Five By Thirty

Today, August 10th 2009, is the day that Ed Miller turns 30!

Who else do you know who has written FIVE books before 30?

Reader Reviews of SSNLHE

Some of the early reviews of Small Stakes No-Limit Hold'em are in.

Here's what some readers say:

• "In short: This is the best poker book I've ever read."
• "Finally…a true NLH cash game book that is filled with specific strategies to crush the competition."

Here's what some other readers say:

• "Its full of detailed hand examples illustrating a ton of different concepts."
• " I think this is quickly going to become THE NL book to own. We might have a poker classic on our hands here!"
• "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."
• "an excellent e-book. even for someone who knows it all"

Go ahead, order yours now >>

Miller in Hendon Mob Database

Ed Miller is now listed in the Hendon Mob database. See for yourself >>

Small Stakes No Limit Hold'Em Update

Small Stakes No Limit Hold'Em is now for sale!

"The regular price for Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em is $99.95. However, from now until the release date you can get it for the special preorder price of $39.95. That’s $60 off, plus the privilege of being among the first to read the book. To get the preorder price, you must buy before the release date."

That means you need to buy it NOW.

Go buy it here >>

Small Stakes No Limit Hold’em Table of Contents

A partial table of contents was posted at the NPA website:

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…

New Book Announced

Small Stakes No Limit Hold’em is coming out soon as an ebook. They're taking preorders soon.

From Ed's site:

I’m proud today to officially announce Small Stakes No Limit Hold’em by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn. It’s the affordable poker ebook. [...]

The book price will be $99.95. We are going to offer preordering soon at a special discounted price of $39.95. This is the affordable poker ebook. Preordering is NOT available yet. Please do NOT send any money to my Paypal account. (Or, rather, I will consider any money sent to my Paypal account today to be a gift. Thanks in advance, guys. ) I’m working right now to get preordering working, and once it is I will announce it on Noted Poker Authority and you can preorder at that point.

This discounted $39.95 is a preorder price only. Once the book is released, the special rate will be over and the book will be $99.95. So order early! You will have plenty of time to get the book at the preorder price. If you want to make sure you don’t miss the preorder price, I recommend that you subscribe for email updates or that you load the feed into your favorite feed reader. Or do both. Two Ed’s are better than one.

Read more here >>

Playing No Limit Deceptively

The category on Ed's blog that has the most articles is the section on No Limit Hold 'em. There, Miller has written 191 articles.

He's got a new series in the NL section about playing deceptively:

• Playing Deceptively - Part 1: Defining Deception
  Ed Miller writes, "I think if you asked people to define what it means to play poker “deceptively” I think most of them would mention something about playing opposite of your hand strength. If you have a weak hand, you play it strongly or bluff. And if you have a strong hand, you play it weakly or slowplay. I’ve never been comfortable with that definition of deception. One reason is that many times people are at their most transparent and readable exactly when they’re trying to be their most deceptive.'
• Playing Deceptively - Part 2: Reading Your Own Hand
  Miller says, "Most people don’t play deceptively. They play by a relatively simple set of rules and principles, and they often find themselves in situations where their opponents can know that they can never be bluffing, they can never have a strong hand, they can never have a drawing hand, and so forth."

Stay tuned for more... Till then, check out the first part of the series >>

Vegan Poker Players Other Than Ed Miller

Ed Miller is a poker player. Ed Miller is a vegan. Are the two related?

Perhaps.

If you ask Ed, he'll say he's vegan for a few reasons, not the least of which is his health. He gambles with money, not with his health. So he's beat the odds and avoiding cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and high cholesterol by eating a plant-based diet. Luck still plays a role and he still might wind up with some terrible disease more commonly associated with a meat-centric diet, but for now he's healthy and happy.

Who else is a vegan poker player?

• Vegan Poker
• Daniel Negreanu
• Howard Lederer
• Cyndy Violette
• Tobey Maguire

Ed Miller on Poker Podcasts and Radio

Ed Miller has been a guest on a variety of programs.
Here are a couple of his interviews:

• Rounders Radio
• HardBoiled Poker
  

Happy Birthday, Ed Miller!

August 10th (today) is Ed Miller's birthday. To celebrate, he'll have some vegan cupcakes :)

PNL2 Not To Be Published By 2+2

By the way, Two Plus Two will not be publishing Part II of Professional No Limit. Ed Miller and his co-authors will be self-publishing or using another publisher for the book previously titled Professional No Limit Hold 'Em Part Two. Mason Malmuth stated that he's finally releasing control of the project. And Matt Flynn, one of the authors, says:

"Separation from 2+2 will substantially speed up the process. We were strongly demotivated. Now we're motivated."

