I have the book, but not the dvds (obv). Yes, the book is available again.

I'm sure Rob will be back on in a while but maybe he'd prefer if somebody unbiased gave some comments.

Looking at the table of contents there's a decent amount of overlap with the book:

"Disc 1 - Key Winning Concepts
The building blocks of great poker. Master these ideas and you will be on your way to planning and playing hands the way that experts do.
• Equity and reverse equity: the yin and yang of poker
• The power of aggression
• Optimal play versus perfect play
• Attacking stacks versus attacking blinds
• Adjustability and the Optimal Cycle
• Exploiting weakness"

This looks a lot like the first 3 chapters of the book (there's 14 in total btw), those chapters were sort of an introduction. They weren't packed with content or important game changing concepts, they were more of an overview of Rob's philosophy on the game and things he keeps in mind when approaching the game.

"Disc 2 - Pre-flop And The Golden Ratio
Advanced coverage of how to play pre-flop in today's aggressive games. Use the brand new and revolutionary 'Golden Ratio' to know when, and when not to three-bet!

• Raised pots in position
• Hand values & Bobbo's Hand Tiers
• Unopened pots
• Three Betting & Bobbo's Golden Ratio
• The golden ratio in action"

This covers chapters 4 and 5 in the book. In the book this covered opening hands by position and how he breaks down different hand types. The sections on 3betting are really good and the golden ratio is an extremely important concept to understand. In the book there are a lot of hand quizzes which really help solidify the concepts, I honestly didn't understand some of the stuff in the book until after the quizzes and a second read through. I'm assuming "the golden ratio in action" is example hands so there's a lot of value in those.

There has been 3 attachments (updates with added content) for these chapters added to the original book and I'd assume they weren't written when this dvd series was being produced.

"Disc 3 - Post-flop Planning And Bet-Sizing
Bet-sizing can be a mystery to most players. This show analyzes all the factors you need to consider in order to size your flop bets correctly, and even when it's best to check with the initiative.

• Board textures and types
• Adjusting bet sizing to different opponent types
• Balancing the flop
• Deception
• Shutting out the Movemakers
• Post-flop planning in action"

This covers chapters 6 and 7 from the book. Rob breaks down board textures into 5 types and explains the different bet sizes you should make on each and, more importantly, why. The bet sizing part is HUGE, this had a massive effect on my game when I read it. If you're the type of player who just cbets 75% of pot all the time (like I did), this section is for you.

Balancing the flop is the title of chapter 7 in the book. Rob really struggled with this chapter, mainly because he just wants to bet everything . Besides the ironically named title the section is still very good and was basically a lot of different examples with different hands on different textures against different opponents.


So what isn't covered in the dvds that is covered in the book? There were two attachments on calling 3bets and playing 3bet pots postflop as the caller which were fairly recent. There was an attachment which elaborated on the golden ratio concept, I don't know whether it's included in the dvd or not. I remember the attachment being very good and helping me understand the concept a lot more though.

There's two chapters on playing draws which were fantastic and really explained the why behind playing draws. Three chapters and an attachment on turn play which were very good and helped me understand a lot of the flop bet sizing parts. It does include some stuff which (imo) is pretty outdated though, like the stack a donk play. The barreling sections didn't put a lot of emphasis on what the turn/river card is but more the board texture. I remember it mentioning the turn card only once in the theory sections but talking about it a bit more in the examples/quizzes. This struck me as a little unusual compared to the more common wisdom on barreling but the sections are still really good.

The last two chapters are on river play which were decent as well. I remember Rob saying that these sections were rushed because he had a deadline to submit to a publisher and most of his students didn't get to the river play in his coaching (the book was based on Rob's famous 12 part coaching program I believe) so it wasn't as filled out as he'd have liked. It's not a huge problem though since Rob puts a lot of emphasis on planning future streets when taking actions on earlier streets so there's a good amount of content on river play outside these chapters anyway.

Is the DVD worth it? You're getting a load of content from a $750 ebook. For $60, looooool, buy two just in case the first one gets scratched.

I'm about half way through the first video. Is anyone else having sound quality issues? Maybe it's just 'cause I'm watching the DVDs on a 10 year old computer with tiny, crappy computer speakers...

