's Barny Boatman. Why they can't just call this Win at Poker with Barny Boatman I don't know. It's him doing all the work. And having sat down and played with this guy I'd be happier to recommend it to you with his name on the front.

To be fair, after an extremely basic look at the game between Tuffers and Barny (plus some interview snippets of advice from people like the Devilfish and Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer) there is a pretty good tournament. This takes place in the Partypoker.com Poker Den, which ran an excellent series of games on Friday nights on Challenge TV. The real bonus is that Mad Marty Wilson, who I have a lot of time for, gets to play - he's normally tournament director for the Poker Den.

Barny honed his commentating skills on the classic Late Night Poker series and he's in good form here. Phil interrupts every now and again with basic questions that will help explain some of the decisions to newer players. There's a cut down version of the tournament for a quick overview, but I skipped to the full game which is only about an hour and a half long anyway.

Overall, I'm not sure how many times you'd watch this - even if you're a new player. If you're thinking about getting someone who plays poker a gift, opt for one of the World Poker Tour DVD sets, which has a whole season of games to watch and learn from. You can pick season one and two sets up pretty cheap from private sellers on Amazonor on Ebay.