And the 2nd thread


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Cool! Well I have some experience in training sites (STTs, SNGs and MTTs) so I'll put up some comments and reviews:

SNGgrinders.com - When I joined I already knew basic STT play and was only really interested in the STT videos. I play turbos so watched mainly Darvinvg then Glitlr when he joined. Darvin's videos are really good to get the basics down. Not so much 'advanced' discussion but really solid videos (mainly in popopop replayer) - the main thing he does that I've never seen before is discuss hands HE'S NOT IN and what sort of ranges he'd play/what he thinks of the play in the hand. If you're new to STTs this makes it really good to learn them - I already had the ranges down pretty well but this still solidified my game. Other than that his discussion is solid but maybe not too advanced... The Glitlr videos on the other hand are the opposite (which suited me perfectly). Rather than discussing the basics off STTs and ranges he skips the early part of most STTs in his videos and goes straight to the meaty and more relevant parts (like the bubble). He uses SNGwiz to illustrate points and his general demeanor during the videos is excellent. Unfortunately he is fairly new to SNGgrinders but as his video collection expands I will consider rejoining as his videos are so easy to watch and contain so many good points. The site is pretty cheap (no initial sign up fee) and really good value for money imo. I had slight problems with lag on the website - I had to pause videos and wait for them to load a bit before I could watch them so bare that in mind.

Deuces Cracked - I've watched the AMT last man standing series which was excellent as a introductory series to STTs and more. Really well thought out and planned series. I watched some other SNG videos that included both Bones and AMT - all are excellent as far as I can tell, I think these guys make good videos. I've not watched much more than this (I am not currently a member) but if you want a taste of their videos they have a free trial. Also I think the video production quality is possibly the best I've seen. Worth the effort imo.

Realpokertraining.com - Was the first poker site I joined back when I mainly played MTTs. I thought it was really good when I initially joined but looking back I think most of the videos are fairly basic stuff now and it would only really be good for a total beginner. Todd Arnold has some ok videos covering basic TAG stuff. You can watch Lilholdem videos purely for entertainment as they are just really strange and full of swearing and random stuff. I'm not sure how old this guy is but seems like he's about 14. Most other videos are pretty average. It is quite cheap - but there's a reason for that.

Pokersavyy - I think I joined and watched videos during some free trial promotion. Guys like Bond18, Foucault and plenty of other good instructors from what I remember so probably worthwhile (at least for MTT players).

Ok so those are the sites I have seen videos from. I have also done a fair bit of research to decide where best to next spend my money so here is the general consensus (NB - these are the general opinions - not my own. If anyone disagrees feel free to defend said site/coaches. I also refer mainly to STTs/MTTs)

Xfactor - used to be the best when started by Sheets and Bax. They got a top roster of pros together but now the videos which covered 'new' concepts are now fairly dated and the concepts well engrained into the poker community. Also quite expensive as training sites go. Still Sheets is a SNG legend imo but I am only going on what I have heard.

Stoxpoker - now going to be merged with Card Runners I believe? I cant remember when but I saw some Colin Moshman videos and thought they were pretty average. Also his book is more an introductory book and is widely discredited in a number of threads around here, mainly by Slim Pickens - an old school STT poster. However Sippin Criss makes videos for them and from my time on this forum he is one of the best posters of STT theory and I've only ever heard good things about his videos.

PokerVT - not got the best roster for MTTs from what I've heard. DN's videos are more suited for deep stack tournaments. However I believe Spacegravy makes vids for them. Abarone (another solid STT player - not regular on STT but still garners a lot of respect) makes STT videos too. However, personally I think it's too expensive. Seems more like a 'pretty site' than one with actual decent content to me...

SNGicons (now floattheturn.com) - has old Spacegravy videos and lots of other SNG videos. Might be worth a visit but looks too expensive imo and also outdated a little bit since their instructors have generally moved on.

Pokerpwnage - I've only heard good things about this site. From what I've heard it seems to be THE site for MTT training. I've not seen anything but it looks like good value and probably the site I'll join next. Buffyslayer who posts regularly on these forums may have more to say on this...