So, it sounds like a good thing. The fan is sure everyone is looking forward to the future book by Ed Miller, Matt Flynn, and Sunny Mehta.

4 Concepts from Miller's CardPlayer Poker Articles

I've collected some key ideas from some of Miller's CardPlayer articles. You'll have to read the entire articles to get the full scoop. And then you'll have to practice the techniques in your play over a period of time while carefully monitoring your wins and loses in order to see the results. Practice makes perfect. And you won't get better unless you study both the game and yourself.

Without further ado, here are some key ideas from Ed Miller's CardPlayer articles:

"No limit is about leveraging position, using semibluffs to take pots away from your opponents, and getting value for your big hands. Each of these ideas requires well-timed aggression. If you limp a lot, you’re going to lose a lot of $1 hands. When you slow, slow, slowplay, you end up not making enough on your good hands to compensate for that steady $1 drip." source: The Pitfalls Of Slowplaying

"if your opponent says something to you and you’re tempted to treat it like a puzzle and try to decode it, STOP! You’re being manipulated."
from: Using Your Opponents’ Words Against Them

"Why did I push? It's in the fold equity: I turned my hand into a semibluff. My all-in four-bet looks very much like aces to my opponents. Indeed, if they'd read Phil Gordon's Little Green Book, they'd think it was almost a certainty that I held aces. So, I can expect many players to fold good hands, up to and including pocket queens." from: Playing Big Slick Against A Reraise

"An additional advantage to trying the occasional squeeze is that it balances your play. If someone raises preflop and two players call, with how many hands will you make a "straight" big reraise from the big blind? Not many, only the very best. If you never try a squeeze, that big blind reraise gives away far too much information about your hand." from: The Squeeze Play

Check out Ed Miller's complete archive for more great poker advice.

Miller's Queer Eye Episode on Hulu

Ed Miller's Queer Eye episode is now on hulu:

Ed Miller at WSOP

Miller says he'll be at the World Series of Poker:

"I’m going to be representing Stoxpoker at the WSOP Gaming Life Expo from July 3rd through 6th. I’m not sure exactly when I’ll be at the Stoxpoker booth, but when I get my schedule, I’ll let you guys know when you can find me. If you’re in Las Vegas in early July, definitely make sure to drop by the Expo and check out the Stoxpoker booth."

So keep an eye out for him if you're in town.

NPA Charging for Archives

The NPA paid archive is available. Call me a liar. I said I didn't think it would happen. Apparently I was wrong.

The way it seems to work now is a bit odd. First you have to register for the website. Then you buy the articles. You can buy one article at a time or you can register for the entire month and read what you want during that month.

1 article = $3.95
1 month = $8.95

Ed must still be testing it out because he hasn't made an announcement about it yet. Stay tuned for more details.

Bob and Ed

A common conversation about Ed Miller:

Ernie, the non-poker player: "Hey, Bob, this guy's a professional poker player."

Bob, the wannabe poker player: "Oh yeah? You a big name?"

Ed, the poker player: "Some people think so."

Bob: "Well have you been on ESPN?"

Ed: "No"

Bob: "Then you're not a big name."

Ed: "OK, if you say so."

Bob wanders off. He isn't interested in talking to Ed Miller about poker.

That night, Bob gets online and plays some low limit Texas Hold'em. He loses.

Ed Miller Spotted With A Big Pe...

No, not what you're thinking. Ed Miller was spotted with a big pea. As in the vegetable.

See for yourself:



More:

• Gothamist
  
• Veggie Pride Parade pix
• TeamOrganicNYC
• Carlos's pictures
• Elaine's pictures
  

Ed Miller's Website Changes and Mason Malmuth

Recently, there have been some changes at Ed Miller's blog. He's disabled viewing of his archive posts. Anything older than 30 days isn't viewable. Supposedly, in the future those blog posts will be available for viewing, but only at a fee.

(This fan is doubtful that will come to fruition, but only time will tell.)

There have been a number of rumors about why these changes have occurred. The rumors are all over the board, including suspicions of CardPlayer magazine, the IRS, Miller's wife Elaine, and others, but recently the truth has come out.

