Blackrain79
Slot games are by Blackrain79 Poker far the most popular genre at the online casino. Their fun and exciting themes adorned with spectacular Blackrain79 Poker graphics, sound effects, and progressive jackpots make them a winning choice Blackrain79 Poker for any casino lover! Nathan Williams (BlackRain79) ♠️ Founder of www.blackrain79.com ️ 3-time best selling poker author ♣️ Travel, fitness, retire young. Nathan 'BlackRain79' Williams is a professional poker player, author and blogger from Canada. He is known as the 'king of the micros' as he has some of the highest winnings in history at these stakes. He is also a popular video producer on the training site DragTheBar as well as a blogger and two-time author.
Writer: Nathan 'blackrain79' Williams
Title: The Micro Stakes Playbook
Year: 2017
Who should read this book: Poker players stuck on microlevels who wants to develop their game.
Nathan Williams (a.k.a. 'BlackRain79') third book about poker strategy, The Micro Stakes Playbook (released in 2017) shares a lot with his previous two, especially Crushing the Microstakes. Some areas are touched a second time and inevitably the author is sometimes repeating him self. If you haven’t read any of his previous books, you get more of his ideas and if you have read Crushing the Microstakes and made progress from it, you can for sure find new hand examples here that will be fruitful.
The Micro Stakes Playbook is all about how to win money from micro stakes and Nathan Williams is probably not doing anything wrong by stuck to the same subject area. After all, he is one of the biggest experts on micro-stakes. The philosophy is “to quietly make that easy money” on the low stakes derived from the premise that you “consistently exercising a substantial skill edge versus much weaker opponents”. So it is winning steady money by grinding instead of take a shot on higher levels.
If you aren’t aware of it, it takes considerable hard work to achieve a good win rate at micro levels. You will learn all about it by reading this book. Williams himself is obviously putting much time into review and post-analyze his hand sessions. Although the demand for hard work, the positive thing is that you don’t have to be an expert to earn bucks from these levels. You don’t have to know all the advanced play in the book. What you need to know could probably be found in this book.
There are poker books and there are poker books. If you wish to be entertained with anecdotes and stuff like that, such as Phil Hellmuth's animal allegories in his Play Like a Pro or if you want a journalistic approach as in Andy Bellins’ Poker Nation, this may not be the card game book you’re looking for. Nathan Williams books are packed with instructions and comes with a high information density. The content includes some of the wise “proverbs”, but more of the concrete hand examples. The proverbs are perhaps flashier and easier to pick up, but it is probably by studying the detailed hand examples that you can make big step forward as a player.
What you get in The Micro Stakes Playbook is concrete examples how you achieve an exploitative strategy. Since the micro stakes involve most weak players it is also the level where the ability to exploit weak plays to the maximum really pays off.
If you are not familiar with tactical concepts such as semi-bluff, c-bet, 3-bet and floating this book will give you the fundamental tools to become an advance player. If you already know these concepts by name, you are probably not completely sure when and how to use them. There are many examples in this book that tells that and lots of other strategical methods.
There are many ways to group players in regard to playing styles and one typical way is the LAG/TAG/LP/TP. Williams use six categories of players: Nits, TAGfish, TAGs, LAGs, Whales and Maniacs which he put into three groups: bad regulars, good regulars and recreational. This book makes you realize the importance to group players according to player styles and gives advice how to recognize and exploit each.
As said before, this is not a book that teaches how to win at the highest stakes. But it is nevertheless for the ambitious player. The book gives some promises that you can be a winning player, but at the same time it is honest by saying that it also demands much from you.
The book can only be ordered from the author’s website blackrain79.com.
All book reviews
Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself?
Sure. I am 36 and I live in Thailand. I am originally from Vancouver, Canada. I spent most of my time in university before poker blew up, getting a liberal arts degree.
And how did you get into playing poker?
It was late 2004 and I was at a small party with a bunch of friends. One guy showed us how to play this “new game” called Texas Hold’em. We each put in $5. I got lucky and won. I found online poker the very next day and started learning the game and playing the fake chip tables.
When did you see your first success?
Well I was a fake chip superstar haha. I amassed millions and millions on Partypoker and Pokerstars. But seriously, after I switched over to real money I had success right away. It probably doesn’t make for a very good story since there were no struggles.
This was during an era when the games were quite a bit easier. That is perhaps one reason. But I think the other is that I was well prepared. I knew everything about bankroll management, a solid TAG strategy and emotional control before I ever sat down and started playing for real money.
I also took my time. I started at the very lowest stakes (1c/2c) and slowly climbed up. It took me about 2 years to reach the NL100 tables (50c/1$).
How did you maintain that success and implement training to improve?
So since I came up during an era before training sites, modern books, coaching and active forums, I had to find ways to improve on my own a lot. I did this by playing a ton of poker and then spending a lot more time reviewing my hands in Pokertracker.
Can you share one major piece of advice that you think sets you apart from the rest in your training regime?
I really think it was the time that I put in at the tables. I have played over 7 million hands now lifetime. There is no way that you are going to play that many hands of poker and not learn a thing or two. I think many people spend far too much time these days talking about the game, watching videos about the game, reading books about the game and not doing the thing that really matters, playing it.
Blackrain79 Review
When did you decide to start coaching poker?
I decided to start coaching in about 2011 I think it was. This was shortly after I had signed on as an instructor at a major training site. I found it enjoyable to help people and a nice distraction from the tables. However, I decided to stop coaching in 2014 due to time commitments.
And after that you started to write, you currently have two published books - tell me a bit about that transition?
Yes. In recent years I have released two books. Crushing the Microstakes which is meant for the lower end of the micros (NL2 and NL5 in particular). And then just recently Modern Small Stakes which is also a strategy book that is geared more towards people who have moved on the NL10, NL25 and NL50 games.
I enjoy blogging and I kind of just wrote the first book as an experiment after a few people suggested it. It took off in popularity way beyond what I ever expected, so I eventually ended up writing a 2nd book as well.
If you had to choose between playing, or coaching and writing what would it be? And which aspect do you see yourself focusing on more in the next few years?
Well as of right now I am basically retired from coaching. I did it for many years and I may again one day but I prefer to put more of my time into playing the game and writing about it these days. I will always play the game because I simply enjoy it.
However, I do like the part-time transition that I have moved to in recent years. I played full-time for over 5 years and it can get stressful and lead to burnout. I also spend a lot of time writing about the game now from keeping up my blog at www.blackrain79.com to writing weekly columns over at Pokernews.com.
Since I check out your blog I know that you’re living in Thailand right now - any plans to come back to Canada or have you found your new home?
Canada will always be the place where I am from but I consider Thailand to be home now. I will always go back to Canada to visit family and friends though.
How long would it take you to take a new player from 1/2c to being profitable in the next few limits up?
A lot of it depends on the player’s dedication to learning, work ethic and discipline. So it is very difficult to answer this question. For some a matter of weeks or months, for some perhaps never.
Blackrain79 Hud Setup
Do you have any plans for new writing work at the moment?
Blackrain79
I may or may not be writing another book at the moment. I do not have any other comment on that haha :)