So, I have read Corys book, and I've talked to him in private about what I think was good, bad and could be done to improve the product.
I want to start off by saying that I am:
a) Not a HU-regular
b) Not a short-stacker
c) I would not be interested in playing Cory HU or doing a challenge
I have full respect for his game, and I am sure that especially short I would be smashed in such a format. I also have faith in his coaching abilities after having talked to him for a bit, and no doubt some of his students have gone on to have good results at 2k HUPLO.
What I liked about the book:
I think the short stack material as well as general population work was very good. I think his way of teaching, using a lot of theory and applying rules to form strategies work very well for creating a well balanced and strong strategy when the game tree is smaller.
The book has some great visualisations, I especially liked the way structured preflop ranges over different stack sizes to give an overview and easy comparison between 10, 15, 20, 30bb etc.
It is very dense in information, and I think it is important that anyone who reads it utilizes it as a tool and does not view it as a book you simply read through and expect to learn the stuff. I would view it as a series of coaching sessions where you need to put the work in between the different chapters in order to be able to move further.
Cory is 100% correct about the fact that most people even in the 2kHUPLO pool on stars play very poorly preflop at short stacks. I think he may however disproportionally value preflop skill compared to postflop skill.
What I did not like:
Cory and I definitly have our differences when it comes to the faith and work ethic of the average poker player.
A lot, I would say a majority, of my critisism has been that it requires so much work from the reader to apply this information.
I definitly lack the work ethic to have been able to make the most from it, and I think expecting people who buy the book to run the sims, practice them and learn to apply it in game is very optimistic.
I also think a majority of poker players, even if they were coached by Sauce or someone like Grazvis, would not become winners at 2kPLO, where as Cory disagrees with me on this.
I believe Cory is more than capable enough to coach a mid stakes regular to 2k HU, and in my opinion from reading the posts and talking to him, he belives the book provides a similar value. I disagree with this, having coached a lot of people myself, I believe the interaction and repetition that you get with 1-on-1 or even with a group of people is worlds away from simply working alone with a framework provided from a book.
As the game tree grows, so does the amount of rules and generalisations required to formulate strategies of the game. A lot of the deep stack material I did not like because it is simply not possible to view the game based out of memorized rules once it reaches such a size.
My personal belief is that once you are 100bb Deep SRP, or even 40bb SRP or 100bb 3BP, the game tree is already too big to memorize and generalize a strategy. Strategies need to be derived more out of first principle and not from a somewhat strict framework. I offered to illustrate some spots to Cory which I think proves this very clearly but he didn't really seemed interested to pursue it further so I will just leave it at that, my opinion.
I take some moral issues with the preflop charts showing strategies for other than unopened pots which seems to be becoming the norm in sites TOS. I allerted Cory to the fact that most of these charts are not allowed in PokerStars TOS for instance, and he told me he would clarify this in the updated version of his book. I think charts are pretty rubbish overall in PLO, and I can reach pretty decent results and improvement by simply practicing them off-table instead of using the charts in-game.
What I believe could be improved for me to buy the book:
I had one request, which Cory did not seem to interested in pursuing, which I think would have made the book a very well worth investment for most people looking to play HU.
Because of the memorisation and work required to apply all the dense amounts of information to practice, I suggested Cory add Trainer Files, Links or simply the ranges of each strategy graph he has created as an appendix to the book. The reader could then finish reading a chapter, simply load up the files in either Vision or PLOTrainer and learn to apply the concepts in practice. This would in my opinion, bridge my main issue with the book, which is the issue of implementing what you read.
Cory did not share my opinion on this, as he believed that most people who buy the book will have the motivation and know-how to run the sims themselves and run them through whatever study tool they prefer. Even if this was true, I believe the value of saving the people who purchase these books all of that time, would tremendously improve the product. (To be fair, Cory did offer me the Monker-sims he used to create the book, but perhaps this could be included as standard when you buy it).
Overall conclusion:
Imo better value than most sub-based training video sites and courses (this stuff I believe is more entertainment and people who want to feel like they study but lack the energy to actually study).
If you are looking to invest money in something else than coaching or trainer-products, I believe the book is second to those alternatives in terms of resources.
Good short stack stuff.
Too much information and theories to apply for deeper stack, perhaps I am too synical about the average poker players work ethic and ability to remember stuff (perhaps because Cory obviously has a tremendous work ethic writing these books, while mine is far from tremendous), but I find this close to impossible to implement over 1500 boards, in SRP & 3BP pots, over turns and river lines.
Add the ranges for all spots as an appendix and I would happily pay the $1600. If not, I believe the disconnect between theory and practice is too large to bridge for a vast majority of players, including myself, to be practical.
I wish more people intended to create such content where the intent is not to lure people into affiliates programs or keep them on the hamster wheel and milking them for subscription money.
I don't think everyone who studies the book will beat 2kPLO, I think the statement is a sales pitch and not really founded in reality,
but I also don't think everyone who is coached by the best player in the world will beat 2kPLO so it isn't really a testiment to the book itself.
To be fair to Corys later statement, that anyone who works hard and studies the book, will be able to beat 2k, I belive this is closer to the truth but once you view the book as a rather complicated tool you could make similar claims for something like MonkerSolver which is priced at $400 or something like that. It gives you the possibility to learn a lot of things, but a majority of people can't utilize it to reach high stakes.
My credentials:
Play HSPLO (ytd graph for all tracked stuff so +rep wont come in here calling me a shill for saying something positive about Cory and his book,
https://gyazo.com/3be8ad6dbc85474dd4d43d34741a1c3f)
Have coached a bunch of people to HS
Not top 10 in theory or anything to do with poker