To celebrate the New Year and also the release of the updated Version 1.1 of Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em, we are offering a limited-time 35% discount. Until January 15, you can get your copy for $64.95. Here’s what you get for your money:

• A comprehensive guide to the main skills needed to win at micro- and small-stakes no-limit games. This is the stuff you need to master to move up from 10NL or 25NL to 200NL. Mastering these skills will also help you to improve your results at $1-$2 and $2-$5 live games.
• The 300+ page PDF version of the book. In Version 1.1, this format comes with improved navigation and clickable Table of Contents to make finding the part you want much easier.
• By request, PRC and EPUB versions of the book. These versions will let you read the book on any of a number of e-reader devices like the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Google Android phones, and many more. You can take Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em with you wherever you want.
• Free e-book updates. When Version 1.2 comes out, you’ll be able to download it at no additional charge.
• “[A] well written, high-level discussion of no-limit hold’em that does a masterful job of explaining difficult, complex concepts with clarity and precision.” (link)

This 35% discount is the best deal we’ve offered in a long time. Take advantage of it and get your copy today. If you want to take Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em for a test drive, we are now offering for free download an excerpt chapter from the book. You can check out any of the three versions of the book to see how it will read on your device.

IMPORTANT: When downloading an excerpt, please choose the SAVE button in your browser, not Run or Open. Save the file to a directory on your computer that you can easily find. Doing so will help conserve our server resources and will allow you to read the excerpt whenever you want.

Download the PDF excerpt. This is the primary version of the e-book. You can read the PDF version on any computer running Windows, MacOS, or Linux. You may need to download the lastest version of the free Adobe Reader software to read it.

Download the PRC excerpt. This version will work on the Amazon Kindle and the various Mobipocket readers. To read the excerpt on your Kindle, please download the PRC file to your computer using your web browser, and then transfer the file to your Kindle using the USB cable.

Download the EPUB excerpt. This version will work on most e-reader devices including the iPhone, Google Android phones, the Sony Reader, and many more. To read the excerpt on your iPhone, please install a free e-reader app called Stanza from the iTunes store. Then, in Stanza, select “Get Books” at the bottom, and “Downloads” at the top. Then hit the plus sign and type in the download URL (exactly as written including capitals) from the link above. This will download the excerpt directly to your phone.

So there you have it. Free excerpts, and 35% off until January 15. Don’t wait until the special pricing is over. Get your copy today.

Amazon and Kindle aren’t the only ones on the e-book wave either. Smart phones like iPhones and Google Android phones are all over the place, and most of them can act as e-readers. And there are other popular e-reader devices like the Sony Reader, the Nook, and more.

So given the speed with which e-books have seen adoption lately, we decided to focus our first major update on bringing Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em to as many devices and platforms as possible. We wanted to improve the SSNLHE e-book experience. In that vein, the update features the following:

• Support for the most popular e-reader devices such as Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, and many more. Most devices will work with either the PRC or EPUB formats now available for download. You can, of course, still read the book on any personal computer.
• Upgraded PDF interactivity including bookmarking and a clickable table of contents. The PDF version is now much easier to navigate. Note to Mac users: Installing the latest version of Adobe Reader, while not required, may enhance your reading experience.
• A number of bug fixes including fixed typos, layout problems, awkward wordings, and so forth.

If you buy Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em today, you will receive the new updated version 1.1. If you have already bought the book, you should have received an email at the address you used to buy the book (usually your Paypal email address) with links to download the new version. If you have not received your email, please check your spam filter. If you still can’t find your email, please contact support@smallstakesnolimitholdem.com to receive your update. The update (including the new e-reader formatted versions) is free to anyone who has already bought the book.

We have some items still planned for the future:

• A paper book release. We plan to release a paper book, and we’re already in the stage of negotiating with a printer. We had hoped to get the paper version done earlier, but the process has moved slower than we’d have liked. We still plan to do it and getting these books ready will be our top priority.
• New content. We are working on new content (including new chapters) for the book. When it’s ready, we will release it in another update.

More Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em news is soon forthcoming, so stay tuned.

