/////////////////////////////////


What is his screen name on Stars and Tilt?

Guys please stop using PTR to see if these players are winners or losers. First and foremost, it doesn't track every site and it doesn't link every sites results together. Many players play as different names on different sites. Secondly, PTR didn't even exist until recently so the results aren't of their entire playing careers. Thirdly most of the sample sizes these guys have on PTR are so small that it is not even worth looking at.

As for why the books cost so much? Well there are a lot of factors. First they front the money out of their own pocket to write the book, fund it, and distribute it. They have to pay for website development, marketing, editing, web site hosting, payment processors, customer support, etc. With companies such as 2p2, it's a huge company who orders the book and pays for all that and distributes the book in higher volume across the nation to bookstores where everyone can see and purchase it. With these ebooks, it's a target market.

These players are great players but better instructors and authors. Baluga set the price according to what he felt the material in the book was worth for the target audience. These aren't books you just read with basic concepts in them like how to play AK like many 2p2 books. I've purchased about 20 poker books and maybe learned something new and small out of each one of them. Sure, that was worth the $30 price tag. However, that didn't improve or change my game drastically. I still had to figure many things out for myself. In the case of Baluga's Easy Game, it's not just another ordinary poker book. The book explains advanced concepts in today games. It breaks down concepts in easy to understand writing and doesn't withhold any questions you may have. This book is easily worth the price for anyone looking for the extra edge to improve their game, mostly SSNL/MSNL players. What you need to understand is that this book is almost like a complete coaching package from Baluga, which is worth well over the $900 price tag of this book.

I've also read "Let There Be Range" by Cole Sole. Is that worth the price tag? I feel like it was good, but that price tag of $1800 was a little too high. I feel it's easily worth its current price tag of $750 or whatever it is at. I learn more things in these e-books than I do any other standard $30 poker book because they are more advanced, which is the key concept.

Lastly, I don't care of Baluga becomes a losing player. His book is amazing and completely revamped my game. I'm sure I've already made the money back from the concepts I've learned and I can only continue to improve from there. His videos are also absolutely amazing. He is a great teacher, despite results, and the book is worth every penny. On top of that, you also don't have to worry about just anyone being able to read it. Only players who are serious on their game invest in it, and trust me, you won't see those guys at your stakes much longer.

I consider myself a good HU player NLHE/PLO mainly but heads up will play anything. I recently read this book vol 1 and vol 2. For those who want to improve their heads up play the section in vol 1 is very good, I related alot of how I play to it, and picked up a few good pieces of information. Online i've only got about 1200 hands cash games but I went from around 48BB/100 for the first 700, now on 62BB/100 for the entire 1200.

Good read.

Where are we supposed to go to see whether the advice works?Fifty thousand hands is better than nothing.


Please post your 'before' and 'after' results.I asked breathweapon to do the same when he made similar claims but he won't do it.

http://www.pokertableratings.com/ful...ch/balugawhale
He's down $173,511 since 1/1/09.

Lots of people were printing money against the Party Poker fish from 2003-2006. Now that the bubble has burst, the dead money is washing out of the game. PTR is not perfect, yet it at least show how people play at the table. I know it doesn't include many hands, bonuses, and all that, but it holds people accountable.

I can't look at my own graph and say "meh, variance." Why should anyone else?

I'm not going to knock baluga as he's obv a very good player who's been playing at pretty high stakes but I do want some evidence that the advice is current and still works.

Well said. I don't care either, since his books have helped my game than any other poker book I've read. And he's not a losing player. He was up over $260K and now probably only up $100K -- that doesn't equate that he's a losing player. Obviously, negative people -- who despise expensive books, because they cannot afford them -- have the negative mentality that his +$100K would go nowhere but landslide and would say in the most persuasive way that he is a losing player.

For those skeptics itching to see a graph of my winnings, sorry I won't waste my time and do that for you.

