Hi,

Can I have ur opinions on the following? What is ur top 10?


Tri's top 11 instructional video maker:
1. OMGClayAiken (BlueFirePoker)
2. aejones (LeggoPoker)
3. David Benefield (CardRunners)
4. Cole South (CardRunners)
5. Internet Pokers (CardRunners)
6. Krantz (DuecesCracked)
7. BalugaWhale (DuecesCracked)
8. FoxwoodsFiend (DuecesCracked)
9. Sauce123 (LeggoPoker)
10a. Brian Townsend (CardRunners)
10b. Brian Hastings (CardRunners)

http://forum.dailyvariance.com/index...eo-maker-2008/

- overly biased towards NLHE and PLO for a 'best instructional video maker' list, but fair enough
- 100% agree on (1), (2), (8) and (10b) being on a top 10 list, and to a lesser extent (5) and (7)
- (3) has 15 videos lifetime on cardrunners, and only 5 from 2009 onwards, which I wouldn't consider enough to be on this list, his videos are very good however
- (4) has 22 lifetime, inactive for a year now. however in their day his vids were the best available and very influential, he could feature towards the bottom of such a list
- (6) is a controversial one, many now consider him now much less relevant, however with a large volume of work, pioneering deucescracked, and being undeniably a great coach and video producer if not player also, I'd agree with him being on the list
- (9) has made like 3 videos lifetime, a free one on flopturnriver, one on leggo, and another recent dual commentary one on leggo, and as talented a player as he obviously is, would be hard for him to feature on this list
- 10a is no longer active and arguably no longer relevant
- I'd add in Bryce Paradis, he's produced 100s of the best LHE videos available, he may actually have be the most published video maker there is (only one that came to mind as potentially having made more vids was krantz, but a quick search on DC shows only about 140 for krantz, many of which are dual commentary). in terms of their influence on the game, variety of coaching styles, and how articulate and skilled he is, they're second to none imo. factor in his continued contributions to forums, always offering private coaching, making videos for leakbuster limit, doing tons of podcasts, blogging, and contributing to academic research (with the HU match vs the polaris bot) and I'd consider him the no. 1 spot, even if I wasn't a LHE player myself
- for both mixed games and LHE you could lump together DeathDonkey/Danzasmack/Joe Tall on DC as they often make series together and have covered every fixed limit discipline extensively
- other names that might be on the list would be DJ sensei, Vanessa Selbst, ballzdeepx, learnedfromTV, and some of the small and microstakes NL guys on cardrunners, Verneer etc., their contributions in and above and beyond videos have been very solid

Appreciate you taking the time to write your breakdown. Definitely an interesting read. Thanks.

+1
Tri's list most likely considered NLHE and PLO cash game only, I should have included this in the post.
I haven't signed up anywhere yet but it seems CR n DC have the most quality coaches. Are people signing up to BFP for galfond alone?

^actually DrGiggy and samoleus' vids on bluefire are some of the best out there imo, forgot about those guys. jason senti too

Jspill any feedback on leggo?

^leggo is very good, it's about 60% NL 6max, 15% HU, 10% FR, 10% MTTs, and 5% PLO, with like 4 mixed game vids, 1 SNG vid, and a bunch of presentation-type vids about mindstate, things away from the table etc. it's on the same level as DC, CR, and BFP, as one of the 4 most organised, established and popular training sites.

Aejones, bttech86, luckychewy, ashman, seabeast and clayton are all excellent players. arguably the average skill level of their coaches is the highest of any training site, they're all very active and successful in today's games. there are some great dual commentary vids where sauce123 and ansky feature, small stakes leakfinder vids, and extremely high stakes liveplay vids.

as you can read ITT some consider aejones' vids very entertaining with the kind of 'online kid' sense of humour, and others find him childish, but regardless it's plain to see he has a great poker mind and articulate thought process that a lot can be learned from. his work ethic shows from the number of vids he's made (approaching 100), their quality and variety. can also check out his well on 2p2

there are a decent number of MTT vids by seabeast (jay kinkade) and luckychewy (andrew lichtenberger). seabeast's have been very well received as he has a unique kind of style similar to deep stacked cash play.

it's definitely great value, on the same level as deucescracked, as both are $30/month, and both have a decent no. of free videos, podcasts, and ipod compatible vids. both also have very active strategy forums.

jspill Thanks,
like to read your posts.

seems like you have good knowledge of all sites jspill, what would you say is their biggest downsides since obviously each site will have various negatives? are there any negatives which are common amongst all 4 in your opinion?

i do know most of the major ones yeah, not affiliated with them or anything, just a bit of a junkie for training videos. i got cardrunners/the old stoxpoxer free from the full tilt rakeback program, dragthebar from partypoker rakeback, a month on bluefire from a random poker site sign up promo (now expired), used the free trials on deucescracked, leggo and pokersavvy, and bought a few one $30 one month subscriptions here and there.

i can't really imagine any negatives from watching a bunch of videos. obviously they won't magically transform your game, but there should always be something beneficial to be gained from watching someone play, talking through their thought process, seeing how the games play at certain stakes, etc. because of how competitive the sites are now and how knowledgable the average viewer is, there really aren't many poorly made/unhelpful videos anymore, which used to be the case in the past. there's a bunch of excellent free content out there too, some of which can be found in the 2+2 videos forum, so training sites really need to make an effort.

i guess the only negative would be if you paid for a year long subscription or something and then didn't learn actively enough, i.e. didn't get involved in forum posting, session review, ask questions, etc. all the major sites have pretty decent forums with a good signal to noise ratio where you can directly pick the video makers brain about something. i think that kind of thing is equally as important if not more so than watching videos, as video makers often seem to hold back a little, saving their best info for private coaching for example.

in one of matthew janda's (he's a game theory expert and winning 400nl reg, his vids are about balancing your range, optimal 3bet ranges, etc.) recent vids on cardrunners he makes an interesting point that of all the poker players he knows, there tends to be 2 schools of thought, one is the 'let's approach the game super academically and really break it down, study, and try to make the best decision at all times by spending a lot of time thinking away from the tables', and the other is 'just put in tons of volume and therefore you'll figure it out through experience, and the results will come as we get to the long run quicker'. he acknowledged that some naturally talented players don't need to study as much, but emphasised that almost anyone can benefit from leaning more towards the first school of thought, even though it can be tempting to be lazy and neglect that.

but yeah, tl;dr, i can't see any negatives with training sites, given how cheap/free they are, and the average quality + relevance of their content

I am a Micro player (nl4-nl10) looking for a good site for sh nlh..
from what i have read deucescracked is very good for me, but it is 29 per month. on the other hand it is grinderschool for 10. is dc so much better on these stakes to worth the difference or should i just sign up with grinderschool, get the most out of it and join deucescracked as i move up in stakes?

not familiar with grinderschool but i'd guess DC has a bigger library/variety, and is probably better. try both and see how you like them. DC has a free 7 day trial, grinderschool gives 1 month free for any lock poker deposit, and on both sites you can get continued free access with a rakeback deal

actually just after I say that sauce has released a 50nl vid on leggo today, part 1 of many to come, which is awesome

I have yet to join any site but here r the negatives I'm aware of.

CR BFP both have a signup fee.
BFP's forum is very poor.
LP CR videos have DRM.
CR has high volume n a fair bit of poor quality fillers (along with the higher quality ones).
BFP has 'less' volume.

Jspill to confirm??

^yeah i think you are very correct on those

Another thing I wanted to dicuss.
Various coaches have realised high prices ebooks/videos. This suggests they r 'holding back' info n saving all their best stuff.

(I've read elsewhere jman holds NOTHING back)