Matt Flynn wrote:

Mason wanted Ed Miller to stop putting content on NPA. The reason given was he thinks high-quality searchable internet content will kill book sales. He pressured stoxpoker to get Ed to make his site less available. Ed did so. Mason then asked us PNL authors to drop the contract. We did not do so. There ya go.

And then Miller wrote this on his forums:

What Matt Flynn said in this thread is true. Mason Malmuth is the one who has been trying to force changes here at NPA. It started in about September of last year, and it's gone from an initial demand that I shut the website down entirely to a letter from his lawyer demanding that I remove all articles older than 3 months to threats of breaking deals with Stoxpoker if they couldn't convince me to alter the site.

I struck a deal with Stoxpoker designed to appease Mason and keep him off Stoxpoker's back. I'm not sure it's the right thing for Stoxpoker, and I'm not sure I did the right thing either.

This NPA stuff is just the tip of the iceberg with Mason. He's been pressuring, harrassing, and smearing me and the people I work with (Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta, the Stoxpoker guys) for nearly two years now. He says it's about book sales or this or that, but there's no doubt in my mind that his main motivation is purely personal. He's trying to “get” me any way he can think of.

I hate this kind of stuff. I just want to talk about poker. My original strategy was to keep doing my thing and not to dignify Mason's nonsense with a response, but it's pretty clear now that Mason is going to keep pushing and pushing until I can't ignore him anymore. I should have nipped it in the bud, but I didn't, and now we'll see where it goes from here.

So, sounds like Mason Malmuth is behind all this. It's not Miller being greedy, it's not the IRS on his back, it's not CardPlayer magazine claiming rights to Ed's writing, it's Mason Malmuth being a control freak.

Can't say it comes as a surprise.

NPA Archives Unavailable

Ed Miller has changed his website. He says:

"My original vision for this site was that it would be free to read. I always intended to make money from it, but I wanted that money to come from advertising, from donations, and from other sources, not from my readers." [...]

"For about the last nine months, behind the scenes, I’ve been receiving pressure and threats aimed at forcing me either to shut down Noted Poker Authority or to make the vast majority of its content available for pay only (sounds ridiculous, I know). Up until now I’ve refused. But it’s become unpleasant and disruptive enough to me that I’m giving in. I’m not proud of it, but when I weighed my options this one made the most sense for me personally."

What's the end result? Well, so far:

"Effective yesterday, all articles on the site older than 30 days are unavailable."

And there are murmurs about who is doing this to Ed. The discussion at 2+2 was removed, which indicates some culpability. There are rumors that either 2+2 or StoxPoker or both are involved. And then there are rumors CardPlayer is doing it.

But Ed hasn't verified anything yet, so this fan is going to stay mum.

7 Reasons Why Online Poker Is Better

I've been pestering Miller to write about some of the benefits of online poker that are overlooked by prominent mainstream poker players. But he hasn't written up the list. So here's my list.

Why Online Poker Is Better Than Live Poker

1. They never see you sweat
2. You can play poker in your underwear
3. No chips = no lead, no lost chips, no dirty hands...
4. Vacations - play poker where you want, on the beach, in a ski lodge...
5. No crappy poker room food. You can order in, cook for yourself, whatever
6. No scary security guards with guns
7. Rakeback

Ed Miller's Professional No Limit Hold’em: Volume II

Ed Miller's fifth book, Professional No Limit Hold’em: Volume II, is making good progress.
Miller says,

“I’ve been on the ‘one book per year’ schedule since Small Stakes Hold’em came out in 2004, and I expect to finish 2008 with an unblemished 5-for-5 record.”

He also says,

"Sunny and I have been playing a lot of online 6-max lately, so rest assured that the book will contain a lot of stuff that will be immediately useful in those games."

Some of the book's topics are:

• Hand reading (I’d say most of the book is about hand reading to some extent or another)
• Preflop 3-betting and 4-betting strategies (and responding to 3-bets)
• Continuation betting and when to fire two and three barrels
• Value betting, particularly on the river
• Balancing pot control against protecting your hand
• Choosing the right spots to run more sophisticated bluffs
• Adjusting to various player types

Read more at Ed Miller's poker blog >>

What A Beautiful Chart

Ed Miller's recent poker wins shown here. Wow, that's gorgeous.

NPA is Partnering with StoxPoker

Soon there will be additional paid content on the NPA website. And furthermore, NPA is partnering with StoxPoker to create a sort of paid content network. Here's what Ed said:

"In practical terms, in addition to the free content at NPA — the articles and Q&As, the message board, the poker tools, and the poker coach directory — we will add paid content to the site. This could be more articles (including more advanced and technical ones) written by me and by other authors, audio, video, more tools, and perhaps other things I haven’t thought of yet. Since NPA will be partnered with StoxPoker, subscribing to the paid content at one site will grant you benefits or discounts at the other site."

