THE SMALL STAKES POKER
HUSTLE:
How
I Make $3,500+ A Month Part-Time Playing $1-2 & $1-3 No-Limit Hold'em &
How You Can Too! Direct from the publisher This Comb binding Edition is specifically
designed for easy study and only available on eBay
Book Details Format: Comb Binding Size: 8.5" x 11" Pages: 84 Authors: M. Mitch Freeland Publisher: Las Vegas Book Company Edition: 1st Comb Binding Edition, March 27, 2017
Have you thought about playing winning cash game poker? How about making a living playing poker part-time or in your spare-time? With the vast expansion of casinos across the U.S. it is now possible for anybody to play poker for a living—even part-time. I
have been playing winning Poker for over 30 years and I've decided to write a
book to show others how to play and win for life. Can
you really become a winning cash game player in small stakes No-limit Hold'em? You
better believe you can! How would
you like an extra $25,000, $50,000 or even $100,000 next year? How would you like to have a nest egg of $500,000?
It
all starts by taking action.
DISCOVER THE TIPS,
TRICKS, METHODS AND STRATEGIES USED TO BECOME A SOLID SMALL STAKES NO-LIMIT
HOLD'EM WINNER FOR LIFE!
HERE ARE THE IRREFUTABLE Strategies taught to you Step-by-Step to mold you into a
CASH GAME WINNER!
f you are just starting out or
you have been playing low stakes No-limit Hold’em for a while and you can’t
seem to beat the game or your hourly win rate is not exactly something to brag
about, then this is the book you have been waiting for. The most popular game
in the card room today is $1-$2 No-limit and if you master this level, you will
be able to make a living almost anywhere in North America today. I am going to show you how I play
and how I win year after year. It is not luck. I will show you the ins-and-out
of good play—of winning play. You do not have to be a great player to win. You
just have to have a little more disciple than the other players. The winner is
the one who makes the right decisions more often at the correct time.
In The
Small Stakes Poker Hustle, you will learn:
Sampling of the Contents Online Players Transitioning to Live
Games Why This Book and Why Small Stakes
No-Limit Hold’em My Transformation from Limit to No-Limit and Then to Small Stakes The Structure of the Game, Bankroll, Money-Management, The Rake, Getting Organized and Other Topics How Much Bankroll Do You Need to
Start? Should You Segregate your Bankroll? Experimenting with Different Buy-Ins Promotions, Comps and Jackpots Why are Small Stakes Players Weak
and How Not to Fall into This Trap? Observations of the Opposition Flaws with Small Stakes No-Limit
Players Categorizing Players and Their Style
of Play Maniacs or Super Aggressive, Loose
Players How to Play against Maniacs or Super
Aggressive, Loose Players How to Play against Loose Players How to Play Against a Calling
Station Tricky Tight Aggressive Players A SNAPSHOT OF POKER THEORY AND ODDS How to Use the Chart of Outs and
Odds Hand Rankings and How to Play From Each Position Positions in a Nine Handed Game Raising in Early Position When No
One Has Entered Raising in Middle Position When No
One Has Entered Raising From Late Position When No
One Has Entered Raising From The Button When No One
Has Entered Calling a Raise Before the Flop Calling a Reraise Before the Flop How to Play When its Three Bets
Before It Gets to You Calling a Raise after You Have
Called Playing from the Blinds and Raising
from the Blinds When you are the Blind and the
Button is First to Enter with a Raise When you are the Small Blind and the
Big Blind Does Not Chop When you are the Big Blind and the
Small Blind Does Not Chop The Standard 3x or 4x Raise. Which is Better? Raising When there are Callers
Before the Flop Defining Different Types of
Straddles Mississippi Action on the Small
Blind How Do You Raise in a Straddle Pot? Preflop Re-raising: 3 and 4 Betting Raising in the Small Blind When No
One Has Entered Raising When you Have Posted a Blind
From Late Position and No One Has Entered Deciphering the Texture of the Flop Continuation Betting Refined in
Small Stakes Betting Big and Getting Called When Your Opponent Bets Big When You
Have the Nuts Shuffle Machines and the Speed of
the Game How to Play When you Flop Three of a
Kind How to Play When you Flop Two Pair How to Play When you Flop a Straight How to Play When you Flop a Flush How to Play When you Flop a Full
House How to Play When you Flop Four of a
Kind Removing Any Tells you Might Have
Introduction
Small stakes ($1-$2 and $1-$3) no-limit Hold'em are
the most widely spread games in the world. If you know how to play this game
well, you will be able to win regularly and even make a living at it if you
choose to make it your game of choice.
