[Sean Fraley]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you think you can learn more from, that article written in 30-40 mins or all those books compiled in your shelf? In my case, if I had read my article first instead of the half dozen books I've read, I'd be a much much much richer person.


I believe that it is the style of how I wrote it that pushed a lot of SSNL players to really change their game and force some of the things they weren't doing down their throats.


I haven't read those other books but I am really skeptical about "books" from these authors because most of the time they like to come up with these secret "theories" that I myself have never even heard of before.


If you compiled every single article written by actual PLAYERS on 2+2, you would have a book more powerful than anything written out there. I've learned more from articles on 2+2 than any book ever written out there.


It seems to me that the blood and mud poker players winning and losing everyday seem to have a much closer sense of reality than these big name authors.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have a good point here. Yes, you frequently see books that contain theories and methods that don't necessarily translate well once you actually are facing opponents in a real game but that doesn't mean that simply because something is presented in a book it is unlikely to be good, applicable information. The key is to find out which books contain crap and which books contain good, usable lessons.

You say that since you stopped frequenting these forums, you have been learning about and pursuing entrepreneurial ventures. In this case, use some basic business sense.

You are suggesting a devoting time, effort, and most importantly money to produce a product to sell in small but highly competitive niche market where the customers tend to demand a discernable positive return on their investment. You also intend to do so with the disadvantage of not already having a contract for publishing and distribution with a publishing house with an already established name and reputation in this marketplace. Basically you are going in at a competitive disadvantage and have to convince a buying public that they should choose your product over all of the other ones being more aggressively marketed by publishers with more resources. Because of this, it is imperative that you be 100% absolutely sure that your product will serve the consumer better than any of the others that they are considering spending their money on. Not only this, but since currently the only marketing foothold you have is the reputation you and your co-authors have on an internet forum, your product needs to be so effective that word of mouth will generate sufficient sales and growth of market share in an appropriate amount of time. This leads to one important conclusion:

YOU NEED TO HAVE A VERY FLUENT FAMILIARITY WITH THE COMPETITION SO AS TO CONSTRUCT YOUR PRODUCT IN A FASHION AS TO BE AS EFFECTIVELY COMPETITIVE AS POSSIBLE.

This is why if you have not taken time to read and analyze the more notable of the poker books out there, you must do so now. Not doing so is the same as picking any random seat at any random table and starting to play poker without taking any time to analyze the types of opponents you are up against and the table dynamic.

I have read your articles here. They are damn good and have helped me tremendously. I assume that any other writings you do are likely to be of the same quality. I have never said otherwise. On the other hand, I will once again say don't be so dead set on producing a book without first making sure that it is the best way to accomplish your goal. At the very least spend a couple days at Border's and read some of the books you will be competing against. The worst that can happen is that you lose some time in the process. You may find out that your conclusion that poker books are generally useless is true. Then again you may find out that some people have published books that already do some of what you are trying to do, are already out there, and have better backing from a publisher to boot.

I'm not saying any of this as an insult, or because I don't want you to write. I'm saying it because I respect your previous work and don't want to see you lose time and money just because you have decided that presenting this information in a book is the only way to go.