Cwocwoc your obviously not willing to invest in your own game. There is no magic pill. Since reading this book, watching Baluga's videos, and studying the concepts and working hard, my game improved greatly. I'm not sure what before and after results your looking for. I guess I can say that anytime I'm in a hand, I feel confident what is going on, what I'm looking to do, and why I'm doing what I'm doing. I understand concepts much much better now. Prior to this I'd make moves but not know why or understand why. I have been able to move up since reading this and studying Balugas concepts and feel very confident when I moved up.

Baluga has admitted in his blog to taking shots at higher stakes in deep stack games. Therefore it's possible to lose 173k within the year very easily. This is only one site folks. I'm sure Baluga plays on other sites and maybe even smaller site that aren't tracked as well as plays live. This doesn't change the fact that he is a great teacher, breaks concepts down in ways that are easy to understand.

So if Baluga plays and has a 500k month or week, are we suddenly going to post those results and say how amazing he is ? Doubtful. Just like posting a losing year at high stakes, posting a huge score isn't changing the fact that he's an excellent teacher and his book is worth the cost.

Nobody is telling you to buy these books. In fact I'd prefer you didn't buy it as it'd just be another player improving their game. What I am saying though is sometimes you need to invest in yourself, just like people invest in their businesses. If you play 50nl or 100nl, investing $900 in your game for this book will greatly help your game. You'd probably easily make that back within a month or two, plus move up if you study and apply the concepts.

I am a better player after reading this book than I was prior. How much better? I'd say easily the cost of the book.

Winning 1.79 BB/100 over 213K hands is not that uncommon.

If someone is going to demand serious coin for strategy advice, he needs to have a track record I can trust. As in one million hands with a 3 BB/100+ winrate. That shows that someone is a consistent, disciplined winner over time.

Dusty Schmidt, for all his faults, is in that ballpark.

Here's what the binding looks like:

So you're unwilling to post any results and we still have no evidence whether the book is any good or whether your results have really improved after reading it,as you claim.If you don't want anyone to buy the book why are you plugging it so hard?

Sigh. It's clear cwocwoc that you don't like ebooks, the price, or don't want to invest in anything. I don't want you to purchase it because just like anyone who improves, it makes the games tougher. Common sense there. Secondly, by me posting results it means nothing. I am a 100% better player after reading this book. Any results I post can't show exactly what this book or any video or anything I studied directly had impact wise on my specific results. In short, I was playing 50nl on Cake prior to reading this book and became a 200nl regular on Cake afterward. I have more than quadrupled my Cake roll during this time. I attribute my work ethic of studying the game, reading this book, and talking hands over with better players to this. Hell, if anything for a $900 book you'd think I'd feel ripped off and negative things to say as you generally expect a lot with that price.

I have no financial gain to post how this book improved my game. In fact, I've never even spoke with Baluga. People asked if the book helped, and I stated that it helped my game. Considering I worked in the training industry for 2 years and watched countless training videos, I'd say this book had the biggest impact to make concepts "click" for me. The bottom line is the book helped my game combined with how I studied the material. No, it's not a magic pill. Yes, it's worth the price. Yes, I've improved my game overall from the purchase and studying of the material. Yes, I recommend this book to others. No, I don't wish you'd buy it because it'll make my opponents better.

It's also important to realize that any results myself or anyone would post wouldn't correlate to your results anyways simply due to everyone needing to work on different aspects of their games. I struggled with turn play and non showdown pots. Therefore I saw an increase in my profits from non showdown pots as well as turn play. For you, it may be something else. Just as for the next guy it may be something different .

I've got Ed Miller's ebook and I suspect that it is better than all the higher priced ebooks.I've seen 'Let there be range' and Ed Miller's book is better than that.If you post your results it will prove that you've improved after reading the Baluga book.I remember you from Cardrunners.You insisted that the sound on some of the early vids was good when it was really poor.