I own nearly every Expert Hold'em DVD set. All of them are good, but I don't think I've ever learned anything "revolutionary" from a poker DVD, even Expert Hold'em DVDs. The closest were Ed's DVDs, and even there Ed was just covering fundamentals.

However, only half-way through the first DVD I've already found myself several times saying "Wait, he said what?" Then I'd pause & rewind so I could hear Bobbo say something again. This guy is dropping casual comments, saying things in passing, sort of "Oh, by the way...," that I can tell are going to totally change my approach to the game.

Like I said, I own and have watched most of the Expert Hold'em DVDs, and I've read very close to every poker book published in the last 10 years. It has been a very long time since I've had my mind blown by something a poker author has written or said.

I bought these DVDs because they were based on a poker book written by Bobbo that cost, I thought, a ridiculous amount of money. After watching just half of the first DVD, I think Bobbo might have been undercharging.

This looks really good, and it's also great that he got Manu Ginobili to make a guest appearance.

Just watched the first disk, will likely get to the others tomorrow

At first I was kind of surprised Bobbo was on the video rather than a Powerpoint the whole time. Might be standard, not positive or negative really. He seemed intelligent and articulate and was able to explain his points well imo

The content was fairly introductory. The section on equity was interesting and though I sort of understood the ideas beforehand it gave me an interesting well thought out perspective. The rest was essentially stuff I was familiar with but would have been very useful at an earlier stage of my career. I am a winner at 200NL but probably breakeven at NL400

I really liked the presentation of the content. The concepts were explained concisely and there was always an example to support them. The pace made it interesting for a more experienced player to get through, but as a micro player I would likely have had to rewind or watch it a few times to absorb everything.

I think this was very solid as a first disk and am looking forward to the next 2. I'm anticipating the next two to be a little more detailed whereas this was a very good Intro to Poker type video for someone with a little knowledge of the game who wants to become a winner

Sorry I haven't posted more. I've been tied up with a book review in another thread. Haven't even had time to even finish the entire DVD set.

Two things really stood out in my mind from the first DVD. The first was when he was talking about "old school" no limit players who would play their speculative hands, wait to fliop a monster and stack someone. BobboFitos says this doesn't work in aggressive games. Loose and aggressive players who are good LAGs won't pay off a good and tight player who keeps betting. Your "monsters" will be less likely to win big pots.

So implied odds are lower in loose and aggressive games.

Another thing that stood out for me was his thoughts on where the money comes from. He said several times that winning the small pots that no one wants make up a substantial portion of your win rate. He also talked about pot control with weak hands and giving up medium-size pots. And then ge talked about the times where you flop a big hand, your opponent flops a big, but second-best, hand and you win a big pot.

So you win small pots, lose medium-size pots and win large pots.

Now like bobboufl11 said, this is all stuff I sort of knew and understood already. And I think that is where the real value of the DVDs come from.

BobboFitos seems to have a real talent for saying, "Here's an idea that everyone already knows about and understands, and here's another idea that everyone knows about and understands, and when you put them together here's a new idea that everyone should already know and understand but not as lot of people do."

Disc 2 is very very good. It's essentially the entire framework to develop a strong preflop game, discussing when to reraise, cold call, raise, and fold various hands in various situations

This doesn't really sound very revolutionary and I don't know that it is. But the grouping of hands into tiers and explaining why each grouping of hands belong where it is, as well as reasons to raise vs. fold, or cold call vs. reraise made for a very interesting view for me, something which I didn't expect to be as good as it was and that I'll definitely watch again within the week to take some notes and try to patch up my " well this hand is suited and this guy folds 65% to 3 bet so lets 3 bet" approach into a more optimal preflop game.

The Golden Ratio, or the ratio of nut hands you feel comfortable felting vs. air hands, is something similar to what's advocated in Fees book. But Fees didn't get into it as much with examples as BobboFitos does, and also rather than listing air hands you could use, he explains why he picks these specific air hands in each spot and when to add more or take some away.

