Hey guys, I have a specific dilemma between 2 specific books, intended to help me move up to the next level.

The first book is from Blackrain79 and it's called Modern Small Stackes, and the second is the red and the green book from "Grinding it up" . Either seems to be appropiate. Did you happen to read one or both of them? Which one would you recommend ?

i have "modern small stakes", is a good ebook, teaches solid bases a TAG style.
and advice "the micro stakes playbook" blackrain79.
both excellent ebooks

Same. I believe the playbook is the newer of the two.

yes ,playbook is the last ebooks released, complete the previous ebooks (modern small stakes) focusing only on explotative strategies

micro stakes playbook is blackrain's weakest book, grinder's manual from Peter Clarke is 4 times bigger, richer and with more useful information. Blackrain does not have examples with 3-4 way pots. Also its missinformation to treat a 15vpip/ 12pfr player as a nit from all positions and asume that he plays his top range from utg and he opens up to his widest range on the button, he may as well be playing 30-40% in some early positions, and that is what Clarke is doing in his book, he is teaching us how to think in a lot of situations.

all blackrain material is trash, don't buy it, especially if you're talking about moving up rather than learning the absolute absolute basics

I don't know the Grinding It Up book

not heard of xflixx in a few years but he was a reasonably competent 100NL/200NL grinder a couple of years ago so that's probably substantially better than anything Blackrain's made

100% agree with Carroters' material being good

Sklansky's book

The grinders manual - published in 2016, im not quite at the level to be critical of poker material but id say it needs a "slight" update - all the principles in the book are sound but could be improved with more references to GTO/Solver theories (and when to deviate). But he explains fundamental concepts VERY VERY WELL. i doubt anyone here worth their salt will be overly critical of this book.

edit: ive read some of blackrains stuff and its not what you want to align your brain with if you are serious about playing a good level. missed that others have recommended also ^^

I think people around here **** on blackrain a bit more than he deserves, his technical ability is not great, but I feel that he's strong on every other aspect of the game

I probably wouldn't buy any of his books though unless he focuses heavily on these non-technical aspects. As others have mentioned, the grinder's manual is probably your best bet for a beginner-level book

people **** on blackrain because it's precisely the technical aspects he's pretty **** at he purports to teach.

If I had to risk my life on one coach teaching someone to beat 2NL over 5 sessions it'd be blackrain

however, I think his fame is literally just because he earned a poverty living grinding 1m hands of 2NL a year in Thailand.

edit: poverty living is wrong, I think he made upwards of $30k which I guess is decent money in Thailand. he's like the anti-paisting

I've only read one of his books, but the stuff on his website seems to focus a fair amount on everything else

I guess the technical content is alright for fish who are just starting to take the game seriously, but that's really basic stuff that you can find anywhere else

Now that I think of it, he does kind of just rehash everything constantly in new posts, maybe he's being **** on the proper amount

I don't believe you should be taught horse **** if you're a beginner just because it's easy to stomach

agree with ionutd.

Truthfully if I was just starting (but knew all the basics already) I'd skip all the books and buy a cheap solver with a training mode and find solved preflop ranges and go to town. That's the best learning possible outside some elite ultra-expensive coach.

Thank your best bet is youtube channels

Raiseyouredge
GingePoker
Aomishot22
Nolimitgaming
Charlie Carrel

There's more...just look around

So much content from people who clearly crush and explain their thought process very well (and they have different styles so just go with the one you like the most to begin with).

If you watch and pay attention there's enough there to beat low stakes pretty comfortably without ever reading a book

I have not read them and would not even consider google serch them. in todays game like lets say if you plan to play ps zoom pools you need top notch studdy material. Play opimal poker by Brokos is good stuff imho.

Only Blackrain79 book I would ever recommend, and this is if you´re a complete beginner who can´t win at 2nl, it is Crushing The Microstakes. It made me a 7 bb/100 winner overnight, back in 2013 (I couldn´t win at 2nl before lol). Contrary to what he states, this book won´t make you "crush" 5nl and anything higher by itself, you need experience and a lot of extra work to do so.

Agree with 291 you don´t really need any books. Too much good free content, maybe a RIO essential subscription, etc.

Not read these ones but have read 6 or 7 other books, the best was probably Janda's second book, his first was all "here's another equation so let's whistle past this and ignore" but I think applications did lay the foundation for GTO?
All poker books I have read are worthwhile. Writing a book is, I assume, bloody hard work and requires a lot of thought. No reason (except cost) not to read both and review them comparatively. Cannot find either of these on amazon though, I am guessing they are digital... Boo.

I had this argument with him about 5 years ago on this website. His book that was out then (I dunno if others have been released that are better) was dogshit. It was literally just some very basic tips to exploit very bad players.

The only argument in his defence that I agree with was that going from absolutely 0 idea to a winner in a short amount of time may make you more likely to stick with it and try to get better. I think this idea is less true now, back when it came out you may have been beating 10nl and the like whereas now you aren't. Making 3 dollars an hour is a lot more appealing than 20cents.

None of this is to slag him off at all, he carved a niche in a market and at the time it did the job he said it would. Probably made quite a bit of money and helped a fair few poker players. I would just strongly advise against buying it now (and 5 years ago!)

Carroters on the other hand I have never heard anything but glowing recommendations from people from this forum and others from some pretty good players.

for beginners, I'd say Hunter Cichy's book is pretty good, nothing dumb in there and opens up your mind to some useful stuff, 20$ on amazon, would say money well spent if you really want to read something from one source. guy has a youtube channel too, tho I don't think he plays/updates anymore.

for people who are super serious, I think the new book from the guy that runs zenith is going to be good. prob math heavy and dense, certainly solver based read, since that looks like his style, but I have a good feeling about this one. dunno if it's done, if not, think he sends you the work in progress and you get more chapters as they are done. 170-180 USD right now, depends cause he only takes bitcoins.

After reading this thread yesterday I bought the Grinders Manual. Ive been playing for years but I'm finding this book useful so far and enjoyable to read.