first of all, a disclaimer for my non-poker-playing readership: I've read a few good books recently (most notably, Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride), so I'll try to publish some non-poker content in the nearest future. For now, just bear with me :)
As many of my friends know, I got more involved with poker in this year, switching from occasionally playing LHE to being seriously interested in NLHE. I'm still not playing a ton of hands, since I only play two tables, but I'm trying to take my game seriously and pick up us much knowledge as I can in the limited time I can devote to it. To this end, I've done a few things: read Bill Vosti's e-book, read the 2+2 stickies, read a few 2+2 books (PNL is not entirely uninteresting, but the hand examples are really far-fetched, NLHTAP seems to be better, but I've only read half of it so far) and, most importantly, joined DeucesCracked, a video training site. This brief description, I'd say, doesn't do justice to DC, since it also has a great community; from what I've seen so far, its forums are probably better than the 2+2 uNL forum, so as soon as I can manage to start posting my own hands, I'll be using the forums a lot.
An interesting feature of the training videos is that they come in series, which makes it a lot easier to decide what to watch and to process the information. So far I've mostly been watching a couple of series for beginning players, Baby Steps and From the Ground Up. Together, I think they form a great framework for understanding the basics of online 6-max NLHE games.
<lj-cut>
Baby Steps by tubasteve is actually a mini-series, which means that it ran in just four episodes. In the first one tubasteve plays two tables of 25NL in a really tight style. I can't remember exactly, but I think he said he ended up running like 15/13 for the session, or something like that. While this certainly seems very nitty, I think that it's not a bad idea to start out by folding most of the more marginal hands, sinds they'll tend to put beginners into tougher post-flop spots. Also, in case anyone wants to see how to open up one's game, the second video, where tubasteve plays 2 tables of 50NL will show how to do that and then some - tubasteve's really LAGged it up in it. I would say that for purely educational purposes, it was a little too early to do it in the second episode of a "noob" series, but it certainly made for fun watching.
In the third episode tubasteve reviews a video of his student's play, and I'd say I liked this episode best. The reason for that is that here we get to see mistakes typical for players at these stakes (25NL, I think), like not raising big enough preflop, not continuation betting on a board where one simply has to and so on, and get to hear Steve's comments on all these decisions. Steve does a very thorough job analyzing all the interesting situations, pausing the video when necessary, so I feel I've got a lot out of this. The series is wrapped up by a Hold'em Manager analysis of the first two episodes, with an emphasis on different HEM stats and reasonable ranges for them and a review of several notable hands. Overall, I'd rate the meni-series as a great introduction to uNL 6-max, although I'd say that From the Ground Up is of course more detailed.
And more detailed doesn't even begin to cover it. Not only it's a full series (8 episodes), but it also features two coaches, tubasteve and n0whereman, who go into great detail discussing nearly everything they talk about. Most videos run well over the one hour mark, so if you decide to watch it, be prepared to spend some time. I'll risk putting the cart before the horse and start with my conclusion: this is a very good introductory series and I feel that me game's improved a lot after watching it and trying to apply some of the concepts. More interestingly, some of the concepts I didn't plan to apply (like double barrelling, since I thought it usually wasn't a good idea at 25NL and I didn't have enough experience anyway) seem to have rubbed off one me somehow and I began doing it myself all of a sudden with a very reasonable success rate.
Anyway, let's get rolling. The first video, actually, doesn't even deal with actual poker play. I did however like it quite well, because it contains a lot of useful information on things one needs to do to succeed in poker. I think almost all the resourses I have ever heard of were described in sufficient detail (I say almost, because it doesn't mention Ryan Fee's guide, which is quite good) and a lot of good advice was given. The bankroll management advice is also probably a lot better than the default 20 BI which are probably outdated by now even for 25NL. Another thing I liked was the recommendation to only play two tables while learning and not more than four until one "graduates" from SSNL. This seems quite sound to me and corresponds to opinions of such authorities as fees and DJ Sensei, for instance.
The second video deals with basic preflop play. It outlines a fairly tight PF strategy, which isn't optimal by the authors' own concession, but allows to avoid a lot of tough spots postflop, which is obviously a good thing for a beginning player. I would say that this strategy is a little*too* tight if not for the presence of another preflop episode that outlines how to open up one's game. The video also discusses in sufficient detail (for an introductory video, mind you) the subjects of playing versus a raise and 3-betting.
The third video was probably my favorite of the whole series. Anyone who's so much as opened a poker book or a poker strategy site has probably heard of board texture. If not, close that poker site and go read the 2+2 forums sticky threads. However, before watching FTGU the concept seemed somewhat vague to me, even though I've seen it discussed a lot. I mean, obviously AKQ monotone flow is a wetter one than Q72 rainbow, but there must be more to the concept than this, right? The video offers a very thorough discussion of flop textures and in which situations it is profitable to C-bet. The flops aren't merely classified, but for each kind a detailed analysis of what portions of the opponent's range and your perceived range it hits is given, making the whys and the wherefores of the correct play clear for most hand examples. My only complaint would be that this analysis pertains only to raised pot, without the necessary adjustments for 3-bet pots. Limped pots aren't covered either, but I guess these are a lot less important.
Episodes four and seven are live play. In the fourth one, tubasteve plays two tables of 25NL in a fairly tight style (although not quite as tight as in Baby Steps 1). In the seventh one, n0whereman LAGs it up on two tables of 50NL, notably on Stars, not the more usual FTP. Both videos are quite good. The hero call made by n0whereman against a shove after tubasteve persuaded him to is pure genius. Also, n0whereman varies his preflop raise sizing quite a lot depending on position in a quite interesting fashion. It's a pity his reasoning is never described, but I think seeing him do that is also quite useful, since it's valuable food for thought (although for now I mostly just pot it, occasionally 3x-ing versus regs on the button).
Episode five is preflop play again. As I've already mentioned, it shows a few ways to open up one's game. The most important one is isolating widely against limpers, since there are a lot of these donks in the micros and very few people will 3-bet you light if you start isolating a lot. This episode also continues the discussion of 3-betting, 4-betting and 5-bet-shoving.
The sixth video is about turn play. Like the rest of the series it puts the most emphasis on value-betting, which is certainly the most important thing to do in the micros, but other things, like good spots for double barrelling, are discussed. Also, Baluga theorem, an instrument that can probably save a ton of money in the long run, is introduced.
Video eight is obviously about river play... Actually it isn't. Apart from a few minor points, this is the only thing I didn't like in the series: the absence of a river play episode. The actual hands review with Joe Tall was a blast to watch, but it doesn't completely make up for the absence of information on the most important street (I call it the most important, because the bets are the biggest - it also comes up the least often, so a case could be easily made, I guess, for the most important street being preflop). I do think that the viewer is, thankfully, not entirely in the dark, since value betting is still very important on the river and the Bakluga theorem still holds, but some more details would have been welcome.
Overall, I'm quite happy I've joined DC and I think I've got a lot out of watching these two series. Next in my plan is Wilt On Tilt's Real Life uNL Grinder, although Balugawhale's and tubasteve's The Coaching Tree seems very tempting too. There certainly is quite a lot of stuff to learn from on DC :)
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
silly
amused