“Play Online Poker As a Business” makes big claims. Some very tempting claims for anyone who has every through of leaving the 9-5 grind and playing poker for a living. How does this sound:

* MY PERSONALLY DEVELOPED WINNING STRATEGIES
* STOP LOSING EASY POTS!
* TAKE THE LUCK OUT OF TEXAS HOLD’EM POKER
* GET AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE
* NO MORE WHAT IF… SITUATIONS

Sounds good doesn’t, but the question is does the system actually deliver and is it worth the $77 asking price?

The Package

This system consists of a 16 chapter PDF, with no video or audio material. The “members area” where you download the ebook has links to articles, but these are all “Available for download very soon”. So basically it’s just a book. As such it’s going to have to compete with such classics as Doyle Brunsun’s super system, Harrington on Holdem’ and Sklansky’s Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players, all of which can be obtained for far less than $77. The secrets and strategies are going to have to be pretty special.

The Author

The author is Kim Birch, who apparently is known in the poker world as KB or “The Danish Dragon”. However, a Google search for that reveals only information about the ebook. There doesn’t seem to be any information on the Poker career of Kim himself. This could be because the info on him is in Danish, but compare, for example, these two Google searches:

“The Danish Dragon” Kim Birch: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22The+Danish+Dragon%22+Kim+Birch
“The Great Dane” Gus Hansen: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22The+Great+Dane%22+Gus+Hansen

It seems that Kim really isn’t too well known as a Poker professional.

The Chapters

You can see above how the chapters from the ebook look. Hmmmm. Remember, I’m looking for Kim’s “Personally developed winning strategies”. Maybe he’s talking about Chapter 11? Let’s dive into the ebook and see…

Chapter 1 - Introduction

This is just about Kim and his career.

Chapter 2 - The Origins of Poker.

Some background info on Poker. Such information is, of course, available freely online.

Chapter 3 - Online Poker Info

A few paragraphs of mostly useless information.

Chapter 4 - Rules of Texas Holdem

Available for free online from many places…

Chapter 5 - Poker Lingo

Again, you can easily find this for free online from many places.

Chaper 6 - Poker Numbers

A quick reference table of poker odds. There are many sites that have such odds tables. For example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_probability_(Texas_hold_’em)

This chapter contains nothing ’secret’ or revolutionary.

Chapter 7 - What it takes to win

This is a chapter that gives a general overview of the skills you will need to be a winning poker player. Finally it feels as if we’re entering the realms of information that is actially related to playing online Poker as a business. However, the information is very general and certainly not advanced. It’s the sort on information that most average players will already know, and in no way could be described as a “personally developed winning strategy”.

Chapter 8 - Online Poker planning

This chapter deals with bankroll management, and is probably the best chapter of the ebook. Finally explaining something of how to play Poker like a business, how you should plan for downswings, how you should set longterm goals for your Poker career, and how you should budget your bankroll.

But although this is better, the attention to detail is still lacking. Above is an extract from Kim’s poker budget. As you can see, some of the text has been left in Danish. For a book costing $77, you would expect better.

Chapter 9 - Online Poker Tournaments

Some general information on Poker tournaments. No detailed winning strategies here though.

Chapter 10 - Profile Your Opponents

A chapter on the different types of Poker players you can encounter. While reading this it sounding familiar, and a quick Google revealed that the exact text is available online here: http://www.tightpoker.com/player_profiles.html I’m not sure who wrote it first, TightPoker or Kim Birch, but it’s certainly not going to give you an “unfair advantage” - such info is all over the net.

Chapter 11 - Low Limit SNG Strategy

Could we finally be about to see some real “winning strategies”? Some secrets that will “take the luck out of Texas Holdem’”? I;m afraid not. This is a basic SNG strategy that most people will have seen before on the net. It can be summed up in a few words: play very tight at the beginning, switch gears to play very agressivly once the blinds are big. That’s pretty much it. A very brief and disappointing strategy. TightPoker has more info available for free: http://www.tightpoker.com/tournaments/

Chapter 12 - Position in Poker

Again, this info is already available online. I’m note sure who the original author is, but Google for “The importance of seat position” and you will find the same article all over the net.

Chapter 13 - Aggression in Poker

Some basic tips on continuation betting. Pretty standard stuff most players will already know about.

Chapter 14 - Hand by Hand Play

Kim says that these are questions that Bet365 Poker had him answer when they signed him up. He outlines a Poker situation, and then explains what he would do. Already made suspicious by the amount of info in this ebook which is already online, I Googled for some of the text here. Well, it seems that these questions are all online here, word for word: http://www.pokerlistings.com/poker-question?s=3&w=01&year=2005 So either pokerlistings.com have copied Kim, or the other way around. Either way, it’s info you can get for free.

Chapter 15 - Heads up Poker

By now I was Googling the text for every chapter of the ebook. This chapter can be found word for word here: http://www.tightpoker.com/articles/heads_up_poker.html Who copied who?

Chapter 16 - Shuffle up and Deal

Kim’s last chance to make good on his promises - the final chapter. Does he tell us how to stop losing easy pots and get an unfair advantage? No, it’s just some stuff text to finish the ebook.

The Bottom Line

If you’ve read though the description of the chapters you’ll see that the ebook is basically nothing more than a lot of text that is available freely online with a few words for Kim that are very basic, mostly beginners information. He does not in any way live up to the hype of his sales page, and the ebook serves as only the most basic introduction to playing online Poker as a business. It will give you no real advantage over the hoards of other players who are seeking to do the same. So save your $77 and buy some real Poker books.

If you would nonetheless like to check out the system, you can click this link: Play Online Poker As a Business or the button below.