Nathan Williams Poker Coach – BlackRain79

If you have ever searched for micro-stakes poker strategy, you have almost certainly landed on a post by Nathan Williams, known online as BlackRain79. He is a 10+ year professional online poker player, a 3-time bestselling author, and the most widely followed coach in the NL2–NL50 space. His courses are available on ElitePokerGuide.io under a FOREVER LICENSE — one payment, lifetime access.

Nathan Williams BlackRain79 — The Story

Nathan found poker in his mid-twenties, shortly after graduating from university. He describes it as the moment that changed everything — abandoning the typical career path in favour of grinding cash games day and night. Within a few years he became one of the biggest winners ever at the small and mid-limit games online, and has not held a conventional job since. He now travels and lives across Southeast Asia, running his poker business entirely from a laptop.

He started his blog at blackrain79.com in 2007 as a private journal — not even revealing his screen name for years. When his results eventually became public, the community found them almost unbelievable. Millions of hands. Consistent win rates. A pure, systematic exploitation of the same player tendencies that most people call “variance.”

BlackRain79 Books and Teaching Philosophy

Nathan has written three bestselling poker books — Crushing the Microstakes, Modern Small Stakes, and The Micro Stakes Playbook — all built around the same core idea: the games are beatable with disciplined, exploitative play and rigorous table selection. He is openly sceptical of GTO as a tool at NL2–NL25, arguing instead that a well-executed TAG approach beats the actual opponents you face at those limits far more reliably than solver-optimal play.

His teaching style is direct, unfiltered and grounded in real session data. He does not glamorise the lifestyle or oversell results — his videos and books are built on what actually happened across millions of hands, not theory crafted in a vacuum.

BlackRain79 Courses on ElitePokerGuide.io

The full BlackRain79 course catalogue is available on ElitePokerGuide.io — cash game courses, all under a FOREVER LICENSE. Key titles:

• Elite Poker University — structured A-to-Z curriculum, 7 modules, 50+ videos
• Micro Stakes Domination Bundle — complete micro library, 26 collections, 138 files
• The NL2 Mastery Course — 9 videos + 2 PDFs, full ring, 6-max and Zoom
• Regular Wars — 10-video theory series on beating regs at NL25–NL50
• Crushing The Micros 2014 Edition — 12-part live play NL2–NL10

See the complete BlackRain79 courses index review and check active pricing on the coupons page.

Nathan Williams (BlackRain79) built his reputation on one thing: actually playing and winning at the lowest limits online, over millions of documented hands, and then teaching exactly what worked. His three books — Crushing the Microstakes, Modern Small Stakes, and The Micro Stakes Playbook — are among the bestselling poker titles in print. His blog at blackrain79.com, running since 2007, remains one of the most-read micro-stakes resources online.

All BlackRain79 Courses — FOREVER LICENSE

• BlackRain79 Elite Poker University — complete A-to-Z cash game curriculum, 7 modules, 50+ videos, cheat-sheet PDFs
• BlackRain79 Micro Stakes Domination Bundle — full micro library: 26 collections, 138 files, 15.75 GB
• BlackRain79 The NL2 Mastery Course — 9 videos + 2 PDFs (full ring, 6-max, Zoom)
• BlackRain79 Crushing the Micros 1 — original DragTheBar series, NL2 (10 parts)
• BlackRain79 Crushing the Micros 2 — NL5 live play (10 parts)
• BlackRain79 Crushing The Micros 2014 Edition — NL2–NL10, Zoom, 6-max (12 parts)
• BlackRain79 Crushing the Micros 6 Max — dedicated 6-max micro live play (8 parts)
• BlackRain79 DragTheBar Crushing Zoom — Zoom poker live series (12 parts)
• BlackRain79 Zoom Series — NL10 fast-fold sessions (12 parts)
• BlackRain79 Regular Wars — beating regs at NL25–NL50 (10 videos)
• BlackRain79 Crushing Online Poker in 2015 and Beyond — table selection, game state, mindset (3 parts)
• BlackRain79 Live at NL5 — cold-start NL5 sessions 2013 (4 parts)
• BlackRain79 Party Poker Micro Stakes — NL10 on Party Poker (3 parts)
• BlackRain79 Mass Tabling Madness — 24-table live play (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Table Selection at the Micros — live table selection series (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Value Betting at the Micros — extracting max EV vs calling stations (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Getting Away at the Micros — disciplined folds, overpair management (5 parts)
• BlackRain79 Mental Game at the Micros — tilt control and emotional discipline (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Observations of Micro Stakes — patterns from 6M+ hands (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Optimizing Your HUD at the Micros — PokerTracker 4, downloadable HUDs (4 parts)
• BlackRain79 Hand Reading at the Micros — range construction, replayer format (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Member Reviews — 10 real student session reviews (2011–2015)
• BlackRain79 Moving Up — stake transition framework NL10→NL50 (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Micro Full Ring Rapid Fire River Spots — concentrated river analysis (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Micro Full Ring Theory: All About Pocket Pairs — set mining, overpairs (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Micro Full Ring Theory: Bluffing — when and how to bluff (2 parts)
• BlackRain79 Micro Full Ring Theory: Flop Play — perceived ranges, c-bet selection (2 parts)