[barryg1]

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I looked at the negative reviews also, because I wanted to understand what kinds of players I didn't resonate with. It seems that a lot of my material isn't relevant to players who play solely on the Internet and who don't value my advice on personal interaction.

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I was disappointed with your book also. Not that it isn't a good poker book. It's just that putting the words "Barry Greenstein" and "An advanced poker guide" on the cover led me to picture a much different type of book. It's just misleading, IMHO.

I wasn't even thinking that it would necessarily fit or improve my mid to high limit games/play. I just thought it would be more about how the game changes at the higher limits. I was thinking it would be about how you make adjustments for the high caliber of opponent in the big game. I was hoping to see more of play involving you and some of the players in the "big" game.

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We don't play much hold'em in the big game, so I ended up using tournament examples, mainly against relatively weak opponents. I thought of discussing how we play Omaha eight-or-better or how we play pot limit Omaha and how you cope with someone who plays almost every hand, but even the mention of these games is over most readers head. I had hands from the big game I might have included, but instead I tried to explain some of my ideas without using hands -- for example, my chart on how to adjust to opponents styles. I'm surprised this didn't provoke more thinking.

Also, I felt that I did a good job chronicling my thought processes during poker hands. Most readers have been happy with that, although I have often been asked for more hands.

There is no question that one of the drawbacks for two plus two'ers is that I wanted to make the book readable by a mainstream audience so these readers could apply my poker ideas to their own world. I think I achieved this, but it left some poker players hungering for more intensive poker. On the other hand, editors at the different publishing houses that I rejected said the poker in the play lessons was too sophisticated and was limiting my audience.

I have considered making a book with only hand examples, but it would be a lot of work for not that large an audience. Frankly, I still make my living playing poker, not writing books. I just had a book in me that I decided to get out. (I am of the opinion that we all have a story to tell.)

Barry