This is my first major criticism thus far as well. Some of the information is great, however it makes for horrible reference because it is scattered across tons of text and therefore isn't as easy to refer back to or remember. I've busted out the highlighter just so I know where it is at.

I am a little more than half way through thus far and can say that it's good so far, although nothing too ground breaking. I'm hoping the 2nd half will come with more "bang" as the first half seemed more like a review/beginner targeted portion.

I understand your concern, that makes sense. Perhaps including range/player type info in charts / tables could help also. Of course if the chart gets too complicated it defeats the purpose. However, as another poster commented, charts/table also help to make it easier to use the book as a reference.

Ok I just finished this book. I guess I'll post my review and thoughts on it.

First, I was pretty excited for this considering the last good MTT book that wasn't cut and dry was Kill Everyone. Getting this book, it was filled with a ton of text on each page and seemed to contain a lot of long paragraphs. The book also contains a few imagines of a table, players positions, hole cards, and a flop but it is pretty much useless and a space killer. In fact, it doesn't do anything put show a mental image of what was previously just said in the text. It becomes counter-productive because it appears they are random pictures as they're is tons of hand examples and only a few have the images.

Next, I expected more from the book in an organized manner. The book is very sporadic and seems unorganized in many sections. The hands tend to just blend together with all the text and its very hard to use as a reference since there are no tables or charts. There is some good advice that'd be helpful in a table or chart scattered throughout sections and buried in the long paragraphs that I ended up highlighting so I could reference it.

The book does do a great job pounding on the fundamentals of MTTs and much of the entire book is spend explaining how to play from each position based on each scenario (ex: mid position with 3 limpers you should raise this range, limp this range, etc). This does seem long winded throughout the book and really only serves as a refresher for the average MTT player. I'd say this would be great for anyone who wants to learn MTTs as it'd be a great way to grasp a ton of concepts in one place in an easy to understand way.

One major flaw that this book has is the fact that much of it (prob 3/4) is spend discussing how to play a big stack of 125bbs+ while assuming others are deep as well. Jonathan states numerous times throughout the book that the only real deep stack tournaments will be the high stakes $10k+ buyin ones. When looking at this, almost anyone playing the $10k+ buyin MTTs that play this deep structure will almost already know and understand these concepts. The real area where most struggle with is the middle sized stacks and those sections really aren't addressed in too much depth.

Rating : 7.5/10

Pros - Book does great job of recapping how you should be playing in every scenario from various stack sizes.
- Book does great job of making concepts seem simple.
- Great for someone who plans to start playing live MTTs as this will immediately plug some leaks you have and give you a strong idea of how MTTs play.
- Jonathan does a great job of explaining player types and how he reacts to each form in different situations throughout the book.
- Jonathan gives a good insight into how many opponents tend to play and how you should react towards them.

Cons-
- Book is unorganized and a lot of concepts seem to scattered and get lost in all the text.
- Didn't cover many concepts as much as I'd anticipated.
- Focus is on playing 125bbs deep when the target audience likely won't be playing in any tournies with a structure to allow for that.
- Not much focus on the mid/short stack.

Conclusion: Seeing as this is Vol 1 and titled "Fundamentals and how to handle varying stack sizes" I think it does a great job of covering the fundamentals. I will recommend this book and will say that it's a great addition and a top MTT book. With that said, there isn't any tables, not much math or analysis involved, and provides very general assumptions for a variety of situations. I am looking forward to Vol 2 and I'm hoping it goes more in depth with playing a mid sized stack as blinds increase, play in the money, etc. It does a better job than Kill Everyone for covering every position and every action across a variety of stack sizes. However, Kill Everyone does a better job of discussing and covering all the push/fold strategies, math, situations, etc.

Hope this helps and if there is anything anyone wants to know, just ask.

Nice job Jonathan.

Hi Jonathan,
I just purchased your book via amazon prime... should get it tomorrow. I'm going to vegas next week and playing some of the wsop $235 deep stack tourneys. I don't really feel comfortable yet playing anything higher than $350s.

Is there anything in the book about chopping tournaments? At the Venetian I have chopped two deep stack tourneys - 4 ways and 5 ways. Both times I think I got a good deal (about 2.5th place), but perhaps could have played it out for 1st or 2nd and made more.

I talk about chopping in Volume 2. In general, unless you get a lot more than your equity in the event, you should never chop. You need to play it mainly to get experience, as there is very little chopping at the higher levels, and also because your opponents will have very little experience at playing short handed.



As for the complaint about there being no charts in the book, my book is about learning to play poker, not memorizing a strategy and implementing it every hand. The last thing I think competent poker players should be doing is playing a strategy that is simple enough to put into a few charts. You have to learn to think for yourself about the optimal line in each situation. Once you can do this, which I think my book will teach you, you will be well on your way to becoming a great poker player.

That being said, if there is a huge demand for me to make a pile of charts and put them in volume 2, I would consider it but really, I am not trying to make memorizing robots. I am trying to make great poker players.