In Las Vegas, a recent Saturday night, there were
eighty-two $1-$2 and $1-$3 games running with a maximum buy in of $200 to $300.
With nine players per table, you have
738 players seated and playing in a single evening. You have more posted on the
waiting list. Now Las Vegas is a gambling destination, and today there are
dozens or casinos hosting small stakes games across North America. A recent
article reported that the new MGM Grand Casino in Oxen Hill, Maryland, only about
ten miles from Washington D.C. sported lists of over one hundred players as a
common number of people waiting for a seat to open to play the current games.
There are plenty of games to choose from at this
level. Who is This Book For?This book is not
for absolute beginners who are unfamiliar with the general rules of poker
and no-limit. If you have not played No-limit Hold'em before or you are new to
the game of poker, I recommend that you read my book How to Play No-Limit Hold'em: A Primer for Smart New Players Who Want to
Start with A Winning Edge in the World's Greatest Poker Game first. It
is a prequel to this book. When you have
finished that book you can get this book.
Readers of this book should have a fair amount of
experience playing no-limit Hold'em in cardrooms, casinos and home games where
the game structure and rules are primarily uniformed with two blinds. This book
is for players who play in live action cash ring games in public cardrooms or
private home games. If you want to be a consistent winner at small stakes
no-limit Hold’em this book was created for you—plain and simple. What is the Aim of this Book?This book has one objective: To make small stakes part-time and full-time
(putting in 40 hours a week) players winners in the game for life. If you are new to no-limit the perfect place
to start your education is right at the $1-$2 game. With this book you will be
getting a solid start. If you apply the information in this book, and hone your
new discovered skills, you will be able to hold your own in any small stakes
game. Moreover, when you master the
information that I have presented in these pages, you will have the opportunity
to secure a full-time income if you put in the hours. A full-time income playing
$1-$2, $1-$3 and $2-$3 no-limit could be $40,000 to over $75,000 per year.
Playing full time would mean at least forty hours a week. However, if you live close to a casino or
close to many casinos you might find yourself putting in fifty hours a week.
Albeit, fifty hours a week might sound like a lot of time in a casino, it is,
however, doable, and you could earn $80,000 to $100,000 a year playing the
$1-$3 or $2-$3. To get to this level you
would need to make $40 an hour. And $40
an hour is doable if you play $1-$3 or $2-$3. Naturally, as your game improves and your cash flow
increases, you will most likely move up to bigger games. However, keep in mind, as you move up, the
games will become tougher. Online Players Transitioning to Live Games
If you have been playing on the internet and want to
transition into live ring games, then this book can help you by making a
winning transition. Since you will be
playing in the lower limits, you will be playing with mostly unskilled players,
many on a low bankroll. Most inexperienced and small stakes players have
numerous tells; therefore, I will get into the basic tells that are most easily
recognized. If you are observant and serious about winning at small stakes
no-limit, uncovering tells from your opponents will increase your hourly win
rate significantly. All it takes is one big discovery to uncover the strength
of your opponents hand.
Why This Book and Why Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’emWe know that all forms of poker played in a public
card room or private home game is beatable. With poker there is no house edge
because we are not playing against the house. If you learn to play well and
hold your concentration at the table, you get the edge over your opponents.
