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“Crushing the Microstakes” by Nathan BlackRain79 Williams

Bill Rini — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:45:50 +0000

I just got done reading Nathan BlackRain79 Williams’ new eBook, “Crushing the Microstakes” and thought I would do a quick post to let people know about it.

Coming in at a whopping 251 pages, Crushing the Microstakes is a fairly impressive eBook. Williams, who claims to be the winningest player at the microstakes, walks beginning players through playing NLHE at the $2 and $5 buy-in levels.

While you probably won’t get rich playing at these stakes, Crushing the Microstakes is perfect for players just getting started. Most books out there teach you how to play against low or mid stakes players which is not exactly the kind of action you see at these micro stakes. In fact, Williams admits that some of his advice at $2 NL might sound crazy to people who player higher stakes but insists that the strategy works against your typical $2 NL players.

Another thing that makes Crushing the Microstakes unique in the poker eBook market is that Williams also walks you through many of the tools you can use like Hold’em Manager (HEM), PokerStove, automation scripts, etc. Basically everything you need to know to multi-table the micro stakes and crush them.

One of the things I particularly liked about Williams’ style is that he recognizes just how bad your opponents are likely to be at these levels. Most poker books assume you have better opponents so they don’t address the fact that pre-flop raises just aren’t going to drive out some players. Williams, on the other hand, counts on it. He suggests that when you pick up hands like AA and KK you can slip in 10BB raises because once a fish has decided he’s going to play a hand, anything less than an all-in shove is not going to dissuade him from calling your raise.

That’s one of the real strengths of this book. Williams understands these micro-stakes players. He gets how they think about hands and Crushing the Microstakes is all about exploiting their fishy tendencies.

Of course, some of those same moves will get you slaughtered at $100NL but this book isn’t about $100NL and Williams readily admits that. His book is designed to take you from knowing very little about online poker to being able to crush the smallest games.

Another example of the difference between micro and higher stakes that is worth talking about is bluffing. The percentage of players who will call you down on the river with ace high or an under-pair to the board is much, much higher in the micros than it is at even low-stakes. The value of bluffing goes way down if you’re up against a guy who has called down 99 out of the last 100 river bets.

This is one of the reasons I like this book. How many times have you heard someone complain that they want to move up in limits where people respect their raises? Well, if you can’t beat the total fish you don’t understand the game well enough to beat people who do respect raises.

Poker is a game of adjusting to your opponent. If you’re playing against a guy who has never met two cards that he wouldn’t see a flop with or will call a big river bet just to see whether you’re bluffing, and you don’t adjust your game to exploit that, you really aren’t a very good poker player to begin with.

You can bluff into this guy all night long and complain about how everyone on 2+2 agrees with your line or pull out PokerStove and empirically demonstrate that you made the mathematically correct move, but you’re still going to end up losing pots to this guy. Not because he’s a better player than you, but because you’re employing an ineffective strategy against that type of opponent.

I give Crushing the Microstakes a big thumbs-up for players who are just starting out and even for players who haven’t yet figure out that there isn’t a single perfect strategy in poker. There are a lot of little snippets here and there that I’ve learned (usually the hard way) over the years of playing but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone actually put down on paper before.

Poker Chip Cuff Links from Cuffitt

Bill Rini — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:52:52 +0000

Seeing as how away from the office I normally just wear t-shirts or polo shirts, it might come as a surprise that I do have a decent collection of dress shirts. Most I had custom tailored in Thailand and just a little less than half I had made with French cuffs.

So when Noah, from Cuffitt, sent me a pair of cuff links to try out I was game to try them out.

Cuffitt, as the name might imply, sells cuff links. Their designs are a little on the fun and geeky side like guitar volume controls, Nemo fish, keyboard keys, Facebook like thumbs, and miniature poker chips.

Yes, poker chips!

Cuffitt sent me the red chip set which looks a lot like the chip used in the PartyPoker logo.

They also come in black, green, and blue as you can see from the image above.

The chips themselves are made out of real clay much like the kind of premium poker chips you might use in home games.

There are really only three criteria on which to judge a pair of cuff links:

a) Do they work?

b) Do people notice them?

c) Do you like them?

Well, you can’t really go too far wrong with cuff links. They’re not exactly complex devices with the exception of the complications one might run into putting them on. So they get a pass on the first criteria.

As for the second criteria, well, as you probably might guess, they get a lot more attention and comments from poker players than the general public.