Sounds great!
I wonder which other poker experts will join the network to provide articles and other premium content.

Pure Math Poker: Winning in Wild Games

Ed Miller wrote an article about a foolproof strategy for beating wild no-limit hold'em poker games. The whole article has all the details but if you want the quick step-by-step lesson, here it is (bullets added):

• Buy in for 40 to 60 big blinds.
  
• Wait for strong starting hands: pocket pairs, big aces, and K-Q.
  
• If you have a medium or big pocket pair, or if you have two big cards, raise preflop.
  
• With small pocket pairs, or on the button with your somewhat weaker hands, you can just limp.
• If the pot is raised and you hit the flop well, move all-in...
• Your goal is to get your money in early with good hands so there are no tough decisions.

Why is this strategy so good? What makes it foolproof?

"You aren’t relying on your hand-reading skills or your creativity to give you an advantage; you’re relying on raw math."

Get more hold'em poker strategies at Noted Poker Authority >>

The Ed Miller Fan Expands

Notice anything different about The Fan?

Look in the sidebar. That's right, now the sidebar shows the five most recent comments as well as the five most recent message board posts along with Miller's regular blog posts. The fan site is now a more complete a gateway into the NPA site, along with commentary and a little behind the scenes details.

What else belongs in the sidebar? The Fan is thinking about adding these things:

• A list of Miller's Poker Made Simple Articles as well as other series
  
• A list of Miller's StoxPoker blog posts and videos
• A list of Miller's Card Player articles
  

Poker Made Simple: No Limit Starting Hand Chart

Miller has 22 articles in the Poker Made Simple series on his poker advice column. Here's a recap of some of those articles organized the way The Fan feels is best, along with quotes from the NPA:

The No Limit Starting Hand Chart

"For the chart I’ll assume we’re playing 10-handed and that the stacks are mostly roughly 100BB."

1. The Button
   "When everyone folds to you on the button, you can play loose, and you should essentially always open-raise."
   "If you have one limper, and he’s bad, then you can play almost as if you’re opening the pot. Play the loose range listed above (perhaps slightly tighter), and raise with it. If he’s good, then obviously tighten up a bit, but you can still play loose with position."
   "Against a single raiser, you can play fairly loosely still against an aggressive or bad player. Don’t call with weak offsuit hands, though."
   "A raise and a reraise usually means a strong hand is out against you, and the SPR will be low. That means you can’t play loose anymore" Read more about The Button >>
   
2. The Blinds
   "Here’s my advice: Don’t play."
3. Early Position Standards
   "In general, you simply don’t want to play in early position." "So I’ll recommend playing pocket pairs, AK, AQ, and some of the big suited hands in early position. Occasionally you can mix it up with a hand like T9s, but basically stick to those hands."
4. Playing in Early Position
   "You are vulnerable in early position, even with a strong hand." "Against bad players, you want to make big raises (as much as the table is generally calling) with big hands.""If your opponents are tougher and use position well enough to put you in difficult situations post-flop, then play more cautiously." Read more about Playing in Early Position >>
   
5. Middle Position Standards
   "In middle position (the next two seats after early position), I still recommend you play tight, but if your game is good you can mix things up just a bit."
6. Playing in Middle Position
   "When opening the pot from middle position, I recommend generally that you raise." "If there’s one limper, I’m also likely to raise... Against two or more limpers, I’ll sometimes limp along as well." " If my hand is strong enough to play, I tend just to call if I’m the first into the pot after the raise." Read more about Playing in Middle Position >>
   
7. Cutoff Standards
   "The cutoff is a flexible position. The better control you have over your opponents, and the bigger your hand-reading edge over them, the looser you can play."
8. Playing In The Cutoff
   "If You’re Opening The Pot...
   Raise. While theoretically situations can arise where you might want to limp in from the cutoff, in practice you’ll usually want to raise."
   "If there’s only one limper, I tend to raise also."
   "I recommended just calling if you’re first in after a raise." Read more about Playing In The Cutoff >>
   

Poker Is a Challenge, a Hobby, a Great Way to Earn Some Easy Money. But It's Not a Stress-free Career.