If you want to play poker and you want to play lots
of it, the most available games, almost anywhere, are the small stakes games.
No-limit Hold'em is the best choice. You
could play small limit games but how
much do you think you are going to make playing $2-$4 or $3-$6 Limit Hold'em or
Omaha? Not much. You will be pressing it
trying to make $10 or $12 an hour. This
may not be worth your time. Therefore,
the best option is no-limit—$1-$2 no limit.
And there are lots, and I mean lots, of unskilled players at small
stakes no-limit. There is an infinite number of weak players at this level and
many new players are entering small stakes games for one reason--it's where
nearly all new players begin.
Playing low limit is not very profitable and these
days you could probably make more at any minimum wage job. So, playing low limit is not a viable option.
Now, on the other hand, a good $1-$2 no-limit player can make $20 to $25 an
hour and an expert can make $30-$35 an hour or more depending on game selection,
the rake and casino comps. This makes the game more interesting and profitable
and largely sustainable indefinitely, as long as the card rooms do not raise
the pot rake substantially. . The $1-$2 game I suggest is the game with a
$100 to $300 buy- in. Any maximum buy-in
less than $100 adds more gambling to the game because you do not have enough
chips to play an optimum strategy. The buy-in will be covered in greater detail
later in the book, but for now focus on games where you can buy-in for
$200-$300—and $100 (50x the big blind) being the absolute minimum.
The $1-$2 game I suggest you play is the game with a
$100 to $300 buy in; however, I prefer and recommend playing a $200 or $300
buy-in. The $200 buy-in will give you enough ammunition (100x the big blind) to
withstand several hours of non playable hands and a few beats, and allow you to
bet and raise the correct amount without having to risk a higher percentage of
your stack to make it a good investment.
It will also provide you with enough chips when you have a hand that can
be backed up with your entire stack. The
more chips you have, the more you can earn with your big hands, while playing
an optimal game. The problem with playing a short-stacked entails more gambling
and your opponents are more likely to play in a way to exploit your low chip
position. When you have a low stack, it
is hard to get players off their hands, because it's easier for an unskilled
player to know that he can only lose $60 as opposed to double or triple that
amount.
If you follow my advice in this book and play the
way I recommend, you will have no problem beating this game and other small
stakes no-limit Hold'em games.
I want to reemphasize that his book is for everybody
who plays small stakes no-limit hold’em cash games with blinds of $1-2,
$2-2, $1-$3 and $2-3. These are the low stakes games where the
bring-in (first raise) is usually between $6 to $15. Some players who like to
play small ball will bring it in for $4 or $5, which I believe is a big
mistake, and it will be covered later.
Much of the information I discuss can also be
carried over to internet play. If you
have been playing on the internet and want to transition into live ring games,
then this book can help you with making a winning transition. Since you will be playing in the lower limits,
you will be playing with mostly unskilled players on a low bankroll. Most
inexperienced, recreational players have numerous tells and many are loose and
offer clues to the strength of their hands; therefore, I will get into the
basic tells most easily recognized in a later chapter. Playing Smaller than $1-$2A while back, I saw on Poker Atlas (PokerAtlas.com) that The Linq in Las Vegas had a $1-$1
no-limit game with a $100+ buy-in, but unfortunately, as I was finishing this
book, the poker room closed. I have also seen a game in a St. Petersburg,
Florida casino that offers a $1-$1 game.
These games might be good as well, perhaps even better, because you are
dealing with players in a game that is, I believe, the lowest stakes no-limit
ring game around in public card rooms, or in any casino outside of home games.
I could only assume that the players are inexperienced, leaning toward no experience,
and completely recreational. A good player could make $15 to $20 an hour in
this game. I am certain of this. I one
thing you have to pay attention to is the pot rake. If buy-ins are very low,
pots may not get high enough to justify the rake. The rake could be well over 20% of the pot in
most hands. This could severely diminish
your profit potential in the game.