As for the third criteria, I liked them and they seemed to get a lot of positive feedback. I dig geeky or strange cuff links. I don’t like stuffy, conservative cuff links because, much to the horror of people who actually care about fashion, I tend to wear my shirts un-tucked and with a few buttons unbuttoned up top. These sort of cuff links are perfect for that sort of casual look.

At $22 they’re relatively inexpensive and possibly a good gift for that poker player on your list or if you just want to treat yourself to something different.

I’m not too sure what else I can say about them other than to go check out the poker cuff links at Cuffitt.

Reviewing Tri “Slowhabit” Nguyen’s “How I Made My First Million from Poker”

Bill Rini — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:55:01 +0000

I just got done reading a pre-release copy of Tri “Slowhabit” Nguyen’s “How I Made My First Million from Poker.” It’s definitely not your typical poker book and if you’ve read some of Nguyen’s previous books on poker strategy this is an entirely new look at the game.

In many ways it will remind you more of Barry Greenstein’s “Ace on the River” than it will “The Mathematics of Poker” by Bill Chen. In fact, Barry wrote the foreword for the Nguyen’s book.

Like “Ace on the River,” “How I Made My First Million from Poker” is less about what starting hands to play and more about avoiding the pitfalls of the poker lifestyle as a professional online poker player. Where Barry focused on the casino life Nguyen concentrates more on the new, younger breed of players who fire up 20 tables and grind out rakeback.

I’m unsure if the release of Nguyen’s book is fortunate or unfortunate with all that has been going on in the poker world recently but perhaps if we get a regulated US market soon his book will find its place with up and coming online poker grinders.

Nguyen’s nuggets of wisdom are invaluable and are obviously from someone who has been there. He talks about everything from how to keep yourself motivated to how to know when it’s time to walk away from poker entirely.

The parts I found most valuable though were sprinkled throughout the book on a topic he hits on repeatedly which is improving your game. He emphasizes over and over again that the game is constantly evolving and that a tricky line that works today is going to become a standard move tomorrow and if you want to stay ahead you have to keep working on exploiting weaknesses in your opponents.

It’s obvious that Nguyen comes from the new breed of poker players. These young, aggressive players that seem to give yesterday’s poker heroes so much trouble. A lot of his advice is geared toward this type of player. For example whereas Sklansky and some of the old-guard poker players talk about having X number of buy-ins or big bets in their bankroll Nguyen fully encourages you to take shots, risk your bankroll (intelligently), and play fearless.

For instance, in the chapter on Bankroll Management he says:

Another reason why you should try to move up as soon as possible is as you grow older, your willingness to gamble and take risk decreases tremendously. You have worked hard to get to where you are, making the risk of losing it all disheartening and even at times scary. You won’t want to deal with an enormous amount of stress anymore.

When you’re young, you don’t know any better, and that’s a good thing. You have a lot of hope and aspiration to be the best. You have that gamble in your blood. You want to play because you truly love the game. It’s exciting. The high when you win is comparable to the low when you lose. During this phase in your poker career, you should be as aggressive as you can with your bankroll. You have time and age on your side. If things go wrong, you can always rebuild.

That’s not the kind of advice you read very often.

If I could offer Tri some advice it would be to be a little more sensitive to those of us who are youth-challenged. There’s nothing like reading a 25 year old write about being old and the challenges he faces with younger poker players coming up behind him to make you really feel your age.

This is one of those books where if you just take away one useful lesson you’re sure to pay for the book many times over. And believe me, there are enough nuggets of gold strewn about that it’s almost impossible not to find something that you can take away from reading the book.

But make no mistake; this is not a book where Nguyen tells you which hands to play or when to raise. You won’t be able to read this book and walk away a better player. You need to follow up and actually follow his advice and do the assignments that he offers. Being a better player is hard work. There are no quick fixes. As Nguyen puts it:

When you watch high-level pros at the poker tables, it might seem that all you see are monster bluffs and huge pots. But you don’t see the behind-the-scene preparation. That is, you don’t see the endless instant message conversations, the forum postings, the Poker Stove analyses, the personal coaching sessions, the downswings, the depressions, the anxiety attacks, the broken keyboards, the smashed screens, or the flying mice. All you see is the performance when you are the table.

This is really the essence of the book. Nguyen gives you ideas and tools but then you need to go out there and act upon them. When he tells you to write down a description of the type of opponent you have problems playing against and to figure out how to eliminate your weaknesses and to find the weaknesses in your opponent, you actually have to do it. Just reading what he wrote won’t make you a better player but if you actually do the work there’s no doubt you’ll learn something new and hopefully improve your game.

