My name is Ryan and I primarily play husngs, mostly at the 110+5 turbo level on PokerStars.

Directory Listing:
ChicagoRy: Coaching low, mid and entry level high stakes heads up sngs (husng). $75/hour sweat, $20-30 for HH reviews (preferred method for beginners).
Contact for at length text on my coaching program, poker history and poker mind.

I have never received coaching from ChicagoRy, but I can vouch for his ability to talk strategy both in threads and via instant messaging. I play the $230s+ and he didn't ask me to write anything here. If you are a lower stakes player trying to patch up some of your leaks or build a more cohesive strategy that lets you handle those oddball players you come across and awkward spots you find yourself in, he will help teach you how to think about the game and thus how to adapt properly.

i got coaching from him like 8ish months ago and he is very good at it, reviews hands thouroughly and expresses his thoughts very well highly recomend to you husngers

hokiegreg approves of this thread

pm Sent.

I have just received a HH review from ChicagoRy. I feel that he has put a lot of effort into analyzing my play and I will be sending him more HH soon. I would recommend him to anyone looking for some in-depth analysis of your play.

TJC

you charge 15$ PER HAND HISTORY?! that sounds a little expansive.

I feel that the best way to review HHs is review it as a whole session from Popopop so everything is in context.

in that case, by your HH charge rate, a whole session of husng of 30 hands, would be charged with 15* 30 = $450.

i need a coach, but i definitely can't afford that. is there other ways you charge?

It's not 15$ each hand, 15$ for the whole game.

ahh makes more sense

First of all i wanna say: Thank you. Ive watched one HUSNG video made by you and i appreciate that you put it online (i forgot where i get it, but for sure was lurking 2+2) because is very hard to find something for *free*.

Ive tryied to play consistently HUSNG but it tilt me so much the kind of ANIMALS that play low stakes, i mean $2. Calling raises with 92o, overbetting 5x pot the flop with bottom pair and turning two pair by the river, etc. I cannot control it, it tilts me so much.

To the point, my bankroll is very very small (around $270 at FTP) but i do wanna learn to play HUSNG and beat them. Do you think that at this level i can extract the more value from your lessons/reviews etc? Or maybe i have to start somewhere else, lurk some more in here, etc?

Also for a review can i just crop the folding-pre hands and send you 50 "collected" hands? even from different matches? I think im stretching it, but i have to ask

Anyway thank for your time reading this

where did you find the video? can you send me the link. or upload it if chicago does't mind? also i used to play 1-2 dollar husng, it was all about value betting and knowing when you have the best hand, i didn't really bluff that much and still turned out to be winning.

how about giving some free sample videos ryan? i am considering getting a coach between either you and xSCWx. he had a video out, which was great to watch, still waiting for yours

If you click on my 25-50 blind level article, at the bottom of the OP I link to the video.

Here it is: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FJF6VN4Z I actually forgot I even made a video in that thread.

"Ive tryied to play consistently HUSNG but it tilt me so much the kind of ANIMALS that play low stakes, i mean $2. Calling raises with 92o, overbetting 5x pot the flop with bottom pair and turning two pair by the river, etc. I cannot control it, it tilts me so much.

To the point, my bankroll is very very small (around $270 at FTP) but i do wanna learn to play HUSNG and beat them. Do you think that at this level i can extract the more value from your lessons/reviews etc? Or maybe i have to start somewhere else, lurk some more in here, etc?"

The first thing I would recommend would be to just accept that people play trashy hands. The second thing, after you realize that, is that very often those trashy hands hit. Even if you win like 60% of your games, you're still getting coolered/beat pretty often, but that's part of the game. You make money because people make horrible plays, so don't tell them they made a bad play, just say "gg" and move on. Several very successful higher stakes players berate and complain to bad players when they make bad plays, and I will forever hold my respect to these players in check. If a player I regularly talk to does this I try to get them to cut it out, it costs everybody money.

Anyway, back to your question. On a 270 bankroll I would just skip the 2 dollar games (bc the rake is 2x as high % wise) and play 5 dollar games.

As for learning and improving, it is really player based. If you're really set on improving your poker game, play as many games as you can without tilting. Review hand histories on games you thought a lot of big pots or "tough spots" came up. Ask yourself on every action of every street "why was this action better than the other possible actions? would my actions change if villain had different characteristics?" If you can't answer either of those questions, post the hand on 2p2 with as many reads on villain as possible (don't post the results of the hand). If you don't understand somebody's reply to your hand, just ask them for more information or to clarify their response.

Between that and playing 10-20 games a day you are well ahead of the learning curve of the husng game.

