Blackrain79 Book
Blackrain's Poker Book at the CardsChat.com Online Poker Forum - Is it possible to get this for Kindle or Kindle App? I can't find it on the Kindle store.
Mike Turner started out playing poker in home games with friends when he was in college. He soon realized he had a talent for the game, deposited some money into an online poker account and never looked back. After mainly playing cash games and multi-table tournaments, he switched to Sit 'n Gos, which he found to be the most profitable and enjoyable.
His favorite game types are non-turbos and hyper turbos, and he specializes in heads-up and 6-max. Mike has had great success playing online Sit 'n Gos and including bonuses and rakeback earned a profit of over $25,000.
I get through this book (didnt ready every word) but except this limping strategy (limping small pps from EP) i agree with everything here i think it is definitely worth of money for new players who want to start making money from poker + players who stucked in NL5 for long time (i would definitely buy it if i iam playing NL2 or NL5 now) i got opportunity to see only blackrain videos from NL2 and NL5 when i was playing NL5 and his videos increased my winrate from 2BB/100 to 4BB/100 in one week by just watching his videos, he is definitely very good player to learn from in NL2-NL5. It's a really really good book for any beginning player. It will teach you alot of concepts you may have read about on 2+2 but weren't exactly sure what they meant. It focuses on the essentials and gives anyone looking for a way to better themselves as a player ways to do it. The most interesting thing people should consider on these stakes which the book explains really really well is overbetting preflop with your premiums. This is a 2NL strategy which really helps you out to get the most value out of your big hands. While that strategy is a really bad and a huge tell if you play with anyone remotely competent, suprisingly enough on 2NL it produces amazing results.
Lots of little tidbits like this can be found everywhere throughout the book and anyone playing at these stakes can get at least something out of it. I've also done some 1 on 1 coaching with the guy and not only is he the most affordable coach you could find with a coaching rate of 30$/hour, he's really on fire the entire session and looks for ways to help you out in any way he can. He also lets you stay pass the allotted time and also helps you over skype if u have trouble with something poker related.
Can't recommend the guy enough. No, this is far from 'low or normal' on Pokerstars. Over such a large sample, his win rate is excellent.
This would be fairly normal on softer sites though. I would say they are pretty normal, just look at the other winners at 5NL it's just that noone else would play that many hands there lol. 2NL and 5NL you really dont need to know much about poker to beat them. I also would not try to 'chrush' these nanostakes with a special strategy where you get in trouble at higher limits, rather try to improve your game at these stakes and prepare how to play good poker for the higher limits. I would say they are pretty normal, just look at the other winners at 5NL it's just that noone else would play that many hands there lol. 2NL and 5NL you really dont need to know much about poker to beat them.
I also would not try to 'chrush' these nanostakes with a special strategy where you get in trouble at higher limits, rather try to improve your game at these stakes and prepare how to play good poker for the higher limits According to PTR, the only player who has a higher winrate at 2NL on PokerStars over a large sample size this year is HellNative. BlackRain79 is 2nd best and is first in most money made in 2011; this is not 'pretty normal'. Books like Super System and Theory of Poker are pillars. But this is regarding poker in general.
If you play the microstakes, CTM is the next logical step. I bought it, read it(twice) and personally, think that it's one of those books that will stand the test of time. I've read some great articles on 2+2 by some great players, but most of the time I'm not sure who's article I'm reading.
Blackrain79 Poker
Is he a winning player, is he still playing the stakes that he's talking about, is the information still relevant today? I didn't question none of these things when I bought and started reading this book. First of all, regardless of what some people(generally the fish) say about the author, no one can deny his skills/strategy/thought processes for crushing these microstakes. No one can ignore his PTR page. And yes, he did spend a lot of time and put a lot of volume into these stakes, but the product of that was this book. So, I thank him.
It made me a better player, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who could say this. The book is clearly written, the strategy and how it is presented is irrefutable and he managed to bring up and explain specific spots which appear most frequently.
His approach to the games is different and original(fresh). Most importantly, everything applies today. So, yeah, the book receives 5 stars from me, and much respect to BlackRain79. Let the haters hate.
I’ve just read Nathan’s book and I’ll offer a few comments that I hope potential readers will find useful. There are several elements of the book that seem to be unique in poker literature. I’ve not read a book before that was specifically aimed at 2NL and 5NL. Nathan has targeted a very specific audience and that must be borne in mind when you think of buying it. There’s no point in saying that the book covers what “most people” already know because most people don’t play 2NL and those that do play at that level seem to need all the help they can get.
As seems to be common these days the author expresses his micro limit credentials and it certainly seems that he’s crushed these limits as he moved up. He’s also very realistic in saying that his expertise is at this level and neither the theory nor his own skill necessarily means that you could use these techniques at higher levels.
So we read the book based on this filter. We’re talking novices here. The book is split into two obvious sections: pre flop and post flop. The pre flop section, about 45% of the work contains everything that you might expect from a primer like this. It’s presented as a “playbook in my head” and takes you through all the decisions and knowledge that a player needs when entering the pot.
There’s nothing remarkable here but it is laid out well and easy to understand and gives the reader a first taste of Holdem Manager, Table Ninja and Poker Stove as well as the usual opening hand charts and ideas on position. The book is aimed primarily at full ring and the stats advice reflects this but the crossover to 6max should be pretty straightforward. Early on we find that the preferred method of playing is very exploitative. There’s nothing much about balance here but as Nathan suggests there’s no point in balancing when the villains are not paying attention. The post flop section is equally thorough.at least the flop section. The concept here is that decisions made early and cheap are better than more expensive later street decisions so that sections on Turn and River play are not quite so thoroughly explained although they do contain all the basic information. There’s a section on Extraction which was something new.
It reinforces that concept of playing exploitatively.fold the bad hands and bet the good ones. Bluffing doesn’t come into this argument as you might expect at the level where a TAG type ABC style seems to do the job. Competitors in this market are likely to be books like The Poker Blueprint and any number of starter books.
This book is priced just a tad higher than many 2NL players might consider to be best value but it’s thorough and well laid out and should do well in this market. The examples are clear and the advice easy to understand.
Blackrain79 Poker
There’s no point in buying this book if you’re already a seasoned grinder and understand the basics well. You’re not the target market and if you’re a fan of Game Theory then I suggest you stick to Phillip Newall. This book takes quite a different approach. So.If you’re looking for a survival guide or a starter book that’ll take you through the first two levels of your poker life then this book should be a great help.
I would say they are pretty normal, just look at the other winners at 5NL it's just that noone else would play that many hands there lol. 2NL and 5NL you really dont need to know much about poker to beat them. I also would not try to 'chrush' these nanostakes with a special strategy where you get in trouble at higher limits, rather try to improve your game at these stakes and prepare how to play good poker for the higher limits You are of course welcome to your opinion but I think you are wrong.
I think a lot of people actually do have trouble with these limits. Just because YOU apparently breezed through them doesn't mean that everyone else did.