I did have some constructive criticism though. First off is that the breadth of topics covered leaves one wanting more depth. I got to the end of several chapters and wanted more. Some topics should have been books unto themselves.

Also, while Nguyen is wise beyond his years, he’s still rather young. What I mean by that is that what is wise beyond one’s years when you’re in your mid-twenties might not seem wise at all for someone considerably older.

For instance, when talking about keeping in a positive mind set Nguyen talks about eliminating things from your life that bring you negative feelings.

Write down a list of people and/or things that annoy you. Proceed to avoid these people and things like the plague. Your life and poker game will be better than yesterday.

There’s nothing wrong with the advice but the better answer would be to figure out why those things or people annoy you in the first place and work on not being annoyed by them. For example, if your skin is exceptionally sensitive to the sun, one option might be to avoid the sun but the better answer would be to see a dermatologist who might be able to prescribe you some medication that either treats or cures your condition.

Likewise, Nguyen labels a chapter Mindfulness, but the chapter really isn’t about mindfulness in the sense that Buddhists, meditators, or psychologists define mindfulness. For instance, he says:

This is what being mindful is about. You make a conscious effort to go over your choices and how they will affect you.

But that’s not the definition of mindfulness I know. According to Psychology Today, mindfulness is:

Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience.

These are really rather minor issues though. Avoiding things and people that annoy you is a perfectly reasonable way to avoid negative emotions. The more common use of the word mindfulness might not fit with Nguyen’s definition but the advice he does give is solid.

Besides, I felt I had to find something to correct just to show Nguyen that some of us old farts often pick up other kinds of wisdom along with our grey hairs. J

Overall it’s a solid and much needed book in the poker community. It’s not a book about whether to raise or fold or what starting hands to play. And that’s a good thing because what makes you money today can change tomorrow. If you’re just following a set of instructions on autopilot you won’t be able to grow as a player. When change happens you’ll have to wait for someone to write a new set of instructions for you to follow.

Nguyen’s book attempts to give you the tools so you don’t need someone else to give you the answers (though he does recommend coaching and surrounding yourself with other poker players as a tool to help you work through your game). It’s about finding a balanced lifestyle that allows you to become the best player you can be.

And what more could you want?

Get Ed Miller’s “How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold’Em” From Bill’s Poker Blog

Bill Rini — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:28:42 +0000

I’m such a big fan of Ed Miller’s new book, “How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold’Em” I want to give you a copy for free (a $49.99 value).

Here’s the deal:

1. Go read my review of Miller’s new book.

2. If you aren’t already following me on Twitter (shame on you) go ahead and Follow me on Twitter

3. Tweet the following message:

Just entered to win How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold’Em. Just follow @billrini and retweet. http://s.rini.org/ic8df

4. On Nov 21st I will randomly choose a winner from all people who have tweeted/re-tweeted the above message and are still following me on Twitter (you will be notified via DM so you need to be following me for me to be able to contact you).

That’s it. Nice and simple.

When I notify you I will ask you for your email address so I can send you the book (only available in electronic format).

Obligatory Rules:

1. You must be following me on Nov 21 for the reasons outlined in #4 above.

2. You must Tweet the message exactly as it appears above. I am experimenting with some code I’ve written that uses the Twitter API and this is testing that code. I will also check the results manually via Twitter Search but if you alter the message even slightly I may not be able to record your tweet using either of those methods.

3. You have 48 hours to respond after I contact you via Twitter DM. If you have not responded by DM within 48 hours I’ll be on a flight to Thailand and when I land I will award the prize to the next randomly selected person.

UPDATE: The contest is complete and the book has been awarded to the winner, @petenumber2.

Ed Miller’s How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold’Em

Bill Rini — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:47:27 +0000

I had the great pleasure of reviewing a pre-release version of Ed Miller’s new book, How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold’Em. I call it a great pleasure because I’ve been a big fan of Ed’s writings over the years. I religiously read his 2+2 postings and was one of the first in line to purchase his first book, Small Stakes Hold’Em, that he co-wrote David Sklanksy and Mason Malmuth. That was the first poker book that I really connected with.

Miller’s How to Read Hands is one of the missing pieces in poker literature. There really isn’t a good book on reading hands. About the closest you can come is Caro’s writings on tells and-or books that gloss over hand reading (or fail to discuss the topic at all) but are mainly focused on playing your own hand.

