swingro's review on "Modern Small Stakes" by Nathan Williams aka Blackrain79

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swingro

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swingro's review on "Modern Small Stakes" by Nathan Williams aka Blackrain79

As BluffMeAllIn I also was approached by Nathan Williams “BlackRain79” to see if I would be willing to do a review of his newest book, “Modern Small Stakes” (MSS), to post up on the CardsChat forum.

I said yes instantly even though i never went past 10NL in my life. The reason is simple. He is one of the authors that i respect the most. I respect him a lot more than the big names out there because of his book "Crushing the microstakes". That was the book that helped me start my engine at 2 and 5NL. Nothing else worked better and i think there are haundreds of microstakes players that agree with me.

I was waiting for his second book and wondered if he could make it as simple for a part time player like me like his first book was. Well i wasn't dissapointed. He structured it the same way to be easy to read. Of course it is bigger and a little harder to read. But there 50 times more topics to discuss than the first one. And he took the time to discuss them. Hell the book has 500 pages. Nothing is out of place though.

The first part of the book is the part of different advices as any poker book has. His is a little different. The usual parts about table selection, winrates, Bankroll management, long run, moving up are all there and they have his personal touch .

The good part is the where he explains the HUD setup though. When I read that part another book camed to mind : Verneer's book "Bulding a bankroll". But Verneer did not take the sweet time to explain all the stats there, how they converge, what are the gold numbers and how to use them properly. Nathan did it and filled a lot of gaps that are left by some authors because they consider them too simple. And the reason why Natahan did that is also simple. His book is mostly HUD oriented. HUD screenshot on player profile and example on every topic discussed there. Every stat from his HUD profile is used again and again like teaching scollars to write. It is like using the HUD on poker tables . I have to mention that he is using PT4. I myself use HEM and HEM2 but it is a matter of personal preference.

As he did in CTM he explains what we are dealing with at the tables. He divided the player types into 9 categories, three of them (the worse of them) already discussed in the first book . This book is oriented into dealing with the other 6 (REGS): Super Nit, NIT, TAGfish, TAG, SLAG, LAG. All of the poker books out there do this but i have to say again that he is dooing this in corelation with the proper use of the HUD.

I have to mention that the book is both fr FR and 6-max players. He is taking care of both parts equally. The thing is that the play is no different but the numbers are not the same for FR and 6-max players. So he gave example for both sides with proper HUD screenshots.

Next part of the book is of course structured in explaining how to play on all 4 streets of the game.

Preflop play
Flop play
Turn play
River play

He uses over 100 examples, FR and 6-max with screenshots of the villains HUD. I am not going to tell the sorry again because BluffMeAllIn made it write in his review. What could see for myself (because I am not nearly a player at these lvls) is that Nathan took the line of the less variance possible. No out of the box stunts , no out of the blue bluffs in certain spots . Just play the player, make use of his weak points, the same approach as his first book "Crushing the Microstakes".

He constructed a decent range preflop for a TAG player and explained all the positions of the table FR and 6-max with starting hands both for unknown and known villains , verry helpfull when moving up in stakes. Also my favorite part , he made life easier for those scared by the 3-bet and 4-bet topics.

All the books of poker out there treat the 3-bet and 4-bet topic but it is like they are in a hurry to get over it. And as i said Nathan took his time to make things right. 96 pages on this subject only. Almost no rock unturned. And to make life easier for everyone he also added explanations about the 3-bet pots for every other street making full use of the HUD.

For every street he explained and constructed the percived ranges of a certain villan type and made it so everyone could understand alt least at some lvl. In a way he did not left any room for creativity :). His examples are clear , presenting facts and stats that leave no room for interpretation. At least not for me. I am an engineer and i cannot deny logic. Simply i cannot find more questions for him on the topics because i am not advanced enough. I only found one small error in the book but it has nothing to do with the reasoning.

Last part of the book is composed of a series of topics discussed by him over the last years on his blog. Sessions reviews, database reviews and filters and the TILT topic. Simple but helpfull advices.

As a conclusion.

This book is organized and fashioned as the first one. If you liked the first one and liked how it was friendly for the reader than you will like this one the same way. I am not saying this is the best book out there for low stakes players because that would not be nice for the other authors. But it is definitely the easier to understand as you would expect from the creator of "Crushing the Micros". I do not know how helpfull it is to live players because i never played live, but the HUD heavy approach is probably the best for online players. I am sure than in short time legions of low stakes players will start making life miserable from 10NL up as it happened at 2NL and 5NL after his first book and Crushing the Micros video series came out. I hope a Modern Small Stakes video series will not come out until i figure out this book myself.