The Update

Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em was released in June of this year as an e-book in PDF format. The most common request we have gotten since release is that the book be more accessable and available in different formats. So this is the focus of the update, version 1.1. Specifically, the update will include:

• Dozens of fixes to the text of the book to correct errors, make things clearer, and overall improve the book.
• A paper version of the book! Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em is no longer just an e-book. It will soon be a book available in both paper and e-book format.
• A more navigatable PDF version. We’ve upgraded the original version with navigational tools including bookmarks and contextual links to make browsing and finding particular parts of the book easier and faster.
• Better support for e-reader devices. E-readers like the Kindle, the Sony Reader, the iPhone, and more have exploded in popularity recently. The original release provided provisional support for these e-reader platforms, but the update will provide cleaner support for the most common e-reader file formats.

How Can You Get The Updated Version?

Anyone who has already purchased Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em will receive the updated PDF for free automatically. You will receive a download email at the email address you purchased the original book with, and it will provide all the instructions necessary to get version 1.1 of the book. If you would like e-reader versions of the book, you will be able to request and download them for free also as they become available.

Paper books will not be free, but will be available at a heavily discounted price to anyone who has already bought the e-book.

More information, particularly about how to order your paper copies, will be coming soon. So stay tuned!

[Small Stakes No-Limit Hold'em] is the best NL book I’ve read; the knowledge is worth thousands of dollars to full-time mid-stakes players.

(link)

Thanks ML4L!

UPDATE: The review was disappeared by 2+2. The above link is dead, but left for posterity. So you’ll have to take my word that this is what it said.

In fact, the book has sold so well that we dared to compare our sales to those of traditional poker books. We’ve come to a startling conclusion. Using the metrics we have available (which are admittedly not entirely precise), we believe that Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em, an e-book available for sale only at our website, was during the release period the #1 selling poker book of any type anywhere in the world. Given that the book isn’t available at Amazon or major bookstores, that fact is simply amazing. So I’d like to thank all of you who have helped to make our non-traditional book release a stunning success.

Early Reviews Are In

For those of you who haven’t yet gotten your copy of the affordable poker e-book, you might want to read what some of the early reviewers have to say about it:

“Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em is a well written, high-level discussion of no-limit hold’em that does a masterful job of explaining difficult, complex concepts with clarity and precision. It is a book that requires – and rewards – multiple readings, and will likely join the trio’s earlier volume as one of the more significant contributions to strategy books on no-limit hold’em cash games.”

Poker Book Review: ‘Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em’ by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn, June 21, 2009, by Martin Harris.

“There’s clear logic and reasoning behind all suggestions, strategies and tactics.” [...] “If your bankroll allows, buy it. If it doesn’t, consider setting aside a bit each week until you can afford it. At any reasonable stakes, this book should pay for itself in short order.”

Book Review: ‘Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em’, June 24th, 2009, by Chris Grove.

And a few quick-fire forum post reviews from readers:

• “In short: This is the best poker book I’ve ever read.” (link)
• “Finally…a true NLH cash game book that is filled with specific strategies to crush the competition.” (link)
• “Its full of detailed hand examples illustrating a ton of different concepts.” (link)
• “I think this is quickly going to become THE NL book to own. We might have a poker classic on our hands here!” (link)
• “Hmmm… maybe if I say the book is terrible no one else will read it? Yeah, it’s effing amazing. This book has blown my mind.” (link)
• “an excellent e-book. even for someone who knows it all” (link)

What’s Next

Over the last few weeks I’ve taken a little personal break to try to recover from the craziness of finishing up the book and then releasing it. But break time is over, and we have some exciting stuff coming up soon:

• We’ve been updating the book with error and typo corrections, and after we’re finished doing that we’ll be releasing an updated v1.1 of the book free of charge to everyone who has bought already.
• Once v1.1 is ready for release, we’re going to print up some hard copies of the book and make them available to anyone who has already purchased the e-book. We know that some people like the look and feel of a traditional book, so we’re working on having those ready soon.
• We already have some beta versions of the book finished for reading on devices such as the Sony Reader, the Kindle, and the iPhone (and more). When v1.1 is done we’ll put some time into polishing up these versions so they look even better on your device.
• We’ve also been discussing launching some other projects related to the book, so stay tuned, subscribe to NPA, and you’ll hear about them as soon as we announce them.

Finally, make sure you check out the forum for Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em. With all three authors participating actively, this is the best place on the net to discuss or ask questions about the book. Whether you’ve already read the book or you want to learn more about it, the forum is the place to go.

We now have a cover.

And updated since I last posted it, here is the final table of contents. You can learn more about the e-book by reading the Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em FAQ.