Even in a $1-$2 game you will get players who do not
know the basic rules or poker or hold'em.
I have played all over the United States and even in Las Vegas I have
had players seated next to me ask, embarrassingly, "Does a straight beat a
flush?" In another game there was a
new player who somehow thought that the game was a community share game,
showing this whole cards to the players seated beside him. That may not sound
that bad, but the players seated beside him were all in the hands he
played. The new player lost his stack in
two hands. The money went in the pot and
the winners had a nice Christmas. I advised the player to not show his cards to
the other players, but it was too late. He did not understand England well. Unfortunately,
I did not get any of his chips. Instead,
I got my money from the retiree who kept betting into my king high flush with
top pair.
NOTE FROM
THE AUTHOR
I have been playing winning poker for more than
thirty years. My views regarding small
stakes no-limit poker may be arguably different than what most experienced players
may feel about the game at the lower levels. My view of the game has evolved
from negative to positive. There is a significant difference playing and
winning at small stakes no-limit than other games. The difference between small
and medium stakes and large stakes no-limit Hold'em can be equated to the
difference of managing a $500 stock portfolio to managing a $10 million
portfolio. Undeniably, there are similarities to the strategies of good money management and playing no-limit
Hold'em, but when you look deeper, you will find that small stakes no-limit is
in a crazy little world of its own, separated by fine lines which some players
might call a form of gambling insanity.
The aim in playing poker is to make money (that's my
aim—yours might be different, whatever it is), but the way you make it is
vastly different when you play small stakes. There are different skills involved.
You have to be more observant because you are playing in multi-way pots most of
the time. This is not the case when you play higher stakes.
My perception of the game of no-limit is based exclusively
on my experience of playing in dozens of cardrooms over many years. I did not
start with small stakes. I started
playing no-limit at the $5-$10 and $10-$20 no-limit tables. I was a winning
player at these games for years, but when the financial crisis occurred in
2008, many of the games that I played began to disappear and my business
interests at the time were located in areas where card clubs and casinos were
yet to be legalized. I then began to
play the game that was most available in home games, $3-$5 no-limit. The more I traveled, the more I realized the
changing scene in poker. This included the change in the size of the game. As mentioned, my normal game for no-limit evolved to
$3-$5, from $5-$10 ($1,500-$2,000 buy-in) and $10-$20 ($2,500-$5,000 buy-in) no
limit. Friendly home games were usually
spread at $3-$5 with an unlimited buy-in, most players buying in for $300 or
$500.
When I refer to small stakes I am talking about
$1-$2 and $1-$3 no-limit live, cash games with buy-ins at an absolute minimum
of 50x the big blind. A lot of negative
things have been said about small stakes no-limit with unusually low maximum
buy-ins—and my perception of the game was that it was not worthwhile to play with
the high pot rakes and jackpot drops toping well over 10% of the pot in most
hands. It has also been said that small
stakes was extremely difficult to beat in the short-term because of the
volatility, wild and incredible swings.
The saying was: ‘too many bad players ruin the game.’ Sure, two or three
weak players in a game is a good game, but eight super weak, idiotic,
hyper-loose players—and you simply do not have a chance at winning—it becomes a
free-for-all—a shove fest. The volatility in your stack size is greater because
you are constantly in multi-way pots.
Nobody respects a raise even when it is over 25% of their stack—you’ll
get multiple callers on a three bet before the flop. When the average eight
players at a small stakes table play a range up and down the deck from any
position, you will have a wild game with big swings. This is inevitable. And this is especially
true when the buy-in is a maximum of only 50x ($100 for a $1-$2 game) the big
blind. So, to play without having a
breakdown that leads you with a one way ticket to the booby hatch, you have to
prepare, and comprehend the precariousness of small stakes and the nature of
the people playing the game. This is as far from $10-$20 no-limit as you will
get. It is a whole different game, guaranteed. With a vastly different style of
play involved to win—and keep sane. Small stakes no-limit has certain advantages,
given that one fully understands the complexity of the game. I'll get into
these advantages later in this book.
