I like RIO but it's along the same lines as what training sites were several years ago on DeucesCracked, etc but with tons of emphasis on using the PIO software. It's good. The coaches are good and there are a lot of them producing videos. Without spending $99 on the Elite membership, however, what you're getting for $25/mo. is a steal but rather limited in the big picture. As said, there's very little in the way of foundation building, there's more emphasis on live play video's along with PIO analysis than actual ideological and mathematical classroom discussion, and there is a *ton* of content for MTT's, PLO, etc. There isn't a lot of specific direction.

RedChip is more cutting edge, is great for players looking to play both live and online, and for only $50 you get everything. One flat fee. Again, for only $25/mo. I think almost all of us have the essential at RIO, but I spend the large majority of my time on RedChip. Live At The Bike videos, Adam Jones on cash games, James Sweeney on math and aggression, etc - It's really solid material.

So raise your edge has a "Bounty" course.. for $850+ lol.

Shouldn't that be covered in your MTT Mastercourse?

Bleh.. money hungry

This, too. Some of the video packages, courses, and PT4/HM2 HUD's out there are absolutely outrageously overpriced. I've seen some cash game courses that "pros" are selling for over $1,500 and it turns out to be around 12 hours of video. What we're getting on RunItOnce and RedChip is already of the same caliber, if not beyond...for a few bucks a week.

Upswing or Red Chip to help my live game more? Had a sub at crushlive and went through most of the corriculum.

RedChip is by far the best site for studying and discussing live poker.

Even after all I've written, I've actually drifted over to spending a lot of time on RIO. It's online focused and I've been getting more interested in a GTO foundation myself. The video quality is also extremely high and I like how they have the playlists and video discussions organized and integrated well. For $25/mo. the Essential at RunItOnce is the best value in the biz. I was paying $75/mo. for RedChip+RIO combined but I may just go with the RIO sub for a few months, save the extra money, and buy PIO.

Still, RedChip is gorgeous, well priced, and filled with some of the best strategy discussion you'll find. Adam Jones is a phenomenal cash game coach although you can get access to his work elsewhere, too.

Kinda shilly

Uh, uh. I have absolutely no affiliation with any of these sites whatsoever. I'm just being thorough in giving reviews and information for others who want to know as much as possible before subbing to one of these sites.

Honestly - I have no vested interest in who subs where.

I realllllllly wanted to like RCP. I think their format and GUI are presented very well. I just found the material to be very broad and not to in depth. The concepts just seemed to abstract and pretty repetitive. For begginers it’s probably great but for more advanced content I personally don’t believe they have much to offer. That said I really haven’t found a site that tailors to live play with advanced concepts so i still think RCP is one of the better ones out there. I have yet to give upswing a try.

This is pretty much what happened to me with RCP, too. It's by far the best site to build a foundation. By far. Past that point, however, if you're looking to really elevate your game to a high level, you're going to begin looking for more. That's when I started spending more time on RunItOnce and still am today. I have the Essential there so my next step would be to jump up to the Elite for $99/mo. I didn't think I'd need or want that any time soon but I'm starting to now as I'm rapidly moving up in stakes and expanding my understanding of the game.

The RIO videos are long, extremely educational, and have a great comments section set up.

After building my foundation with RCP and now studying heavily on RunItOnce, I'm beating 10NL at 25bb/100 over the last 4,500 hands on Ignition.

I could use a little help choosing a training site. I am retiring in a year and will be traveling full time in my RV and want to try to supplement my income playing live poker. I currently live in NC and there is no where close to play live, so I want to get my chops back online and truly study for the next year as to be ready to go live when I retire. I played for a living over a decade ago in Vegas and Atlantic City, but that was a long time ago. Can the forum recommend an online course that can get me back on track? Also, I have a account on Blackchip Poker so I will be playing there. Can anyone give me an idea of which stakes will translate best to playing $1/$2 and $2/$5 live games. I know some sites are better for online and live, so I would be interested in your expertise in which site to start with for online and then which might be best to move to for my live games in a year. Thank you so much for any input.

If you already play on WPN you're playing on the hardest US facing network so that's good for getting your foundation established. As for the best site that is going to mimic $1/2 live most effectively: Ignition. By far. The games there play even looser than the average $1/2 in the casino because we're talking micro stakes. If you can deposit on other sites, too - BetOnline, Intertops, and Global Poker all accept US players. I have avoided Global so far and I would suggest you do, too. Ignition, WPN, BetOnline, Intertops (Horizon). That's the best places to play for Americans.

Definitely deposit on Ignition, though. You can play 6max or full ring 24/7, it's anonymous, allows HUD's, and definitely features play most like the kind you'll find in the lower limit casino games.

Tip: You're going to want to read and review a lot of hand histories while you work on your game. You're going to find the games extremely aggressive and at first it's going to seem like "they always have it" until you begin to realize just how often you're being bluffed on later streets. Very often, that's the only real strategy the "better" micros players have. Once you begin assessing range v range correctly and getting into counting combos, etc you'll begin to see when they're repping things not in their range, and seeing where there's a ton of profit to be made.

Thanks for the info, I am definitely going to look at these other sites. Do you have an opinion on what level of online stakes translate to $1/$2 and $2/$5 live games? Also, any thoughts on an online training course that I can really get deep into to the game again?

Could somebody offer an objective review of the Upswing's The Lab? There are some reviews and comments on Reddit, but most of them give astroturfing vibe, considering the praise they give to the course. Similarly, on the home page under the testimonials, it's impossible to make out the actual results from the graphs and the tournament results are basically in style of "I binked this one tournament, thanks Upswing!". There are no sample videos nor the detailed list of contents what is exactly covered in the course, so naturally, i'm quite skeptical of it. I would like to know who are the target market of the course, what does it actually entail, how is the quality of it, etc. Basically, is it worth to shell out $100 for it?

