Peter Clarke - The Grinders Manual: A Complete Course in Online No Limit Holdem 6-Max Cash Games

Welcome to The Grinder's Manual. This book is acomprehensive mega-course in No Limit Holdem cash games with specific focus onthe online 6-max variation. It spans 532 pages and contains 152 hand examplesand 80 instructive figures. This book is for the beginning player, the aspiringnovice, the intermediate player, and the seasoned player who wants to improvehis or her core understanding of the game. All but perhaps the very strongestplayers in the world will learn something from reading this book. This is aserious textbook that treats poker like an academic subject.

Though online 6-max cash games are the book's focus, thematerial covered will be very useful for building a better understanding of thegame in general for anyone with an interest in some form of No Limit Holdem.Players who are more interested in full ring cash games or tournament pokerwill still benefit greatly from working their way through the manual.Naturally, however, the aspiring 6-max cash player will benefit most.

I have created what is, in my opinion, the first poker textever to include all and only those technical poker topics mandatory for acomplete game strong enough for the reader to crush his way through themicrostakes, establish himself as a winning player at 100NL (50c/$1 blinds) andset up a solid basis for going further. After reading this book andappropriately applying the material, the reader will be strategically equippedto succeed at these stakes as the games are on the toughest sites on the internetas I write this in early 2016. This condensing process was by far the biggestchallenge I encountered in writing the manual. My mission was for the aspiringonline poker player to finally be dealt a complete syllabus that is bothsufficient in detail and simple enough to digest without getting lost in thesea of 'too much information'. I know that I never came across anything closewhen I was learning the game. And so, finally, here it all is in one place!

That said, if you were to quickly read this book only oncecover to cover, picking up where you left off each sitting, the sea of too muchinformation is exactly where you'd end up. Each chapter within the manualdemands detailed study. The reader should try to read when fully alert,participating in the exercises with motivation to learn. Chapters are presentedin a logical order. I take care to introduce new ideas as and when they becomerelevant. The reader's understanding of the necessary core technical skills isbuilt gradually one step at a time. It is therefore advised that the readeravoids jumping between chapters, and follows this procession of complexity. If,for example, he were to leap straight from the 2nd chapter to the 11th, he'dquickly find himself confused by an array of material that was first introducedsomewhere in between.The starting level of the manual is aimed at fairly new, but not completelyclueless players. I assume that the reader has played poker before, iscompletely aware of the rules of the game and doesn't need to be told that aflush beats a straight. However, this book is written in such a way that moreexperienced players will also begin learning from the very start. I expect thateven the simpler topics have mostly taught in a worse way before in other placesand so I aim to clarify how to correctly think about basic areas of the gamefrom the beginning. Even the more elementary topics, like opening the pot, arecovered in an extremely high level of detail, building mathematical and logicalfoundations for what's to come.

Perhaps the most important thing I've learned from years ofcoaching the game is that there is a very large gap in between theoreticalunderstanding of concepts and the application of said concepts at the tables.In order to bridge the gap between concepts understood theoretically andconcepts actually applicable in-game, it is strongly advised that the readertries as fully as possible to solve hand examples and other exercises on hisown before reading on. The manual is laid out in such a way as to put thereader in the driver's seat.

I use the terms: 'Hero' and 'Villain' throughout this text.

'Hero' will alwaysrefer to the active player whose shoes we are in as we face each hypotheticalpoker situation. We shall assess every spot through the eyes of Hero.

'Villain' will always stand for his opponent.

Essentially, we're the goody and he's the baddy.

I shall be using the terms 'Hero' and 'we' interchangeablythroughout the book to describe how the reader should play and think. I shallalways use the male pronoun simply as a matter of consistency.

The number of hand examples may at times seem excessive. Aspoker is such a complicated field, I actually consider the 152 hands coveredhere a bare minimum. I should also add that simply reading one book (even thisone) should be far from the full scope of the aspiring player's study time. Thereader is also advised to review his own sessions, regularly tagging hands inhis database to match the topics covered here. It is possible to greatlysolidify your understanding of the material in a practical way by reviewingreal life examples that actually occurred in a session in which the reader'sown money was at stake. Community is also highly important for learning in thisgame and I recommend that the reader discusses the themes and examples of thisbook with his poker peers.

I deal with the mathematics of poker in this manual toexactly the extent that I think is appropriate for the aims of the book. Themanual does not scrimp on any necessary math, but avoids overly complicated indepth mathematical material that has very restricted practical application. Therule for poker math is exactly the same as that for the rest of the book: lotsof detail, but not a drop more than is necessary to become a very strongplayer.

Poker is a massive subject containing an overwhelming amountof terminology. For the newer player or anyone not versed in speaking the lingoof poker, this can be daunting. Consequently, every new chunk of poker jargonyou'll meet throughout this book is defined clearly and fully the first timeit's introduced. Should you forget the exact meaning of a term somewhere alongthe way and want instant clarification, you can also consult the atthe end of the manual for a quicker definition, where all of these terms arelisted alphabetically.

Before we jump into the real meat of the manual and getacquainted with the first technical topic, there are three short but necessarysections to read in this chapter.

• First we'll meet the concept of EV - a fundamental poker notion
• Secondly, I'll briefly describe the teaching strategy used throughout the book and why I've chosen it.
• Thirdly, while this book is almost exclusively a technical manual focusing on strategy and not psychological improvement, I would like to quickly outline what else needs to be done concerning the mental game of poker and the reader's professional approach to the game.