No Limit Hold’em – Beating the Micro Stakes: Crushing Micro Stakes & Small Stakes Poker

6 Comments

1. shaihulud says:

   July 29, 2010 at 4:33 pm

   I decided to write this review because the glowing 5-star reviews written here are way off base. I suspect their writers are either friends of the author or have not read any other poker books and have nothing to compare this one to. I was tempted to give this book a 1-star rating for balance, but in all fairness it deserves something like 1 3/4.

   Anyway. I bought this book because I was bankrolled only for microstakes and the books I had read did not seem to apply at this level.

   I was pretty disappointed with the book. First of all it’s really more like a pamphlet than a book–at 167 pages it seems solid but the writing is huge. This book is at least twice as short as most poker books (all the ones I’ve seen anyway, and I’ve read at least ten). So what was I hoping to get out of this book? I wanted to learn to beat NL10 and NL25. I buy the book and find out the strategies are for NL2 and NL5, the author’s “specialties.” He says you can apply them to NL10 but I have tried to no avail.

   The actual strategy taught is very, very basic, and can be summarized completely in about 10 pages. The rest of the book is filler. The book certainly doesn’t teach you how to “crush” any stakes, so the title is a bit of a misnomer. You can beat NL2 and NL5 for a few bb/100 and break even at NL10 with these strategies, which isn’t much of an accomplishment at these stakes.

   Who is Thomas Mitchell anyway, and why is he qualified to write a book on poker? Glad you asked! Mr. Mitchell provides a graph showing he’s a winning player–over 77,000 hands, he’s made $225. If that doesn’t qualify you to write a book I don’t know what does.

   Bottom line, will this book help you? Maybe…if you’re terrible and want to beat NL2 for 5 bb/100. Otherwise, not so much.
   Rating: 2 / 5

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2. L337 NUB says:

   July 29, 2010 at 5:37 pm

   Well I must lead off by saying the book was alright, such as it was and what there is of it. Not much on theory whatsoever, except those concepts borrowed from Sklansky’s works. Most of the book was merely hand histories that only scarcely made any kind of point. The advice he does offer however is decent, if a bit nitty in spots. I personally believe this strategy could make you a modest winner in the micros, though as another reviewer commented a somewhat more aggressive approach should yield better results.

   My main problem with the book is his absurd belief that micro-stakes players “have the goods” when they bet. I very rarely find that to be the case. Often they are shoving Ace-High, rainbow flops such as A49 with KK (pocket Kings).

   That point is a major premise of his strategy. Another problem is that he seems to advocate at one point folding top two pair when an opponent moves in during a BvB confrontation because there are straight and flush draws possible. He appears to be suggesting you FOLD top two pair ( a decent, if mildly marginal, holding) just in case your adversary draws out somehow. That is ridiculous of course.

   All told, this may work for a nub looking to take some kind of foothold in the micros, but an experienced player would be taking somewhat the worst of it and short-changing himself using this nitty strategy.
   Rating: 2 / 5

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3. Shawn G. says:

   July 29, 2010 at 5:49 pm

   The book is ridiculously short, has some highly questionable strategy recommendations, and advocates strategies that can’t beat various micro stakes levels (such as 10NL and 25NL). I would steer clear of this book. I also would have preferred if the author had more of a playing background than seventy-something thousand hands. The sample size is too small to be meaningful.
   Rating: 1 / 5

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4. Anonymous says:

   July 29, 2010 at 8:37 pm

   The book is WAY to short. Like a previous reader stated, the “book” could be summed up in 10 pages. The rest is filler. Author’s sample size is also way too short. I’ve had sample sizes of 80,000 hands where I ran great. Statistically, this is meaningless and the author probably knows it. Limping with suited aces and kings is a waste as the majority of time, if your flush comes in, you will not get paid off. Set mining is profitable, but do you really need to read a book to know this? My opinion is that the author struggles with the micro stakes like the majority of poker players and decided to try and make up for some losses with a poorly written, weak attempt at writing a book.

   Very weak book that will do nothing to improve your game. Save your money. Oh, and for what it is worth, the author has been posting on his website since February 2010, that more “instructional” videos will be available shortly. I just checked his website and (5 months later) there are still no updates. There is MUCH better content available for free on the web.

   I would have rated this zero stars if it were an option.
   Rating: 1 / 5

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5. Lance says:

   July 29, 2010 at 9:19 pm

   This book is good for the absolute beginner, but for people that have been playing awhile don’t waste your time. I also disagree with some of his open limping concepts.
   Rating: 2 / 5

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