Originally Posted by melnor

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.

Originally Posted by erojas47

Never played in a tourney before and 3/4 done with vol 1. Great book, I also feel like a lot of the stuff could be used towards low-limit cash games. Would that be an accurate assumption?

Originally Posted by Degenfish

Any word on when to expect vol 2 in ebook format? Have too many dead tree poker books on my shelf to get any more and I want to pick up vols 1 & 2 at the same time after reading this thread

Originally Posted by FieryJustice

You can get it on kindle I think.

Originally Posted by Degenfish

Feel free to smack me for being too lazy to google it; I didn't even think to check the d&b site (so used to buying from 2p2 or professionakpoker.com) - it's available there in the epub format I needed, since I'm not part of the kindle crowd personally

Buying now - it's been years since I read HoH; any thoughts on whether or not I'd be better off reviewing those first or just diving straight in to these two?

Originally Posted by Poker Clif

What is "d&b"?

Originally Posted by Degenfish

Feel free to smack me for being too lazy to google it; I didn't even think to check the d&b site (so used to buying from 2p2 or professionakpoker.com) - it's available there in the epub format I needed, since I'm not part of the kindle crowd personally

Buying now - it's been years since I read HoH; any thoughts on whether or not I'd be better off reviewing those first or just diving straight in to these two?

Originally Posted by cushlash

Ordered both volumes, should be getting here today.

Quick question for you Jonathan. I'm trying to satellite into the main event but I can play a maximum of $300 level tourneys. At first I was playing the 330 megas but they were only getting around 50 players (and they are basically super turbos) so I decided to play the 2pm deepstack and just try to get a big score. However, the rake for the deepstack is much bigger. They take a total of 40 of the 235 while the megas only take 39 out of 330. Is this rake a deal breaker or should I still play the deepstack because of the bigger fields? Or maybe should I try something else? Thanks and looking forward to the book.

Originally Posted by Poker Clif

I used to be a very tight player, but a few months ago, even before I bought your book, I was working on opening up my game. I haven't been to the local charity games in a while, and all of the regulars there know me as the tightest player in the room. There are very few serious players (one guy who has a cash on the Heartland Poker tour is about it, he might be the only one besides me that has an actual poker bankroll, and he's the only one with whom I discuss poker). It's very social, husband and wife, bf and gf, sometimes 4 or 5 people from the same family. All ages of styles and players, including several mainiacs--I've seen one woman around 30 shove the first hand of a tournament several times.

I was slightly better then breakeven over a small sample size. I never really studied to play live (tells, etc.) until recently. I am 56 years old.

Should I dress conservatively to keep my "old and tight" image as long as I can? Any other suggestions? These are generally $30 to $60 tournaments, 50-100 players, and my only real live alternative, as the nearest casinos with poker rooms are more than 100 miles away. My travel options are limited due to bankroll and family considerations.