I'm going to start a training site and maybe write a book. The words eek out a profit will be in both.

Normally $99 but for a limited time $69.99. :P

Go to Barnes and Nobel and wander around and look how many books are priced at $69.99. There are hundreds of awesome books priced well below the price of this book.

If this were a $20 book I play a ton of low limit SNG's on Merge it would be an easy buy but at the post "black friday" Tim Ferris 4 hour workday because I can't play online poker poker pricing of $69.99 or worse $99.99 past 4/1 it's an easy pass.

It's also not like is Andrew Li (azntracker) writing a SNG book either.

The market for poker books is really between $30 and $50 dollars. Some ebooks (ed miller etc) have gone for up words of $100 (that's what I paid) before the prices got into outlandish territory.

Also, I am not sure that the comparison between a book and a book with videos is really a fair comparison. Poker videos alone are priced in the $50 range so the package, which is a book and video's seems well priced to me. I will continue to evaluate whether the price should be adjusted but I think that it is reasonable.

Regards,
zero

By your logic it certainly should require some psychological or fitness achievement.

This whole argument is basically a red herring. The bottom line is if the book is good, it's good. You don't need any "qualifications" at all to charge money for anything, as long as you deliver what you claim. He's not practicing law or operating on your brain.

While I agree, I have heard a lot of good things said about me but my experience is similar.

This.

Another unsolicited testimonial....

Greg really knows the game, no matter what SharkScope says about him. He coached me for awhile and took me from a breakeven player at the $6.50's on Stars to actually playing for a living over the span of about 4 months. Granted, I wasn't someone that was "crushing" the games, but I made a comfortable $20ish an hour at the tables, plus I was able to get coaching gigs and I produced some videos for BlueFire as well.

To me, a good coach or author or teacher isn't someone that shows you to do X when Y happens, rather they help change your thinking so that you'll know how to adapt when Z comes around. That's what Greg did for me, and from looking at the contents of this book, I'm guessing you're getting a much better deal for his teachings than I did. I was on a profit sharing deal with him and ended up paying several $K, but only because my results were so good.

Give it a read and if you don't benefit I'll be surprised.

Wut?? Are you fishing for compliments? 10k+ posts on here of sterling strat goodness not all the credentials one needs?

That's why malpractice and misinformation are rampant because most of what's being sold is targeted at those who have little scope to be able to accurately judge what they're consuming.

Just look at how many coaching scandals there have been in the poker world and consider why they were so difficult for students to pick up on

****None of what I've written has any reflection on zero, I know him not.

Agree.

Nah, I was just saying the advice in the book is either right or wrong. The skepticism is certainly fair.

someone writes a "crushing online sngs" book and I bring up the fact that he actually hasn't crushed online sngs and that is a red harring?

Vids are pretty cheap on the training sites and a lot of the sites have free trial periods. You say you base your game on Collin Moshman. His sng book can be bought for under $8 on Amazon.

SiQ and others, I can sympathize with the sentiments about people who manipulate the public for their own profit. Obviously, it is bad to have people selling things which are being marketed as one thing but in reality don't deliver. (fad diets, politicians, corporate propaganda etc)

That said, despite having not read it yourself, what you are saying or is implied by what you are saying is that because the authors' volume is low in comparison to some others, then it should be automatically cast as garbage or trickery, or worse, fraud. Guess what, there are no qualifications in poker theory. Skalansky himself didnt finish his degree. Worked out fine for him didn't it. What you are saying is not a claim to make without reviewing the actual product first.

If you have read it and it turns out to be total garbage and full of nonsense then your perspective is justifiable. However, that is clearly not the case.

If you don't want to buy it, then don't buy it. At the same time, by discouraging others not to buy it before you have even reviewed the book, it comes across as jealousy or envy on your part from not writing your own book.

Make a review on the book after actually reading your free copy and highlight why its a fraud/poor guide/not worth the money. Discarding the book without actually looking at the content first however, is the height of ignorance. Surely you can see that?

If you feel like your volume/stats/roi is higher and this therefore means you are better qualified to write a book, then go ahead and write one and sell it for whatever price the market deems fit.

I think it comes back to the point you made initially, that you can be a great coach, without necessarily being a top level, high stakes player. Greg clearly has skill, has made many players winners, is a Team Moshman Coach and Collin Moshman backs him 100%.

If the book was entitled "Strategy For Beating Sit and Gos", or something mundane like that, I suspect that would be a more acceptable title for you?