Ed Miller says:

"...a few years ago I played poker for the majority (and for some time 100%) of my income. Today most of my income comes from writing and other projects, and playing is a part-time thing for me. I’m happier now."
"...I didn’t go busto. Nor did I rack up millions of dollars as a full-timer. I quit playing full-time with a moderately bigger bankroll than I had when I started"

So why would a winning poker player switch from playing full-time to playing only as a hobby? In an article by Matt Maroon recommended by Ed Miller, Maroon writes:

"I once met someone who quit a job as an air traffic controller, long considered the most stressful job in existence, to play poker for a living. He did it for a year and claimed to have made about 25% more than he would have at his job, but went back to his old career because, as he said, it was 'far less stressful'."

The Fan knows about this stress. Poker players, the ones who have souls at least, tend to get a little down on poker every now and then. It has to do with a lot of things (cheaters, poor card room management, fewer fish, politics/poker criminalization) but variance coupled with loneliness is a big reason winning poker players quit.

When you play poker for a living, you don't just work for yourself, you work by yourself. Everyone else at your table is working against you*. (If someone at the table is working with you, that's cheating.) The dealer is the only one who doesn't have an interest in seeing you fail, but they have no interest in seeing you succeed either. The poker world is a lonely world.

Variance, the randomness of the game, is very difficult for many people to deal with. Humans have a natural tendency to find patterns and uncover/create reasons/meaning for things. The mind has trouble handling random luck. Lucky people tend to feel they deserve their luck and unlucky people tend to think the same thing, even when it's not the case.

That's why poker is easier in small doses. Poker as a hobby is better on the psyche than poker as a career.

Miller plays poker now only as a hobby. He plays about one day a week for fun, to test out theories, and to keep his hand in the game. But he earns most of his income from his books and his website, though he's fundamentally an entrepreneur. Miller, in The Fan's estimation, will always have his hand in a few different pots, earning money from a variety of sources.

The Fan thinks the best poker players are entrepreneurs who play poker sometimes, but not all the time. They are people who desire personal freedom, conquering challenges, and creating wealth in various forms. They're not the kind of people who think lots of money is worth lots of stress. When poker gets too stressful, they find a new gig.

---

*Not all the time, though. There can be multiple winners at the same table and they can root for each other, but when they've all got money in the pot they want to win, it's every player for him or her self.

Miller Milestones - Who's Counting?

Ed Miler has answered 95 poker questions on his blog so far. Will he do five more to bring it to a round 100 before the end of the year?

Miller's got 18 poker coaches listed in his poker coach directory. Will he add two more to bring it up to a round 20 before the end of 2007?

The Noted Poker Authority poker message board has 1960 posts. Will the members write 40 more posts to bring it up to a round 2000 before we ring in 2008?

Will Miller give a prize to the 2000th post? To the 100th answered poker question? To the best comment of the year?

Who's taking bets...?

Ed Miller's Blog Is For Kids (not really)

Ed Miller's blog, Noted Poker Authority, is rated at a Junior High School reading level.

This blog is rated Elementary School level.

The lower the level, the simpler the blog. The lower the level, the more possible readers. The lower the level, the more accessible the website is to people with poor English skills (be they native English speakers or not). As another blogger puts it,

"I take great pride in having a blog that most people have the reading level to understand. You see, I’m not ageist, sexist or elitist. Anyone that can read is welcome to my blog. Currently working on a solution to make it easier to understand for people that are illiterate. I don’t want to exclude anyone!"

(PS - if you take this quiz and post the results on your blog, I suggest that you remove the advertisement that shows up under the image.)

Miller's Short Stack Strategy

Ed Miller has a new article up in CardPlayer. The text can be found online at:

• Miller's poker website, Noted Poker Authority
  
• Card Player Magazine website

The article is about playing short stack, a follow-up on Miller's famous short stack strategy described in Getting Started in Hold 'em, Miller's second book. Here's an escerpt:

"...if you have $100 and everyone else at the table has $1,000, you actually have an advantage over your opponents. In fact, you have two major advantages."

"...Playing short allows you to face a uniform stack size (yours), and enables you to benefit when your opponents face mixed-stack situations."

"...the second advantage of having the short stack at the table; you can gain fold equity without risk."

"...The peddlers of the biggest myth will tell you that having a shorter stack than everyone else puts you at a disadvantage. Not only are they wrong, but the opposite is true. No matter what stack size you play, you enjoy advantages when your opponents play much deeper stacks."

Read the whole article on short stack strategy >>

All of Miller's Card Player articles are online here and here.