Nathan asked for my honest opinion on the book. Well for me is gold. I loved the first one and this one is like making a new best friend. For me is one of the best out there. I did good with his first one at 2 and 5NL on Pokerstars. I played as a hobby but managed to become a winning player at these lvls and made myself some gifts with the money earned. I didn't make it that good at 10NL though because I have no time to search and study, and I am not even near of winning close as I do on my daytime job to take one step ahead in dedicating myself a little more to poker, so having all that structured simple in a book I understand is the best thing for me.

If I would reccomend to a beginner to buy this book, i would probably reccomend to buy his fist book also. You have to be certain on your skills at 2,4,5NL to not take advantage of the first one also. But for someone that wants to make the jum and make it properly I would gladly recommend reading it and reading it before other names.

I hope everyone will forgive for my bad english. But giving the fact that i am not an english native i hope i made myself understood a little.
 
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BigSlickBaby

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I hope everyone will forgive for my bad english. But giving the fact that i am not an english native i hope i made myself understood a little.

Admittedly, I haven't read the whole review you wrote yet. That said, I thought this part that I quoted was funny. Don't worry about your English. You write better in English than most of the people around me on a day to day basis who were born and raised here in America.
 
Kenzie 96

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Thanks for the review, very well done & very helpful. Would suggest you remove the apology regarding your English, entirely unnecessary.
Thanks again.
 
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swingro

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Hope my review was helpfull at least for the beginners. As i said i never went past 10NL myself . But the first book was a big jump for me in terms of understanding the game, hope the second one will be another big step.
 
TheBigFinn

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Thanks for the review, but what makes this book different than the 100 or so I have already read? My the way I like Verneer's videos and watch all he had on Card Runners pre BF, but the book was as good as the videos.
 
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swingro

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Thanks for the review, but what makes this book different than the 100 or so I have already read? My the way I like Verneer's videos and watch all he had on Card Runners pre BF, but the book was as good as the videos.

Nathan's book has filled a lot of gaps that Verneer left IMO. It is a lot easier to read and follow step by step.
In my review I was referring a lot to his first book "Crushing the Microstakes" , a book unique on its own. I loved how he structured the book and fashioned it to be friendly for the reader. And someone that came from micros background knew how to be much closer to micros players mindset.
Now if you just throw your eyes on 2 random pages of CTM and MSS you will think it is the same book.
I did not made that reference to Verneer to say that one book is better than the other. Verneers book has its good parts too. But I belive that for a player that wants to grind from 5NL to the stakes above, Nathan's book is the easier way .
Verneer's book is just a resume of his "Crushing the Micros" video series(Verneer has a video series "Crushing the Micros" too).
For Nathan its just the other way around.
 
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feecg

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Man i was searching for a good review of his book, and you just have done it. I watched some videos on youtube from him (i think his channel is BlackRain79Poker, or something like this) and I became very interested in his books. I'm getting started to cash games and I think his advices, even from the videos, has helped me a lot, now i hope i can read his books and learn even more. Well, as you said it must be a must be haha
 
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Tricky123bet

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Nathan's book has filled a lot of gaps that Verneer left IMO. It is a lot easier to read and follow step by step.
In my review I was referring a lot to his first book "Crushing the Microstakes" , a book unique on its own. I loved how he structured the book and fashioned it to be friendly for the reader. And someone that came from micros background knew how to be much closer to micros players mindset.
Now if you just throw your eyes on 2 random pages of CTM and MSS you will think it is the same book.
I did not made that reference to Verneer to say that one book is better than the other. Verneers book has its good parts too. But I belive that for a player that wants to grind from 5NL to the stakes above, Nathan's book is the easier way .
Verneer's book is just a resume of his "Crushing the Micros" video series(Verneer has a video series "Crushing the Micros" too).
For Nathan its just the other way around.

I'm also a fan of Nathan, since CTMS made the jump from 2nl to 5nl, and soon to 10nl, much easier for me.
Still, you have no negative feedback on the book at all? Like something you wanted to see more of, or things you wish he had brought up? I know MSS is probably very good but just asking :)
 
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