Your comments are based around the fact that Greg has a relatively low volume, and that is fair comment, but this doesn't have an impact on the quality of the content.

I therefore respectfully suggest that you read the book, accept Greg's offer of giving you a free copy, and then make a decision on the content. I think it is rather unfair that you are entering into such harsh criticism without having read the book.

Also, the expression "crushing" - it is a marketing word, pure and simple, the aim is to sell a book, and this word catches one's attention. It makes it sound exciting - and there is nothing wrong with that.

The intelligent reader would know that it is actually very hard, in today's game, to truly "crush" - perhaps you have put a bit too much emphasis on this word!

Give the book a chance, don't write it off without having read a single word.

Oh and for clarification I don't play sngs at all so I won't be reading this book. The point is that it is unfair to make a judgement on anything without either having a reliable source (such as an expert player reviewing the book and explaining why it is flawed) or even looking at it first.

Players can be good coaches without crushing win rates, look at Ed Millers' books and most of the DC cash player roster for example.



there is no doubt Krantz is an excellent coach but 167k cash hands and -1/bb loss rate isn't exactly 'qualified' by your own standards either...

I hope that makes sense.

Saying that you do not think someone is qualified to coach is not the same as saying the above. It's fully ok to regard something as questionable based on credentials.

Should I go and see a psychologist who doesn't have a plaque on the wall? Sure I mean he might be great but would it be in my best interests to understand fully that he does not have one before I make my decision? Absolutely.

Now zero seems to be very open and upfront about things and that's great but there is absolutely no ill or slander in questions being raised.

Hopefully we do get some impartial reviews and then maybe that questionability can be put to bed.

Yes, it is fully ok to regard something as questionable based on credentials. The next step then is to actually see if those questions are correct or not, by reading and reviewing the material.

Having a reasonable doubt is fair of course. However, the material will either prove as a testament to the validity of those doubts or prove the opposite. Only way to really know is either read and review it yourself and point out anomalies and flaws. Or have an expert (and I am assuming Colin Moshman is considered as such being a proflic 2+2 author and video producer himself) vouch for the material.

I have never been too serious about getting better at poker but I received 1 free month to drag the bar thru rake the rake. I browsed the videos and zerosum79's vids were nearly the only ones where I understood what was going on and wasnt bored to death. I know he is a better player than me and he articulates ideas better than some other coaches for me. Was good enough for me. And from the videos on dtb, it seemed he is marketed as a beginner or micro coach, no misrepresentation.

That's all very well but is he worth $70 when you can get Collin Moshman for $10 ?

..........You're a step behind so.

look forward to the review

Go watch Greg's ABC video series on Drag the Bar. He articulates his strategy for SnG's in an insanely detailed fashion, far more than Moshman did.

I've been a student in Moshman's program and I can assure you, he doesn't hire coaches who don't know their shiz. Heck, just sign up for Moshman's program and you can find out first hand that zerosum knows what he's talking about.

quite a few people missing the point ITT.

I don't hate this guy. there is no jealousy. I am a coach for a major training site but I have no desire to ever write a book (I've only postponed my lazy enough to make one video in 2 years) and his demographic practically has no overlap with mine in terms of potential students.

There are a ton of "coaches" sprouting all about now with no actual results (or even bad results) who are charging money for coaching. They saturate the market and are generally ripping off the customers who usually don't know enough to figure out who is worth the money and who isn't. I'm going to say something if I see a guy advertising and it looks fishy.

He seems like a smart guy and very articulate. I'm sure he has all the tools to be good at teaching - but I see a guy who has played ~6k games total in 3-4 years (this isn't low-volume, it's no volume) and who was coached by a guy who, IMO, isn't even really a good player (and also had a funny lack of results to post) but is a great self-promoter.
I'd still like to see him post either results of his own that show he crushed any games (HEM of those thousands of 18mans that somehow weren't tracked by SS would be nice) or even some graphs of students of his who can say that he was at least a big reason behind their success.


the point is I think it's our job as a community to have some standards for who we deem qualified enough to be a coach and who we don't. it protects buyers and rewards good coaches. I'm not saying this guy isn't a good coach/isn't qualified - I'm saying he hasn't proven he is qualified, imo, yet.


I gave him my e-mail and I'll check out the contents and give an unbiased critique of what I see (I swear to you, I don't have it out for this guy).

I had a look at some of the free ones and they look ok but you've missed my point. Why pay $70 for the organ grinder's monkey when you can get the organ grinder for $10 ? (No offence intended).