Introduction
Part 1: Framework

• 64 Squares
• Showdown Equity And Steal Equity
• Using Equity To Make Decisions
• Stealing
• What Makes Stealing Likely To Succeed

Part 2: Beating Online $1-$2 6-Max Games

• Introduction: Why $1-$2 6-Max?
• Stealing Blinds And Playing Position
• Profiling Opponents And Using Stats
• Barreling
• Going For Value With Good Hands
• 3-Betting Light And The 3-Bet, 4-Bet, 5-Bet Game
• Isolating Bad Players
• Handling Opposing Aggression
• Specific Preflop Decisions
• Putting It Together

Part 3: 7 Easy Steps To No-Limit Success

• Step 1: Play Tight
• Step 2: Don’t Play Out Of Position
• Step 3: Don’t Overcommit In Small Pots
• Step 4: Big Pots For Big Hands
• Step 5: Pull The Trigger
• Step 6: Adjust To Your Opponents
• Step 7: Keep Your Head In The Game
• Congratulations

Part 4: Beyond $1-$2 No-Limit

• Understanding Fixed Bet Sizes
• Planning Big Bluffs
• Overbetting The Flop
• Underbetting In Multiway Pots
• Balancing Your Lines
• Bankroll Requirements

Preordering is now open.

A few things:

• Buy the book right now. Yes, the preorder period lasts two weeks, but don’t put it off. You’re at a computer. You’re thinking about it. Lock in your order now. Buy right now.
• If you have questions about the book, check out the Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em FAQ. We answer a lot of stuff in there. If you have further questions, feel free to contact us.
• We have a forum on the book website that is the best place to connect with all the authors with questions about the book. If you comment here, I’ll probably be the only one to see it. All three authors will be on the forums to talk about the book. So definitely visit the forums.
• If you contact me privately, please be patient for a response. These two weeks until release is going to be a crazy time for me and I can unfortunately be a little slow even in the best of circumstances.

Thanks everyone for all the support, and I hope the book knocks your socks off.

Preordering will start Tuesday, June 2 and last for two weeks until the release date of June 16.

In the meantime, check out the Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em website for more information about the book. In particular, if you have any questions about the book, check out the FAQ and see if we’ve already answered your question.

I’ll post again on Tuesday once we begin accepting preorders.

Yesterday I posted an update on the book, and since then – as can be expected in the fast-paced world of poker ebooks – a few things have changed.

We hit an unfortunate snag with the timing tells section. You see I always play poker by dialing in with my 14.4kb modem to an ISP located in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I learned long ago that online poker is rigged for anyone who lives in Slovenia. At first I was preparing a move to that land of Alpine serenity and unnerving hyper-aggression, but then this dialing-in tactic came to me in a moment of pure inspiration. Sure it costs a little extra in international calling fees, and I can only play one table at a time. But it’s so worth it to finally be able to hit a freaking set once in a while. (I’ll sell the dial-up number for $5k. Email me.)

Anyway, I developed the timing tells software using the dialup connection. Yesterday I sent the software to Sunny for the first time to test on his broadband connection, and wouldn’t you know the HUD was saying that everyone had aces all the time. So there are a few more bugs than I thought, and I’m afraid we’re not going to have this material ready in time for the book release. The software package is also unfortunately indefinitely on hold.

And the postflop chart. Funny story. Matt read my post yesterday and gave me a call. It turns out that for the last four months he’s been in intense training for a cagefighting match and he never got around to writing the chart. So I’m sorry, but we’re not going to have that for you either.

Enough about what isn’t in the book. Let’s talk about what is. Here is the high-level Table of Contents.

Small Stakes No Limit Hold’em by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn

Part 1: Introduction

• 64 Squares
• Showdown Equity And Steal Equity
• Using Equity To Make Decisions
• Stealing

Part 2: Beating Online $1-$2 6-Max Games

• Introduction: Why $1-$2 6-Max?
• Stealing The Blinds And Playing Position
• Profiling Opponents And Putting Them On Ranges
• Barreling
• Going For Value And Controlling The Pot
• 3-Betting Light And The 3-Bet, 4-Bet, 5-Bet Game
• Isolating Bad Players
• Handling Opposing Aggression
• Making Specific Preflop Decisions
• Putting It Together

Part 3: 7 Easy Steps To No-Limit Success

Part 4: Beyond $1-$2 No-Limit

• Choosing Fixed Bet Sizes
• Balancing Your Lines
• And more…

Focus of the book

The bulk of the book is the Beating Online $1-$2 6-Max Games part. It’s a thorough, example-driven discussion of beating this semi-tough game. If you don’t play this particular game, you may be puzzled why we focused on it. Here’s our answer from the book:

This first part is focused on a quite specific topic: how to beat an online $1-$2 6-max no-limit game. Why did we choose to focus on this game? Indeed, why did we choose to focus so narrowly on any one game? And if you intend to play a game other than online $1-$2 6-max, how relevant will this book be to you?