So this was a long, lengthy post to get things started. But there are plenty of STT, SNG and MTT training sites out there. Hopefully this will engage some debate.

Virtually every site discussed here (and in Part I) deals with No Limit SNGs. Are there any good resources for LIMIT SNGs?

Sorry I have no idea - didnt even know that they still had limit SNGs - seems like these would've died a long time ago

Really nice review of these sites man, much appreciated. Watching some AMTs and bones videos right now, really good stuff Also I have seen lots of sheets videos and found them really helpfull too.

yep i would concur with mitchy

SNGgrinders - pretty solid all round

Deuces cracked - reall good qaulity vids. nice production as well

PXF - Just my opnion but vastly overrated and outdated imo. I saw a ton of mistakes that were glossed over in a number of vids, and the vast majority of vids have little actual analysis rather 'oh i have Aj jam'
The forums are busy but its a bit like pocket fives i.e. full of **** posts

Pwnage - vids are top notch in terms of content. Forums are not exactly buzzing but at least one site pro will anwser every post. The only slight little negative is that some of the production quality on the vids is not great.
But, overall pretty dam good with new material covering new topics not just rehashing the same old jam rejam situations

Drag the bar - I checked this out on a free trail. The production quality is really good prob the best of all sites i have tried.
However imo they have made a huge error in there mtts vids.

Essentially a mtt is recorded and then played back in real time with the intructor commentin overlaid at a later date. The problem is if a mtt lasts 8 hours we really don't need to watch all that 8 hours. I just got bored which is really hard to do with me and poker
The forums were also really dead, although to be fair to the site it was pretty new when i looked into it

Cardrunners - The SNG content is limited. They have faarcyde and braminc and their vids are pretty good. Jackal is alright, but he plays a somewhat different style and it is hard to follow/understand his thoughtprocess sometimes. They cover almost every SNG format which is kind of a double edged sword. If you are playing more than one format thats obv a plus, but this means that there is a chance that there won't be a new vid for your preferred game in a whole month or two.

Stoxpoker - Their SNG lineup is pretty good mostly. Collin's vids are alright if you don't mind his voice. sippin_criss is a STTF-god and his vids are topnotch. phzon is the mathgeek and his vids are very theoretical, but def worth it. Faarcyde is making 6max vids and his vids are probably the best you can find.

SNGGrinders - Great site. DarinVG's vids are among the best vids on SNGs imo. He gives very detailed range analysis in almost all of his vids. azntracker focusses on high stakes and some of his concepts and plays won't work at low or even mid stakes (like balancing a minraise with garbage), his vids are still very good. Glitlr's vids are good too. I'd say they're now what sngicons.com was 2 years ago.

DeucesCracked - Probably really good for (absolute) beginners, but that left me bored pretty fast. They have a free flash festival atm (april 5th till april 9th), so you can check it out yourself.

Grinderschool - Glitlr. nothing more to say. he is good

As mentioned cardrunners is more cash game/MTT based with limited SNG content. There's better out there for SNG's.

Pokervt has some good SNG vids and I've not even been on the site in the last few months, so no doubt has more. Abarone is a very good player (easily one of the best players at the stakes i play) and has some true to form content, Derk series very interesting and he does a fair bit on the theory side of things and then there's super SNG robot Spacegravy who has the best haircut in the SNG world and knows all when it comes to SNG's.

I've not seen any other sites content but I imagine any vids from Sippin or Glitr are as great as they are.

For what it's worth, I can comment briefly on Real Poker Training and Poker VT.

RPT was, as it seems to be for many people, my first training site. The fact that is was relatively cheap probably had a lot to do with it. I enjoyed some of the videos and always got a laugh watching Todd Arnold play - and learned a decent amount from him too. Of course, for someone like myself who plays primarily the lower and lowest limits, a lot of his stuff did not always apply. Also, Todd had a tendency early on to answer the phone, forget where the mic was, and stuff like that. You could forgive him cause he was funny to listen to, but it could get old.