If you were worried about wasting the $60 don't be. I feel like I have an hour coaching session that I can rewind and work with for much less than BobboFitos's hourly rate. So long as you don't kid yourself and pretend like you know it all already, and are willing to work with it a little to improve your game this set is a great investment

Disc 3. It's pretty tough to cover something as complex as postflop play in a little over 40 minutes but this does it well. It explains board textures, bet sizing, continuation betting vs. checking as the preflop raiser and plans for marginal hands in tough spots and adjustments to make based on opponent type. The examples were all very good and BobboFitos usually answered questions I had as I was watching in his explanations. Like Disc 2 I'll almost certainly rewatch at some point in the future

watched these a few times the last few days

solid work, nothing earth shattering

I think this would be appropriate for someone 6-12 months into studying no-limit. Anyone could easily find the info on these discs by themselves by seriously studying the good threads on 2p2 and videos on dc or a similar site. Anyone serious about their game is not going to be blown away by this set of DVDs. Then again, it's pretty impossible to impress those that seriously study the game in a simple 3 DVD set.

I would highly recommend this set to someone moving from micro stakes to low stakes online. It does a good job at giving a surface glance at the concepts that are one step above the basic books. This set of DVDs fulfills all that many of us had hoped would be in the HOCG series.

I would not really recommend this set of DVDs to the active students of the game on threads here and instructional video sites unless one is having trouble assimilating all of the concepts into a coherent whole.

I would not recommend this set of DVDs to a beginner.

I'd say they are completly relavent to the micros. The amount of fundamental knowledge included in these dvd's will really help you set up a basic framework for your game. Even with other training sites, these dvds have a ton of info to offer. Its not teh info thats covered thats important , moreso the way its covered. Bobbo just somehow reallys helps you to undertsand teh concepts really well. All of this info will serve you well when moving up.

Definitly reccomended from a fellow Microstakes grinder.

Just finished watching disc 2 (preflop) and I was pretty impressed with it. It contained a lot of preflop concepts that I had an idea about but wasn't exactly sure how to put into practice. It clarified it far beyond my exisiting knowledge and after I've written up the (extensive) notes I've scribbled down I'll be trying it out at the tables. Will try adding this to my game before I get around to watching disc 3 as I don't want information overload at the moment.

I reckon disc 2 is worth the money alone and I've heard disc 3 is even better.

Hey Wilco,
After watching the first two DVDs, I think you can be assured that the quality level is quite consistent throughout.
I own almost all of the Expert Holdem DVDs and I can comfortably say that the sound quality and overall presentation is way better than some of the past ones. For example, the sounds in Slotboom's and Ed Miller's seems to have some muffling and/or echoing in some parts.

I am also pleasantly surprised that Bobbafitas also appears to be quite an eloquent guy and he does explain the concepts well. He reminds me of a personable IT support guy who comes and fixes your computer.. knowledgeable and able to explain non mainstream concepts well.

One thing that I wish he did more was elaborate a bit more on some of the concepts. He goes through a lot of material at a good pace and if you get lost, then it is a bit hard to follow the examples. Although the material may seem easy to grasp for more advanced players, I found myself having that feeling of being in a University class where if you get lost in the middle of the lecture, you start to feel like you are behind the rest of the way.

I guess that is somewhat offsetted by the fact that it is a DVD and you can replay it over and over again.

This DVD feels like a private tutorial and if you look at it from that perspective, it is well worth the $60.

This is not a beginner DVD - if you are starting out in NL Hold'em, you may be better off with Slotboom's first and after playing for a while, watch this one.

Overlimp more often, iso raise less often

Probably still play it, just dont bloat the pot though

glad you like it

Yes it is, but generally you move into attacking the players more specifically then the blinds.

I'd be shocked if a uNL player didn't find the DVDs very helpful.

People ask me stakes-related questions all the time, and basically theory applies at all levels. Poker is not a different game at NL10 than it is at NL100 than it is at NL1000 etc. The things that change are typically frequencies, opponents are stronger hand readers, and generally there are fewer fundamental mistakes.

Don't know what else to say other than that.

I've only watched the 1st two dvd's and didn't find the 1st one particularly useful but the 2nd one is so good that if I learn nothing from the last one I'll still feel I got more than my moneys worth.
I am much more confident in 3 bet pots now as I have a much better handle on an aggressive 3 bettors range after watching this,
One minor complaint is that the constant head and eyebrow movements he makes is a bit annoying it seems likes he's doing a bad acting job just cos he's in front of a camera but thats obviously totally irrelevant to the excellent content.

This is the first poker DVD I have ever purchased and Im very happy with the quality/strategy.

Well worth the price and would recommend it to others who are learning the game.