Here are the short answers to these questions. This game provides an ideal platform to teach the most critical no-limit concepts. If you can learn to beat an online $1-$2 6-max no-limit game, then you can handily beat 99 percent of all no-limit games in the world. So this book is highly relevant to the vast majority of no-limit players, whether you play live games or online, shorthanded games, full-ring, or even heads-up. Learn these ideas, apply them to your game, and you will destroy the competition.

We then elaborate for another page or two. But the basic idea is that we’re teaching concepts that work in a wide range of no-limit games. We picked this particular game for our examples because we see it roughly as the toughest of the “small stakes” games. Most of your opponents will not be giving their money away, but you also (by and large) won’t have to engage in high-level metagame thinking against super-tough players. If you play in an easier small stakes game than the one we chose (including live full-ring games), then this book will more than prepare you to get the money.

7 Easy Steps

Long-time readers of Noted Poker Authority will recognize the 7 Easy Steps To No-Limit Success part. This part is a rework of the series of the same name I wrote a couple of years back. We decided to include it as sort of a “breather” section. The Beating $1-$2 part is dense and thorough with all-new material, and it will be quite challenging for many readers. We thought the 7 Easy Steps would go well at the end to offer a high-level perspective of what’s most important and to give the reader a little break before charging into the challenging Beyond $1-$2 part.

Professional No-Limit Hold’em

If you haven’t done so yet I recommend reading our first book, Professional No-Limit Hold’em, before this one. You can order and read it while you’re awaiting final release of Small Stakes No Limit Hold’em.

The new book is not a sequel or second volume of Professional No-Limit. The new book is designed to be fully readable as a stand-alone book. But in it we do reference concepts like commitment and SPR that we introduce in Professional No-Limit. We summarize these ideas in the new book to get everyone up to speed, but if you want a full, nuanced understanding I’d strongly recommend reading Professional No-Limit sometime this month.

Price and more

When we announced that preordering was open in yesterday’s post, we expected an enthusiastic response. I have to admit that we’re a little disappointed with yesterday’s sales figures, so we’ve reconsidered pricing. For those of you who did preorder the book at yesterday’s price, we appreciate the support. We know it can be disconcerting to see a price drop announced so soon after your purchase, so we’re compensating all those who bought yesterday with a $100 iTunes Gift Card. Enjoy some tunes on us!

The book price will be $99.95.

Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em is an ebook. You are buying an electronic book, not a paper book. You will be able to read it on your computer and possibly on other devices (as many as I can figure out how to reasonably support). I’m personally of the philosophy that you should be able to use the book in any reasonable way once you have bought it. It’s your book. To that end, I will try to make sure that we support as many reasonable usages as we can. I can’t, however, promise any particular usage or feature today. In other words, if you want to blow the book up as wallpaper and paper your ceiling with your favorite chapter… philosophically I think you should be able to do that, but I can’t promise that we will support that particular feature. I will try to make sure that we accommodate the most commonly wanted features.

We have no current plans to produce a paper book. Down the line we may decide to produce a paper version and possibly sell it in traditional paper book stores and at Amazon. I’ll provide ample warning (several months at least) before any paper version becomes available. Basically I’m saying that if you would prefer a paper version to an ebook, I’m sorry but we have no plans for that at the moment. If you hold out and wait, we might come out with a paper book, but it could be a long wait and it could not happen at all. We’re going with this ebook thing for now.

Stay Tuned

Things are moving fast here, and we’re getting close to release. I’m setting up the website for the book now and working out the technology issues. We’re putting the final touches on the manuscript. Preordering will be available soon, and from that point it will not be too much longer until the book is released. I hope you guys are excited. I think this book is gonna rock your world!

[Disclaimer: This book is not affiliated in any way with Two Plus Two Publishing.]