In preparation for this book, I played $1-$2, $1-$3,
and $2-$3 no-limit for twenty-three months, part-time, booking 1,508 hours of
playing time, with an hourly win rate of $33 per hour, averaging twenty-one
hours per week in a normal week. I played twice as many hours in the $1-$2 than
the others. Small Stakes DemystifiedI wanted to demystify the conception among many that
one could not win a worthwhile amount over an extended period of time playing
small stakes, with low minimum buy-ins and high pot rakes. Now a worthwhile amount is subjective, so I
will use a figure of $30 win rate as per hour of play as a worthwhile number to
win. Some might feel that $15 an hour is
a good number and others might feel that $50 an hour makes it
worth-the-while. You will have to make
your own decision on this. Naturally, if
you live in an area with low living costs you will do all right with a $30 an
hour win rate. But, if you are in a larger city, where expenses are much
greater, you won't think much of a $30 an hour rate. If you want to play fulltime,
you will have to play eight hours a day six days a week to pull in close to
$70,000 at the end of the year.
While playing in the small stakes arena I learned a
lot more than I set out to about playing at this limit. I was also enlightened
by the regular recreational players and new players playing at these
limits. I'll share much of what I
discovered in this book and another book that I am writing at this time titled How
to Make $250,000 Over the Next 5 Years Playing Small Stakes Poker. The book goes into greater detail with a
structured plan of attack for a lifetime of playing small stakes No-limit cash
games. It is an extension of this book
and includes subjects that this book does not cover, like small stakes online
games, and maximizing profits with rakeback
(what the casinos pay you to play). The
book will also cover playing in different casinos across the United
States. Poker rooms are increasing in
the United States at an unprecedented level, And with this robust growth,
opportunities for smart players is ripe.
The information in this book and the strategies I recommend
are derived directly from my experiences playing small stakes, but also from
thirty years of experience playing all forms of poker at many different limits
and with thousands of playing personalities.
I want to also stress that playing poker at a very
good or expert level is not a quick fix to riches per say. And I want to stress
that to play winning small stakes no-limit, you do not have to be very good or
an expert player. If you are playing in cash games and you have played
a significant number of hours (1,000-2,000 hours), you should have a realistic
view of your hourly rate. You can now figure in what you can expect in the
months and years to come. If you
consistently study your game and reflect on your mistakes (plugging any leaks
you have) and noting your victories, and why you won a session, you will be on
your way to a lifetime of wins.
God Bless and Good luck!
M. Mitch
Freeland March 25, 2017 Las Vegas,
Nevada
YES, YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO BE A WINNER AT SMALL STAKES NO-LIMIT
TEXAS HOLD'EM "Writer, publisher, real estate
investor--flipper, poker player, gambler and businessman, Hello,
I’m Mitch Freeland. I am the author of many books all published by Las Vegas
Book Company. I am a person of faith, a business person, and a writer. I
have been playing winning poker for over thirty years, started at 19, playing in home
games in college. After
UCLA and during the next thirty years, I played blackjack, craps, poker, and
ran a number of businesses along with writing a few books I
have been an investor in numerous young companies and start-ups dealing in all
classes of investments for over twenty-five years. I have also been a real
estate investor for many years. I have been President and founder of an online
bookstore, and publishing company (Las Vegas Book Company), Managing Director
of private Investment Banking companies, and a hands-on operator in my real
estate investing and property management companies. With my brother John, we
have bought and sold, fixed and flipped hundreds of single-family and
multi-family properties and I have managed over 100 units as a landlord. Would You Like to Know More? Scroll
to the top of the page and click the “Buy It Now" button.”
100%
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