Sound on earlier vids was perfectly fine to me. I've never had many issues with sounds, nor do I understand why it's being brought up. What miracle results are you looking for? Did you read my entire paragraph dedicated to this? I've also stated that not one single graph will show how much I've . That is simply impossible. Throughout any graph there will be variance, short term results, times I played poorly and ran well, times I've played great and ran bad, etc. On top of that, you can't directly point all results to one source. I've studied my ass off talking to better players, posting on forums, etc. I haven't read Ed Millers new book, but the first version was decent, but no where near the level of Easy Game. You are right though, I wasn't too impressed with Let There Be Range, but I did learn stuff from it that I wouldn't in any 2p2 book and that helped improve some aspects of my game. I have no idea why your so hung up on results when I've mentioned that due to this book I think clearer, understand concepts, and I'm not lost in hands anymore. This book isn't the end all do all to my game. I still watch videos, talk with friends, and find any method I can for continuous improvement. I'm willing to invest time and money back into my game to improve.

It is really simple, if you are not interested, stay away. I relayed my review of how this book helped me achieve a better understanding of my own game and turned my game around. That was the purpose of this thread. For everyone it will be different. If you guys are debating why these books are so expensive, they're probably not meant for you anyways.

My review in a nutshell : This has been the book that has helped my game the most of over 20 books I've read, including several top "e-books". It's well written in a conversational style and makes you feel like you're getting one on one coaching. The concepts are broken down very easily in easy to understand methods and it make things "click" for me that otherwise hadn't before. If you can afford this book, I would suggest investing in it.

That's what you said when many customers complained.Thank God others at Cardrunners took the complaint seriously and issued their trainers better quality mikes and instructions on how to use them.

Just some evidence of the improvement you claimed through reading the book making it 'pay for itself' will do.Maybe just your screen name so we can look it up ourselves on ptr etc.

That's highly debatable.I've found advanced material in there which isn't in 'Easy Game'

Don't be so impertinent.

If you've bought several expensive ebooks you've spent the thick end of $10k just on ebooks.


I think you're over-egging it there.A one-to-one coach will address your specific weaknesses and answer your questions.

And so they are in other less expensive books and some video courses.

You've failed to convince me that it's any better than the cheaper books.If it just contains a few 'advanced' plays which might or might not work (LTBR is like this) then it isn't imo.The concepts are very well known and available from a variety of sources.Some of these sources are even free!

No you didn't, not that I would anyway. If you can't afford the book, don't buy it - people are only going to get as much out of it as they put into it.

What kind of nonsense is that?You can put a lot into it without buying this book or LTBR etc.You made a similar claim that you improved and made loads of money after reading an expensive ebook but I didn't hear from you again after I asked you to post some results or give us your screen name.

^Sad.

Cwoccwoc, what if an breakeven ssnl player buys these books, improves and then moves up and becomes a breakeven player at the midstakes will you respect this breakeven graph as an improvement ??

Technically it's an improvement but the player should make sure he can beat a level before moving up.If you keep moving up until you find your break-even level you're never going to make any money,which is a bit ******ed!

That has been your point most of this thread, it's all about money and money making.

The thing is that not making money hasn't got to be ******ed, some of us have good jobs (me) and other are getting nice college degrees, so financially we are secured. Then poker becomes a matter of fun and development, the sense of going somewhere and improving, so I'm pretty sure that if you look up people who have bought all these expensive ebooks etc, you will find a large chunk of them shoving up with horrid graphs simply due to the fact that they push up in limits to the level where they are challenged.


Like a friend of mine decided to learn the drums .. and after a he went out and bought a top tier drumset, that is around 6k. He's never going to be good enough to make a living playing.

People splash 2k on big TVs all the time

or 4k on a week in Ibiza getting wasted and banging chicks.


And none of them have poker incomes on the side




WHY ???


Cos it is FUN !!!!



Tbh, I can't really get exited over a 2k purchase whatever it may be ... nor by people being jealous of ebooks authors making a nice income from those 2k purchases.

4k? Chicks graph pls.

Ibiza?

Yeah, was talking about your (PUA) graph

I don't know a single trustworthy guy, who ever banged a chick on Ibiza.