Crushing the Microstakes 2 Update

Update on Crushing the Microstakes 2 by BlackRain79
As a lot of people know, I am writing a new book which will be a sequel of sorts to Crushing the Microstakes. I provided a brief update on my newsletter the other day and I wanted to share that here on my blog also.

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And now on to the update.

First off, last week I asked my newsletter subscribers to email me with their comments and suggestions on what they would like included in the book. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to write me. I wrote down every single suggestion that I received and I will look to include them in the book if they are not already in it. So please leave a comment below.

Here are some concrete numbers on the progress of "CTM2." It is nearly the length of my first book Crushing the Microstakes already at around 200 pages. Here's the kicker though: I am not even done with the preflop section yet! It may be 500+ pages by the time it is finished. I am not going to leave any stone unturned though so I don't care what the final number is. I am going to create the best book ever written on these stakes as CTM was meant to be for the stakes that it covered.

Some other notes. The book will be extremely example heavy with tons of analysis (perhaps over a 100 by the time I am done). While I try to speak in general terms in order to provide guidance to struggling players at these limits (NL10-NL100) it is just not possible to provide a satisfactory one size fits all answer much of the time. Factors like your opponent's player type, the dynamic between you and him, the action in the hand, the players left to act and balancing considerations are all usually much more important at these stakes and higher. So I feel like all I can do is just add more examples to hopefully cover every possible situation.

I should add that this book is all about regs. I have broken them down into 6 different categories and 95% of the examples are about them. I make big use of HUD stats throughout to find the specific weaknesses in each player type and how we can go about exploiting them. Several of the emails that I received last week asked for this specifically. Don't worry, that was the main focus of the book from the beginning!

I am also specifically breaking the book down this time in many sections by 6max and Full ring which will add to it's length. There is quite a bit of crossover between these two games and so sometimes I feel like I am repeating myself but I think it will be more useful in the end. I implore the reader to check out both sections anyways since I believe that knowing how to play both games well is of vital importance especially as you move up the stakes where game selection becomes a bigger and bigger issue. Anyways, that's enough for now. I need to get back to writing it anyways!

One last thing. Here is my standard line now on release date questions, "before the end of this year." Thanks for all the continued support and well wishes!

July 2014 Edit: "CTM2" better known as Modern Small Stakes is now available here.

Let me know in the comments below what YOU would like to see in the book. What are the biggest problems that you have at NL10-NL100?

20 comments:

  1. If the book will be that big, and there are lots of people interested in, why not launch it in installments? Like one for general ideas, one for pre flop, one about flop play...
    Players will wait less, some times buy just what they think they need, and you can also make more money.

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    1. Interesting idea. Never really thought about it. I may give it some consideration but for right now I would rather release a complete work on my approach to these games. And while it will be long, we aren't talking War and Peace long here.

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  2. GrinderTom26 October

    Awesome, looking forward to this even more now! Any idea on the release date? :p

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  3. Anonymous26 October

    i want this book, now!

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  4. Anonymous26 October

    Hey BlackRain, I think a session review segment would be extremely helpful. Working on your game outside of the tables is just as important as playing, and knowing what to look for when reviewing your sessions is very helpful. Looking forward to the book.

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    1. Thanks for the feedback. I will include something on that for sure.

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  5. Anonymous27 October

    1. 3-betting is the most common problem most of the people at this stakes have.
    2. Problem playing draws IN or OUT of position. Mostly problem with betsizeing. When it is +EV and when it is not?
    3. People tend to call the flop c-bet a lot. Sometimes I have problems valuebetting because I get scared of certain turn cards.
    4. River valuebetting. This is the most critical of all.

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    1. Great stuff Anon. Thanks, all noted.

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  6. Anonymous28 October

    I'll be buying your book on release day, looking forward to it. My requests:

    - Bet sizing, particularly value betting on river
    - Turn cbets. I'm sure you're including this but I'm often very confused on whether to fire again
    - Blind vs blind play
    - Unraised pots. These hands are confusing because I'm playing oop against limpers with some random hand in the bb. There's money to be made there I'm just not sure how.
    - How to play AK. I wouldn't mind an entire section dedicated to this hand because of how much potential value it has and how much of that value I'm missing.

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    1. Hi Anon,

      Lots of very popular questions there, thanks. Lots of stuff on BvB play is already in there. Turn CBetting and River value betting will both be covered for sure also. AK specific section, I will give it some thought because I know it is a big problem hand for many people. I neglected to include anything on limped pots so far because they don't happen as much at the NL25 or NL50 level. I will rethink it though and maybe include a small section. Thanks once again!

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  7. Anonymous19 January

    I think that part about how to play after huge decrease in stack (i.e. from 2 EUR to 0,45 EUR) will be helpfull : in my opinion, ranges for different postions should change, but I don't now how much. Furthermore, how to play when on the 9-max table there are 5-6 players: all fish. Leaving this table isn't good, but tight play with ranges for full table In my opinion isn't fully corect either. BTW: great thanks for your book: thanks to it, I finally started to win :)

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    1. Thanks for your insights Aleksander (noted) and I am glad that CTM helped!

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  8. Hi Nathan, how's the book coming along? CTM was a lot of help and great stuff on those 200 pages, so I'm anxious to get my hands on the sequel.

    I won't post my requests as a vast majority of them was covered above. Cheers!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed CTM! My 2nd book continues to come along slowly. I now realize that I should have never set a deadline because this book is so much more in depth and at least twice the length. It will get released when the time comes :)

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  9. Please upload your book on Google Play (Android Devices)

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    1. Hi, this is the first request that I have ever got for this so I will make a note to look into it but no promises.

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  10. Anonymous26 April

    cant wait for the book to come out,since it approaches more in depth on how to play the regs,which is something that wasnt approached too much in depth in the 1st book.im really glad that a 2nd book is coming out because the game has evolved since CTM has been released and it definitely needs an update,since almost all the fish are gone and have been replaced by bad regs.but i still considered CTM as a holy bible for the micros.CTM is the old testament,and CTM 2 is the new Testament so to speak.Cant wait for the book to come out :)

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    1. First off thanks for your support. I am working on it every day and hope to have it out soon. There definitely will be A LOT more focus on the regs in this book.

      I gotta say that I don't totally agree with your assessment of the games though. Frankly people have been saying that the fish are all gone for nearly 10 years now. This just isn't the case especially at the stakes that CTM focuses on. Every time I play NL2 or NL5 these day I see huge fish everywhere.

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