I don't think most people really use charts,,
at least looking at the kil phil, kill everyone , and sit and go wizard that i dont' really have a chart of ace 7 suited push ace 7 fold if i got 1280 but push ace 7 if i got 1200.

I do think a one page chart of hand groupings can help your readership especially those who are new to tournies and aren't the typical two plus two poker book reader who has read the hoh, killer everyone, books to have some understanding of pushing hand ranges.

for myself i would like to see a chart for those who have have 9 to 12 bbs, or 4 to 6 m and you have a limp/typical min to 3x raise and you have king queen suited or pocket tens do we push or fold,, what little nunces dictate a good push or good here.

also you got your first decent hand range in a long time and got 10 bbs or 4 m and you are utg,, what determines a good push or fold here (i suppose not on the bubble or just after the button ).

Sadly, a one page chart will not do much good for anyone, except give them false confidence. While some hands have similar values, their values are vastly different in each situation. I explain when you should be pushing over limps or raises once you get short and how to figure out your EV of any push in the book using a simple math equation. You cant get a "decent hand range" under the gun. You either have a good hand or you dont. Your push range should always depend on your fold equity plus the equity in the hand when called.

The main issue now with the book layout is that while you may intend to make people a great poker player, it's simply very difficult with the current layout. Numerous times you reference ranges of hands top open in a given situation, etc. This is lost in the text though and would be nice in a recap at the end of the chapter or chart view. You say you aren't trying to make charts to memorize ,etc but if you just took the ranges in some examples and put them in a chart it would be easier to reference. It makes 0 difference since the information is the exact same anyways but is just currently lost in the text paragraphs.

I suppose it would be been a bit easier to follow if I restated things from the previous chapters but in general, I didn't want to repeat myself throughout the book, as I know I personally dislike reading 300 page books where it is basically a 150 page book saying the same thing twice. Hopefully this does not cause problems for anyone.

I think the random images of boards makes it longer than needed. That could easily be replaced with a simple table or something that says something like:

Info from page 94 on Big Blind play:

-----------------------------------------------------
From Big Blind
------------------------------------------------------
If small blind raises, reraise: Hands like A-2,K-5, Q-8 (and others with reverse implied odds), also raise good hands such as 77+,A-T+,KJ+, QT+.
------------------------------------------------------
If CO raises, reraise: ......
------------------------------------------------------
etc.


This is all very valuable information and putting it in one easy to reference place would be a tremendous help without making the book longer at all.

As it stands, it's a pain in the ass because it's great info but I've had to use a highlighter just to highlight it so that I know where that info is at when looking back for it later.

Even if you just used 1 recap page specifically for those ranges, it wouldn't add more than 10 pages to the final book and would be more then beneficial.

I'd rather have something to recap ranges in an easy to reference place than the random images of your hole cards and a board that does nothing.

Hope you take these ideas and tips in a positive manner. The content is great and I've recommended it to friends and I'm looking forward to volume 2. Many authors don't communicate with readers and its great your active in this thread.

what I would suggest is keep your work the way you want it,, especialy as I hate books that spend close to 100 pages as a theory example going over the things from the first book,, is to
have an appendix one to two pages as a graphic example of what you are saying ,, you could say ""as requested, hope it helps ".

old barry wrote at least one book, and as the publisher of some poker books should be able to help you clarify such page or two to help condense what you are saying for those who tread your way through the book.

also i dont' think people should expect a retread, as you trying to write the new definative tourney book series should expect them to read part one especially as you wrote the book with that intent to prepare them for part two.

Thanks for taking the time on the review. When I read the TOC and excerpts when this thread was first posted, I put this book on my to-read list, but it's down the order a bit as I'm working through a few books. Even with the cons you have posted, I suspect that this book will become standard reading for MTT play pretty soon, once more people have worked through the book.

I agree and it is definitely a good read. It does a great job of going through every situation and how to attack/handle each situation independently. A lot of the focus is on playing with a bigger stack though which is where I feel it lacks depth. As the stack sizes seem to shrink, so does the amount of content in those sections. However, it does a great job from start to finish and I'd say that it will def plug leaks immediately that some players may have and can be a benefit to almost any tournament player.

Hey Jonathan, I just got your book a few days ago and I'm about 1/2 way through it. Love it so far, but could you please tell me if the info and strategy you suggest applies to "faster" tournies as well?
I do play the tournies that you seem to be referring to in your book, the "slower" deeper starting stack tournaments. But I also play a fair amount of the "faster" shorter stack tournies.....1500-3000 starting chips and 15-20minute blind levels. As soon as the tourney starts you're already at 50-60BB....no where near 125+
Would you say that the strategies you talk about in this book are recommended for these kinds of tournaments as well or not so much? Is your strategy best geared to the bigger...slower tournaments like the WPT and WSOP?

Thanks so much, Sam

+1 Thank you Jon. Received the book from Amazon and started it this weekend on the beach. So far so good. I am in the process of trying to rethink and reformulate my game as I have been a Harrington disciple for awhile now with decent but diminsihing returns in MTTs. I like the fact that this book forces you to think about the optimal way to play a situation. You cannot always see that from studying a chart.