That's suck...i only use moneybookers or site transfers for online purchase...

Got both copies on Friday and have already blown through the first Volume. Good stuff and very readable. I like the fact that strategy is discussed instead of having hard, fast rules to follow like hand charts and the like. Makes the information easier to absorb and apply.

You may not like the parallel, but in many ways, this is a more advanced discussion of the prinicples found in Snyder's Poker Tournament Formula, but is much more applicable to today's players and atmosphere. I don't mean that as a slap at all. Snyder's book helped me take down my first few tourneys and I have a feeling these two books will help me evolve even more.

Thanks.

Thanks for the praise. I am out to make people good poker players, not chart memorizing robots. If you learn to think clearly about poker, you will be able to make good decisions in all situations.

I want to thank you for your book. I haven't been playing all that long, but I'm 56 years old and I'm one of those stereotypically tight old guys that you write about. My first position opening range has been TT+, AK, AQs.

I've known for a while that I've needed to open up my ranges. In local live tournaments of around 30 players I almost always make the final table, but seldom cash (which is usually top 3). I'm a small winner online and I'm breakeven live (although it's a very small sample size, so I don't know really know whether I'm any good live or not.) I should have some sort of edge against very soft (charity room) live competition.

I recently took the plunge and decided to change my button opening range from about 20% to 50% of hands, and I was shocked to find that online players really do fold the blinds enough to make that a profitable range! But I haven't tried playing a a lot more hands from earlier postion, other than adding 99 to my UTG range.

I think I've been cautious about opening up my range and being a loose player, because I couldn't get my head around players like Vaenssa Selbst 4-bet shoving with 92.

Your comments on generally avoiding leveling wars, and explaning how one can be a loose player while keeping things systematic and simple, was a revelation to me. I guess I was thinking that to be a really good loose player, you have to read your opponent's soul and know when to shove with absolute crap.

I'm really excited about trying out the things in your book. I am definitely one of those players you mention in your book who will learn, study, and practice the concepts. I'm currently at 25% of my poker time being study, and I mgiht bump that up a little in the near future.

Thanks again for making a winning loose style clear and straightforward, and thanks in advance for the boost in my poker income that I expect to see in the next few months.

All I ever ask for as far as presents is poker books, so I should be getting Volume 2 for Father's day.

Im glad to hear you are changing your game for the better. I have never 3bet or 4bet 92 in my life and I dont plan on starting anytime soon. Good luck!

I am reading VOL 1 for the second time. This time taking notes and repeating everything I write...I feel like I am in college again....Thank You JL!!!!!!
2p2 and your books are definitely making me a better player and making me recognize some serious mistakes I was making, resulting in -EV decisions.

Jonathan,

Many times in live tournaments people give an undue amount of respect to the cold 4-bet, and I have found it profitable to polarize my cold 4-betting range to something like QQ+/AK and junk. When the stacks are such that your opponents can never really flat (and they are aware of this) why would you never want to cold 4bet with a garbage hand?

Johnathan,

I took down a ~200-player MTT yesterday. I was winning pots and stealing blinds with hands that just a month ago, I never would have opened from that postition, if at all. Instead of trying to keep up with the chip average (which is usually the case), starting with hand 3 I was in the top ten for most of the tournament.

What really surprised me was that after about 15 minutes it started to feel comfortable. As a former SNG/DON specialist, I've become an expert at playing tight--I was making money in PokerStars DONs with a VPIP of 7%. I thought that becoming a loose player would be a long, tough struggle, but with the tools you've given me, I don't think it's going to be a problem.

Variance was probably my friend yesterday, but I can definitely see the possibilites. Thank you.

Cold 4 betting with air is good if people never expect you to do it with air. Sadly, I personally don't have that going for me. If it works for you, go for it. Make sure you don't abuse it otherwise the play will lose its value.

Thanks for your input, it is a play that has been working for me so far to really good results. I can see why a player like yourself cannot get away with stuff like that as much. I will try not to abuse it for sure, don't want people to catch on.

is ebook version available?

Try kindle.com or the publisher's web page.

In your drawing hand examples, I noticed that you never talk about a number of outs. You say something like, "a gutshot and an overcard", or "a gutshot and a straight draw." A high percentage of your examples have a gutshot in there somewhere. Is this for some particular reason, such as a the value of a straight draw often being more disguised than other draws?

I purchased both volumes this week and have gone through both of them.

Volume 1 is great, tons of strategy relative to your stack size and your opponents stack size. Definitely some great info if you are transitioning from cash games to tournaments. I had some questions though as it pertains to shoving ranges when you are short as it applies to live tournaments. Quite often he alludes that his opponents will have a shoving range of AT LEAST 50% and often quite high as 85%. This is with the opponent having 17bb or less. Depending on your stack, you may only need something like 45% equity to justify calling these shoves, and 45% equity on someone who could be shoving 50% is pretty wide.. Is this a common occurrence in live MTTs? I can understand why you'd shove so wide in online sng's, but live is no different? That is about the only question I had regarding volume 1.

IMO, Volume 2 is maybe a 7/10 where as Volume 1 is at least a 9/10. Volume 2 seems to have been a hasty effort to just make a follow-up. As I read Volume 2, I was thinking to myself that this book is Ace on the River for the new generation. The first 1/4 of the book is devoted to a bit more strategy that reinforces stuff from Vol 1. The rest of the book is mostly about the lifestyle of a professional poker player. And a lot of it is common sense to someone that is over the age of 21. But that isn't to say it is not good info for a young 18 year old kid who dreams of living the pro life. Then the last 1/4 of the book is hand reviews as Jonathan explains his thought process going through the hand. That part is pretty good. What would make the hand history reviews even better would have been to ask some challenging questions to the reader regarding the hands, but it's certainly not necessary. The best part of Volume 2 is the free 1 month subscription to Jonathan's training site, that's worth the price of the book since the vids are good.

Overall I would say Volume 1 is worthy of owning and Volume 2 can be skipped.

When you have some sort of draw in no limit holdem, you are rarely calling to only win the pot when you hit. Also, you dont want your opponent to know when you hit. These extra outs give you lots of bluffing opportunities as well as hidden equity when the "normal" straight draws miss.