When I was an active member, the site was struggling and obviously going through some issues. New content was a rarity and quality of what they had, technically speaking, left something to be desired. As has been said already, they were cheaper for a reason. I can say that things have improved over the last few months, but not enough for me to go back there. There are too many other options available, and when you can find a good site that waives the sign up fee, the extra money every month is negligible.

I also belonged to Poker VT up until about last summer. The site looks great and I liked how it was organized etc. Again, as is often a problem for low players like me, I wished there was more content I could use. Not that there was not some there, I just wished there was more. That said, I have to add that the support staff was awesome. I actually wrote once in a thread to complain about a horrendous video series by someone I won't name at the moment. I got a diplomatic response from a moderator and then a personal email from one of the heads of the whole outfit agreeing completely with me and saying those were some of the worst poker videos he had ever seen and that he was working to have them removed and that the guy who made them was going to be moving on shortly. He then gave me a personal email and cell, after a handful of emails back and forth, in case I had any other questions or comments. That was pretty cool.

Without being overly negative about the site overall, I can say that i think it could be a little less expensive. You are paying for things like the DN name, the look, etc. I liked the site a lot, but as I had to take a poker break I realized it really was not worth it for me to continue. I did love some of their video techniques, including the live poker sessions with personal mics and headphones where the pros would talk about what they were doing in real time. That was cool.

Anyways, there are some basic thoughts from someone with a little experience on those two sites. I can barely justify spending the money on one site now and am here hoping to narrow down my options. I will watch this thread carefully. What I often find is that I will really like one teacher at one site, but not the rest of the teachers, things like that. Kinda frustrating. I guess that is what one month memberships are for. : )

For a game where one desires to make money, it is often surprising just how much money it costs to play! : ) I know, I know - it's tuition. : )

EDIT/ADD: I forgot about Nick Rainey, who, while I have not followed him since last year or so, did have a pretty good SNG collection for PVT and was active in the community which was nice. In fact, apart from the one bad player I came across - who was mostly just as boring as possible - I had good experiences with all the pros I came in contact with. I also won one of their PVT Full Tilt tourneys so I will always have a soft spot for PVT. : ) My only "big" tourney win so far.

This was widely agreed on in the last instructional site review thread. So if you like decent forums bare this in mind.

He now makes vids for SNGgrinders.com and they are probably the best videos I've seen on STTs for more intermediate-advanced players.

This is pretty much spot on for RPT in addition to what I mentioned. Todd's videos represent a solid TAG style of play - production quality is 'poor' as you mentioned (he'll also burp away etc during a video) but I always found those things (and the videos) quite entertaining.

Always have been a fan of Stox Poker for SNGs.

Moshman and Sippin are always money and make me constantly re-examine my game with fresh ideas/things my dumbass forgot.

With the Stox merge with Cardrunners, are the two going to continue on with CR? Will their Stox library be merged in as well?

I'll vouch for Deuces Cracked : )

I am a product of the Stoxpoker site. Through Stoxpoker I was the SNG "stoxpoker project" and got direct coaching from Collin. I believe that Collin is one of the best SNG instructors out there and his videos are excellent. Sippin is very good, videos are a little bland but definitely worth watching as he is a great player. However the overlooked piece of this review was about Doug Zare (Pzhon) who is an amazing asset to their forum and video production. He is a math/game theory guru who adds a completely different dimension from anything else I have seen on any other site.

Mods: Are we allowed to talk about sites we work for ITT? I would like to add some comments about DTB and Team Moshman as well.

+EV

Me too now! Just signed up a few days ago and I have already learned a ton and am enjoying both the level of instruction and the quality of the videos. There are also some great blog posts in there too. Looking forward to bleeding that site dry.

no idea about moshman, but i was flipping thru sippin's blog today and he says he will be a CR coach post merger - pretty happy about that as his videos are the best low stakes videos ive come across and i get them for free!
TFPT