There have been unfavourable reviews on reddit for the Lab and the courses so it’s unfair to dismiss the good ones as shills.
Yes it’s worth it. Watching videos alone obviously won’t make you crush but there are many gold mine modules.
Target market are micro to small stakes players, though I guess they can even claim mid stakes since they have karl on, making modules and being active in the forums.

For example, what about the hand review videos? Are those mostly recorded sessions, analyzing hands in a replayer, or both? I feel that analyzing only a select number of hands, compared to going through a whole session, definitely lowers quality of any course as it allows cherry-picking, etc.

They’re called play and explains becomes the idea is to play and explain at the same time. Kinda hard to cherry pick when doing that.

I will say this about RunItOnce: As much as I've enjoyed my Elite subscription thus far, it's a little disappointing to come in #3 for the monthly "top members" in May and hear absolutely nothing about the free month of Elite I was supposed to receive. Nobody's said anything about the monthly leaders, the leaderboard, and I even made a thread inquiring about it hours ago and nobody responded. I'm sure it will all work out in the end but once again, it's getting a little tiring to have to CHASE people in this industry every time they owe you money or something else. The only other industries I know of that move so slowly are the fields of Justice and Medicine in modern day America. Ironic.

Dude calm down and give them time. It's only 3 days into the month...they likely need to let data catch up, etc and we're coming off a weekend. Deep breath my friend. Deep breath.

I don't understand this industry at all and I'm definitely getting out of it as soon as my withdrawals come through. All anyone ever says when someone doesn't receive what they're owed is "calm down, take a deep breath, be patient". I am extremely calm, I don't need to take a deep breath, I'm literally just pressing buttons on my keyboard. The simple fact that I have a legitimate gripe and wrote about it doesn't mean I'm automatically out of control and in need of medical attention. Again: Only in this industry do people think it's acceptable for people to just owe you things (including money) for periods of time and never say anything to update you, never apologize for anything, and so far: Never actually pay what you owe. Obviously, when even 2+2 itself just tells everyone who gets screwed to basically shut up and deal with it, it's no wonder why this industry is on it's last legs. Companies read threads like this and realize they can get away with absolutely anything because of who their average customer is.

3+ days to send an email saying "congratulations" or "we'll be getting back to you about the month of May", etc? No. It takes about three minutes tops. There is absolutely nothing that could have happened that made the entire RIO staff incapable of writing a three minute email over the course of three days. They just don't care, obviously.

You’re irrational and impatient. You’ve also complained in the Bovada thread about a withdrawal which takes 3 days not coming in 24 hours. RIO is sending you automated emails. I’m sure they’re not risking their business to screw a guy out of a month access which cost them nothing. Relax and give them time to process things. After that, consider leaving the industry. It may be best for your mental health.

Again: Not impatient. It doesn't take 4+ days to send someone an email. There is absolutely no arguing this.

It's so obvious many of you have never had a real job because this is NOT the way the world works today. We're expected to wait days and weeks here for things other companies do in minutes. My mental health is just fine but yes: Leaving the industry for one that isn't totally crooked is probably a good idea for everyone here.

Part of the issue here was that it's not explained (or wasn't before today) anywhere on the RIO site as to how this works, what we should do about current recurring subs, and when the "free" period begins. That's what my urgency was about: I have a sub renewing and a free month coming at the same time. How does it work?

Eldora was kind and thorough enough to write an extremely detailed response for not only me but the community as a whole moving forward as this seems to come up quite often when someone is a first time monthly winner. Cliffs Notes: Nothing needs to be done with an active recurring sub to receive the free month. Your sub will continue to it's next billing period, then pause for a month for your free 30 days of elite, and then continue billing you again after that unless, of course, you win another monthly contest.

Imagine that...they responded and took care of everything! Many on this forum have jobs, are very successful, manage people and processes, and understand business, including myself. Every thread you’ve been in has been contributed with your complaining about not getting instant response or gratification. Literally a month just ended (on a weekend at that) and you expect instant response because you received a system generated automated email. RIO likely has processes and reports they wait on to confirm etc. Same as a Bovada withdraw isn’t as simple as someone pushing a button. Any business takes 24-48 hours to respond, longer if issues need looked into. I think you should seriously consider looking elsewhere outside of a shady industry at best, such as poker, so you’re unrealistic goals can be met elsewhere.

I'm not sure where you operate out of but in a capitalist society: You're 100% correct. I, of course, as your competitor can see where you're weak on customer service and communication and am free to attack your business model that way if I choose to. In the end, the customer will decide who's way is better with their dollar. Capitalism: 90% of the time, it works every time.

The fact of the matter is that there is still no way you can say they "can't" send an email out to people who won a $99 monthly sub before 4 days has expired. Again: You may consider it an unrealistic expectation while another customer considers it standard in business.

As for your claim that all I do is complain: That's most certainly not true and anyone can see that from my posting history over the last several months.

"The month just ended" and "it's a weekend" doesn't really apply here in 2018. It's a global economy and business is run 7 days a week unless, of course, a company just decides they need 48+ hours of "rest time" a week. I don't think that's very ambitious or lucrative but again, any business is free to operate how they see fit within the boundaries of the law.

I have a question for anyone who's bought Raise Your Edge's Tournament Master class.
So I'm already a winning low-stakes tournament player (mostly $2-$12 dollar BI) and recently I've been trying to improve my game, however, I feel like most of the free content is something I already have a good grasp on (ICM, push/fold spots, narrowing down a range through flop, turn and river, and other fundamentals).
I've heard a lot of great things about bencb and the RYE class, so would you guys think this would be a worthwhile investment for me?
My plan would be to stick with an ABI of around $8 and then slowly move up.