Now, after you do that for a little bit, you'll start doing some things much better, but most importantly you'll be thinking about your game A LOT. You'll probably tend to get a little fancy with some of your lines and try to soul read or "put the player on a hand" a little too much, but a little bit of that stuff is commonplace. This would be an ideal time to get a few HHs reviewed (1-3 I'd say). After I (or any coach) reviews your HHs, you should try to incorporate some of the advice into your game and repeat what I talked about earlier (playing games, reviewing some of your HHs and posting hands you don't understand). Then, in 40, 50, 100, etc. games repeat the process with the coach. That way, you are getting the max from every coaching session and working hard and thinking about your game all at the same time.

A lot of players post hands in the forum and you can tell they get about nothing out of them (knowing you should shove TPTK when somebody c/r you on a wet board is not learning for most players, even if they slowplayed it, they usually know they should not have if they really think about the hand). It is very important that you not only post hands that you do not understand, but follow up with questions to the people that give you advice. Be respectful and polite and you'll usually be returned with the same (if you're not, just ignore the jerks).

It's also helpful sometimes to get a heads up buddy (somebody that plays similar stakes as you that you can play/study hands with).

Just be careful not to waste a ton of time doing unproductive things. Talking about bad beats with other players, watching 50-100 videos by krantz or aba, trolling bbv, tilting in games. All this kind of stuff is very wasteful, so if you want to really improve your game I'd suggest staying away from it. Video sites are nice, but the quality of product for husngs basically ranges from non existent to very bad. Games like 6 max and STTs have much better representation in terms of video sites.

In the end, I'd just come up with a loose plan for yourself, and try to stick to it. Ask better, more experienced players than yourself for advice but don't be obnoxious, bug people or waste their time, and don't let other people do that to you. There's nothing wrong with saying "sorry, I'm kind of busy" or "I know these beats stink, but I really don't like looking at anybody's bad beats, it sours the game for me."

Everybody's optimal plan for improving is going to be different, but following some of the things I talked about above should put you ahead of a majority of players.

wow, just wow, thanks so much for putting some time and effort in that reply to my post. I really appreciate it. I think im gonna give it a try in a more-serious approach, maybe i'll wait until my br is over $300 so i can feel comfortable if i lose too much or play in another site where i have like $45 and use all of that money to grind $2 HUSNG. I hope things turn out well and i can contact you and request some of your services.

Again, thanks for that response, best of luck with the coaching and with the HUSNG grinding

thanks for the link

wow thats such a baller idea, nh

Update with graphs and stats.

Student 1:

A successful mid stakes hu cash player trying to transition into the 220+ husngs to keep his volume up during slow hu cash times.

We did a one hour session and the student was very happy about his understanding of the game, especially the middle-end game, basically when the blinds get higher and the effective stacks get shorter.

Here is a graph of his results before our session:



This is his graph after our session:



Student 2:
I did some HH review for in February. Here are his results prior to a batch of HHs I reviewed for him:

2,882 $0 $5 4% $670

Here are his results from February until now:

793 $1 $9 9% $668

Student 3:
This is a stakee really, but I've reviewed HHs for him, individual hands and I've especially talked a lot of strategy over the months with him.

The stake started in April and just finished recently. The player is a part time player who is enrolled in college full time. We are currently working out a second staking arrangement.

Here are his stats prior to our stake:

1,525 $0 $25 4% $573

Here are his stats from our staking arrangement:

381 $1 $25 7% $509

Student 4:
Here are the results so far from another stakee/student. We've done about five separate 1+ hour sessions so far and the stake is a 1200 game one:

746 games $1 avg. profit $13 avg. stake 9% ROI $592 Total Profit

There has been a little tilt involved and some frustration, but we are trying to work through this.

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I've now coached dozens of husng players including several that have gone on and had much more success than I have in the game of poker.

If you have any questions about these specific students or any others of mine, you can post them in this thread or PM me at any time.

I respect the privacy of my students, but many of them have given me permission to speak freely of our experience and I can give you the contact information of past students, provided that they are willing.

I've gotten a couple of hh-reviews from ChicagoRy. He's been VERY helpful and professional in all my dealings with him as a coach and HUSNG.com. After the hh-review I asked him about some things that weren't clear to me and got really good and solid explanations. I can definitely recommend him as a coach.


So far, I've just played in the lowest stakes. This is a graph from $5 husng's on stars, blue circle is where I got a hh-review.

I never had a HH review before and Ryan made my 1st.
I didnt know how good a HH review is and Ryan made it very clear and bring a different point of view on some spot that i had.
Tx!
and i recommend him for anybody who want to progress.