Miller’s book takes a different approach. You actually learn how to read hands. Ed walks you through assessing your opponents, pre-flop action, flop action, turn action, and river actions to help you narrow down what your opponent can be holding. You start with a range of hands that different players might play in various situations and narrowing down that range as more cards are exposed and betting actions give you more and more valuable information.

As with many of Ed’s writings, the focus in How to Read Hands is on besting low-limit opponents. Phil Ivey is still going to be a tough read but you’ll have a good handle on how to deconstruct and analyse a hand against your typical $100 NL opponents by the time you’re done with the book.

My only real criticism of the book is that the guys Ed sees at his low limit games and the ones I often encounter aren’t really the same. His examples of nit, regulars, and fish hand ranges may not be a great fit for the types of players you encounter in your local game.

But it’s a minor criticism since the book does push you towards developing your own ranges for player types based on your own experiences. What Ed sees in a Las Vegas card room might not match the types of players you encounter at a LA card room. You need to adjust your ranges based on your observations.

Overall it’s a solid book on a topic that isn’t covered in any great detail elsewhere. In fact, I share Miller’s frustration when he talks about people putting their opponents on a hand but being unable to explain why.

I think our natural tendency as players is to either put our opponent on the scariest hand they could have or to wishfully think that they’re holding a weak hand. We tend to look for the obvious and on a board of:

7s 8d 9h

We immediately jump to the conclusion that either your opponent is holding TJ, 56, 6T. or some random hand that we have beat. We tend to polarize the range. Either it’s a monster or complete air.

But we need to ask whether or not the action fits. How likely is it that your opponent raised from UTG with 6T? If you know that this guy’s pre-flop raising range is AA-TT or AK – AJ then certain hands like 56 make no sense.

It sounds basic but it’s amazing how many people cannot articulate how they arrive at a hand that they’ve put their opponent on. How many times have you heard someone claim that “they just knew it”?

Ed walks you through that process. Instead of “just knowing” you can use a methodical approach to developing a hand range for your opponents and then slowly eliminating hands as your progress on each street.

Having a pretty good idea where your opponent is in a hand is a huge advantage. I know that sounds rather obvious but how many times do you call that river bet with middle pair when your opponent’s actions have been screaming overpair? How many times do you check it down on the river because you’re not confident enough in your read to put in a value bet? How much has that cost you?

Other than playing too many hands, not being able to accurately put your opponent on a range of hands is, IMHO, the biggest difference between mediocre players and good players.

I really can’t recommend How to Read Hands enough. It’s a true original in a sea of poker books that do nothing but rehash the same old strategy concepts. I can truly say that this is one of the first books I’ve read in years that I’ve felt is a must-have book for aspiring poker players. Don’t buy this book at your own peril.

A Rubber Band Story and Other Poker Tales by Tommy Angelo

Bill Rini — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 04:33:40 +0000

I am very tardy. Very, very, tardy.

Tommy Angelo sent me a copy of his latest book “A Rubber Band Story and Other Poker Tales” several months ago and I haven’t gotten around to reviewing it yet.

I don’t really offer this as an excuse but life has been very busy for me lately. Black Friday, getting married, my move back to the US, starting a new job, having to buy a car and find an apartment, blah, blah, blah. It’s been a hectic few months.

Like I said, that’s not really an excuse. The real excuse is that A Rubber Band Story is easy to put down. No, no, no. Please don’t take that the wrong way. It’s the format of the book. It’s a collection of short stories and essays about random thoughts, views, and observations Tommy has had about poker and life.

My massive delay in getting through the book is that it is so easy to read a story that lasts a page or two and then to set the book down as you ponder the greater meaning of the anecdote. The whirlwind pace that my life has followed since Black Friday often meant a week or two between picking the book back up and I didn’t want to power through 4 or 5 essays at a time and miss out on enjoying each one.

With the apologies, excuses, and other useless slobbering out of the way allow me to give A Rubber Band Story two raging thumbs up. If you like Tommy’s style or writing and have enjoyed the short stories he’s submitted on Bill’s Poker Blog you’ll love A Rubber Band Story because that’s basically what the book is.

It has all of the hallmark Tommy Angelo qualities. It’s humorous, well written, insightful, offbeat, thought provoking, and sometimes just plain silly. What I enjoy most about Tommy’s writing style is that he writes from the heart.

The book is a mixture of some new material along with what Tommy felt were his best blog posts, articles, postings, etc over the last decade or so. The information is timeless because it’s the essence of poker.

