I have been using three new apps a lot lately, so I figured I would share them with you. One of these apps will make you smarter, one will make you money, and the other one will make you better at poker.
The first is app is Blinkist.
This app will make you smarter.
For those who do not know me, I read a ton of books. I spend a reasonable amount of each week pouring through books that have been recommended to me by my mentors and friends. Educational books are essentially an expert’s years of wisdom that has been distilled down to a few hundred pages of text. Spending a few hours reading to read the wisdom of someone’s life is an amazing value. That said, there are not enough hours in the day for me to read all the books on my “to read” list. There are currently over 100 books I want to read, despite getting through about a book each week.
I went out to lunch with Excelling at No-Limit Hold’em author Alex Fitzgerald a few days ago and he introduced me to Blinkist. Essentially, Blinkist is a bunch of CliffsNotes for well known, and lesser known, educational and non-fiction books. While reading a five page summary of a book is certainly not the same as reading the entire thing, it is clearly beneficial and perhaps a better use of time. Of course, if you enjoy the CliffsNotes and want to learn more, but can still buy the full book.
Blinkist currently charges $80 a year for a full membership, which is an absolute steal in my opinion. Even if you don’t want to sign up for a membership, you can read one book each day for free. I have been through about 50 books in two weeks and I am excited to continue going through the amazing content. Initially I went through a bunch of books, but I think that was a mistake. I suggest you read the books slowly and take diligent notes. This will ensure you absorb the information and do not mindlessly plow through them. Blinkist is a game changer for me.
The second app is SlotMasters.com.
This app will make you money.
:: Edit: SlotMasters no longer functions as it initially did at the time I wrote this post. I am unsure if it is still possible/worth your time to win money on it. ::
Full disclosure: I have never played an actual slot machine in my life. They are almost all losing propositions and should be avoided like the plague.
When world-class poker pro David “Doc” Sands told me about his new app SlotMasters, I decided to give it a try. During the private beta launch, I won over $350 by pressing the “max bet” button in my spare time. The public app just launched and is giving away $25,000 each month, which is way more than the money they are bringing in, making the app +EV for everyone who plays. I won $95 on my first five days playing on the newly released app in about three hours of play. I understand $95 isn’t a lot of money, but winning $95 by playing a game on my phone is better than winning $0. SlotMasters offers a free basic membership and gives you access to tournaments where you can win real money. What other app does that?! You can also sign up for a free 7-day trial premium membership that gives you access to CardPlayer magazine and FloatTheTurn.com. If you want an easy way to pass time and win a little money, check out SlotMasters.
The third app is the completely free FloatTheTurn.com Push/Fold app.
This app will make you better at poker.
I have discussed my Push/Fold app a few time since its launch, but every few days another student tells me how it made them a large amount of equity in a live poker tournament, so I wanted to share it with you one more time. In addition to letting you know game theory optimal push/fold ranges quickly and efficiently with the click of one button, it also has a quiz feature so you can test yourself in a timed or casual environment, and then see how your skills compare with your friends’. If you want to never make a mistake when pushing with a short stack again, check out the FloatTheTurn.com Push/Fold app.
Some people incorrectly think that Push/Fold apps are just for complete beginners, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Many world-class players have attested to using charts for most of their routine decisions. Recently, Allen Kessler posted this on twitter, praising my FloatTheTurn Push/Fold app:
I hope you find these tools to be useful. If you enjoy this type of post where I share the things I use in my day to day life, let me know in the comments section below or on twitter @JonathanLittle and I will write more blog like this. If you hated this blog, let me know that too. Be sure to check back next week for another educational blog post. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for the excellent tips Jonathan! I’ll try them out!
Slotmasters? Really Jon……
Really. I never play slots, but I like free money. I am up about $400 total on the app now by turning on my phone in the morning, pressing “autobet max”, and coming back 30 minutes later. I am a big fan of free money, and I assume many of my followers are too.
Never heard of push fold but I will definitely have to try it out.
Do you think the slot masters would work on an emulator?If yes, how do i get the payment?Also as i understand this is an app that intends to bring profit by ads,and in short time when players accumulate it will have a very low hourly rate, kind of like poker freerolls.
I have only used the app on my phone in a jurisdiction where it is legal. I do not suggest you do anything against the rules of any program/government. “Hourly rate” is an interesting concept for things like this as it is not like a poker freeroll that actually requires your attention. I wake up in the morning, load up the relevant game, press “autobet max” and walk away. I come back in 30 minutes, find another game, and do the same. It requires about 5 minutes of actual thought throughout the day. That said, of course as more users play your EV will go down, unless they increase the prize money. Also, I signed up as a paid member and have won more than enough to cover the monthly membership in one day.
I feel similarly to you regarding plowing through too many books in a hurry. I mentioned this to you about trying to catch up on pokercoaching webinars saying I was trying to figure out a schedule and not just plow through them. I dont think it’s practical to expect the mind to be able to utilize that many new concepts at once though at least familiarizing yourself with what’s out there could be useful.
Walked away fro phone for 10min, came back into the app and it was asking me if I wanted to resume. Does this mean phone has to be ACTIVE in the app, meaning phone can’t sleep?
As far as I know, pretty much all apps pause when you put your phone to sleep.