Tommy’s writings have never been about whether to fold AJs to a reraise pre-flop. It’s about getting in touch with our biggest leak in poker, ourselves. He explores different ways of thinking about the game, life, and balancing the two. And he’s able to do that through story telling that leaves most poker writers in the dust.

It’s easy to be entertained by Tommy’s stories because they’re normally witty and light but that’s often a trick Tommy is able to play on his readers because there is a more profound message underneath it all. He may write a story about folding that makes you chuckle but when you dive a little deeper he’s really seeding a message about how successful players think about their starting hands and folding differently.

If you’re a fan of any of Tommy’s writings you can find on Bill’s Poker Blog or on Tommy’s own site, you’ll love A Rubber Band Story.

Click here for info on ordering his book.

Review: The Mental Game of Poker

Bill Rini — Mon, 30 May 2011 14:00:08 +0000

Barry Carter was kind enough to send me over a copy of the book he and Jared Tendler wrote, The Mental Game of Poker. I’m not a huge fan of poker psychology books mostly because their best advice is, “don’t go on tilt.” Geez, thanks. One exception to that general dislike of poker psychology was Tommy Angelo’s Elements of Poker which I thoroughly enjoyed because it took a completely different approach. Tendler and Carter also take a fresh approach and give you actionable things you can do to improve your mental game but also measure your improvement.

The books starts off from the premise that most of us misunderstand tilt and our emotions. If you ask a player why he got so tilted he might rant about how this donkey drew a one-outer on him. But that’s not what caused the tilt and unfortunately this is where other poker psychology books stop. They say, “Hey, just realize that variance exists and block out the frustration.” That’s all fine and dandy but the real reason you go on tilt is because you expect to win against a weaker opponent. If you just push down your frustration without attempting to deal with the underlying cause of the tilt you’ll be able to stay away from tilt when you’re really, really trying hard but as soon as your guard is down it sneaks up on your game and overtakes you. You’re down a buy-in before you even realize that you need to chant happy thoughts.

The Mental Game of Poker (TMGP) basically gives you a roadmap to work on your mental game. They even recommend keeping mental hand histories so you can review your emotional states like you do how you actually played a hand. It’s a more practical and scientific approach than simply trying to deny your emotions. TMGP gives you the tools to understand your tilt rather than simply avoiding it. By understanding why you tilt you can work on the underlying cause rather than treating the symptom.

Getting to the heart of why you go on tilt is probably more important than learning to breath deep and tell yourself some positive affirmations. You might tilt because you feel you’re entitled to win over weaker opponents. Someone else might tilt because they’ve been cold decked for over a month. While the differences might seem subtle the way you address each can be very different because you’re dealing with completely different emotions.

TMGP also deals with issues like Fear and Motivation that are also integral to becoming a successful poker player. If you’re playing scared money or you choke in big pots it’s going to be hard to excel in poker. Likewise if you you can’t work up the motivation to bring yourself to the tables it’s going to be pretty damn hard to make money.

It’s funny because reading through the book I kept finding myself being able to personally connect with what was being described. Not just in the poker world but in other parts of life as well. For instance, the Adult Learning Model (ALM) section was exactly how I progressed in learning about scuba diving. And the biggest compliment I can give it is that not only did I see myself in many of the examples but I learned useful ways of approaching issues on the poker table and off that have made a positive impact on my life.

I’ll give TMGP a big thumbs up. I think it’s one of the few books that breaks new ground in the poker genre.

The New Standard in Online Poker

Bill Rini — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:39:03 +0000

If you haven’t noticed a trend by now, I’m sort of disappointed that the online poker industry has failed to really embrace the social media world. Much like AOL in the late 1990′s many online poker rooms are very inward focused. The internet outside of the software client doesn’t seem to exist. Sure, some poker rooms might grudgingly set up a Facebook account or pretend to try to engage people on Twitter but they’re just phoning it in.

The other night I got an email from someone in the industry I respect and he had CC’d the CEO of one of the online poker sites basically saying, “You have to show this to Bill.” I have to say I was immediately intrigued because the person making the introduction shares a lot of the same opinions as I do on the poker sites needing to differentiate themselves and seems to also share my same frustrations over the lack of innovation in the industry.

So we arranged to have a virtual meeting on Skype and he shared his screen with me so I could check out something that they’re planning on launching very soon (think within a week or so). It’s difficult to describe because I don’t have screen shots but allow me to take a pass at it.

First off, when you open your poker client you get a control panel sort of extra window that sits side by side with your poker client. In there is a little social networking control panel that lets you connect with your Facebook and Twitter accounts. That’s a nice step forward but I wouldn’t even be writing about it if that’s all it was.

From there you could choose to send out updates to FB and Twitter on whenever you money in a tournament, make a big hand, etc. You can add friends, post status updates and all of the other stuff you might want to share with people in your social network.

But the part that really blew me away was that added features so that you could challenge friends to matches, make last longer bets, and buy a piece of your friend’s action. And it worked so seamlessly. For instance, if I want to make a last longer bet with you, I pick the amount of the proposed wager and send you a request. When you accept the request it enters us both in the same tournament/cash game. It even settles the wager at the end of the bet automatically based on the results. Same goes with buying a piece of your action. I can offer you 10% of my action in a tournament and it if you choose to back me it automatically deducts 10% of the buy-in from your account and if I make the money it credits your account with 10% of the proceeds.

For all of the billions of dollars online poker companies have made in the last decade this has to be one of the biggest innovations in online poker that I’ve seen other than Rush Poker. Not necessarily because of the specifics of what it does but because it’s the first time anybody is willing to admit that a world exists outside of the poker client software. It’s the first time a poker company has made any sort of substantial effort to utilize the social aspect of the game that benefits both the player and the poker room.

And even on the most basic level, just the sharing of the player’s big scores on the FB and Twitter accounts, this is a huge step forward in how the online poker industry has utilized social media in the past. Users sharing amongst their friends vs. online poker companies blasting out promotions.

Will this turn someone into a threat to PokerStars overnight? No. But every customer that they acquire via social media will cost them a tiny fraction of what it costs to acquire a customer via traditional media. And I’m willing to bet that their churn will decrease too as now the game is more social and connected with friends than it is on other sites. Getting a customer from one deposit to his second deposit is one of the toughest tricks in all of online poker. This is exactly the kind of feature that has a chance of getting that second and third deposit.

The other features that allow players to make last longer bets and buy action should be very popular as well. We all talk about poker being a social game but have you ever gone into a real casino and played in a tournament with some friends? Everybody is seated at different tables and the only time you ever talk to each other is on bathroom breaks. But here you can make a last longer and sweat each other because you’ve got some cash on the line. Or you can put up a partial stake and root on your friend in the hopes of making a cash.

Again, I’m really excited that all of my screaming into the wind has not been a waste. I really think this will be the start of a whole new way of looking at social media and how to bring much deeper immersion into the whole poker scene.

So who is this company? I’ve been asked to hold off until the launch which should be either later this week or early next week. So stay tuned here for more information.

Elements of Poker Now Available as an eBook

Bill Rini — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 08:57:00 +0000

Just a quick one to let everyone know that Tommy Angelo’s book, Elements of Poker (my review), is now available as an eBook from Kobo, Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Atlasbooks. Might make for a nice present this Christmas. :-)

Poker Tour Cam

Bill Rini — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:57:59 +0000

Have you ever dreamed about shoving all-in against Phil Ivey with 27o? My therapist is trying to help me with that but, me too! And now I can find out what it might be like.

One of my old Full Tilt amigos, Ernest Hwang, sent me a message earlier this morning asking if I would like to check out an iPhone application he developed called Poker Tour Cam. What this ingenious little app does is take any photo on your iPhone and turn it into a television snapshot showing you up against your favorite pros.

Here’s me in Hua Hin throwing a move on Phil Ivey

I hope that's baht and not dollars

And here’s me getting my swerve on against Ivey

You call and it's all over, baby!

No need to actually get good at poker or invest in a tournament, you can be famous for the low, low price of $2.99 if you own an iPhone.

The setup is pretty cool. You can use an existing picture on your iPhone or take a snapshot of yourself and it automatically uses that photo. Once you have a picture you can input names for the players, what the actions are (To Call, All-in, Check, etc), pot amount, hole cards, and the board. You can even choose whether or not to have the TV line scans included in the photo.

Once you set up the options (or just use the defaults) you can save and/or email your piece of poker history.

I’ve become addicted to it and have started Ivey-izing all of my pics.

You can check it out in iTunes by typing in “Poker Tour Cam” or follow this link.

It’s well worth the $2.99. Much cheaper than buying into a tournament :-)

I guess the only question is why no poker rooms are coming up with cool little things like this?

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“Crushing the Microstakes” by Nathan BlackRain79 Williams

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