It depends on the person running / coordinating it, and it can be very effective when done right.

I'm used to weekly phone conferences with 8-10 people at work. We have a written agenda prior to the call, with issues that we need to talk about. Usually we start with a quick status update from everyone in the team, then we go over the items on the agenda, and then at the end we ask around whether anyone wants to share anything important with the group.

Most important thing for these calls is to respect each other, it only works when everybody on the call is very disciplined - like never interrupt someone while he's talking, politely type into the chat that you want to say something and wait for him to finish (and if multiple people want to say something, let the host moderate and give voice).

Our project leader is very good at coordinating these meetings, especially at asking the right questions in the right moment or delegating some discussions into private meetings with just the relevant people.

I find these a lot more effective than just reading written status reports from everyone in the team or having a discussion on irc.

However, we allocate 90 minutes for these meetings, with the option of going to 120 if necessary, and I've often had follow up meetings with a smaller group of people after these.

So I'm not entirely sure whether it's possible to squeeze everything into one hours - but since Mersenneary is such a great teacher, I really trust him into organizing and coordinating this well.

It really sucks that this thread has gone that much out of hand and almost turned into a flame fest instead of just questions and answers from people who're seriously interested in this.

Just my feeling.

cutcha loses more clevar than @ first glance? ..

is mers using his image to make $ or is ucantspell etc only saying that bc they fear the coaching program rly will hurt the games

are ppl being guided towards husngcom bc its not that bad for the games after all?

deep **** in this thread.. . . .

I didn't post in fear of the games getting harder. I also didn't post it because I was jelly mers was going to make a ton of variance free cash. I think that's obvious since I'm referring potential students to HUSNG.com instead. I don't gain anything from redirecting them there, I don't work for that site.

I'm just saying I personally find HUSNG.com's videos to be of tremendous value and it would be very hard to make this program worthwhile when put side to side. But I guess people like Tamas don't think the videos are that educational and that's fine. People learn in different ways. However, if you're going to invest time and money into poker, I really think HUSNG.com is going to yield the highest ROI, and it's not close. There's more than enough quality material on that site to become a very competant player if you put in the hours.

That being said, in response to mersenneary, I don't think it's fair to compare this program to private one-on-one coaching. The reason you'd pay someone like Hokie or Croixdawg a high fee for an hour of coaching is if you're already a mid/high stakes regular trying to push through the really high limits. However, I think it's fair to compare this program with HUSNG.com since they're both mainly targetted towards a lower stakes audience, and again, for the price, I believe HUSNG.com is a better purchase. I trust that both purchases will give you high quality information.

I don't have much else to say about this really, it's up to the consumer to weigh the presented pros and cons and make his own decision.

Still available spots ? Eitherway I am sending you a PM =)

too much 1st lvl thinking itt :P

Too many people saying that it will be tremendous value or a waste of money, when we have no clue about the potential of that program.
If i was playing 100$+ i would give it a try, a couple buy ins isnt a big deal and so far mers has done a really good job at husng.com, no reason not to believe that it won't be at least ok
A few months ago I was looking for a coach and chiry gave me a few names but told me that subscibing to husng.com would be better value(it s his business but i m sure he think that), i had a subsciption for a month a year before and didnt like it that much, but i checked and saw what mers had released at that point and i pretty much signed for that only reason even if other video could be a nice bonus, he definitly is doing what i enjoyed about doghishead's video: balancing the theorie with the practice very well which suit me better than the "I used camtasia reccord one hour of play and call it a coaching video" like you see in most CR content(if i watched 4 CR video in a year that s about it while its free as i play on ft)
Now after thinking about it mers is taking a bigger risk than his customers since the most likely result will be him spending more time than he should if he want that kind of project to succed or he ll ruin his credibility as coach since people will be very critical.

I've read all the bashing/flaming etc and think it's all very ridiculous. In order to help with that mindset of a few people, I looked up a book that I think will help you a great deal.



Best of luck to Mers and his students, you're getting a fair price that will be well worth the investment. It will pay for itself, you'll see.

WP it2wu.

fwiw, I have talked strat with mers and the past and he has a brilliant mind and is wonderful at expressing it. It can sometimes be hard for guys doing well at $220+ to find someone who they can discuss strat with and truly gel with regardless of stylistic differences in play style and imo mers accommodates this very easily.

I know this is not the place to give him a review or w/e but I think it's fair/fine given the bashing he took itt.

There's a lot of weird stuff in this post for someone who's deciding to come out against it as a categorically bad idea - it's pretty standard to make very very sure you know what you're talking about before going that route and always make sure to be really fair when doing so.

People learn in different ways, but everyone would learn better from just watching videos? What does that even mean? Additionally, while there is a plan that makes this program more accessible to lower stakes guys, but it's again odd to conclude this program is mainly targeted to them, when most of the subscribers so far have paid the flat rate and many of them have already received private coaching from top-notch coaches (even one you specifically mention). My goal is absolutely to coach some $50-$300 regs into the higher levels, just like hiring myself out by the hour would do, and I believe I can do it more effectively with a month of talking with them on the forum and giving them resources that way than I can with an hour of sweating their play. I think that's a reasonable stance and one that's hard to argue against so fervently especially from the outside.

I thought I was pretty fair to your argument - I acknowledged that HUSNG.com is a fantastic deal and that this program is not right for everyone. I actually talked it over with a student about his goals and learning preferences after he subscribed today, and we decided that his money was actually better invested with the site and not with me, and refunded him and sent him on his way. I would ask for a little more fairness with respect to the fact that some people really like this format and it's perfectly reasonable for me to believe I can make it really effective.

I'm going to try to tone down this type of arguing in this thread (on my behalf, others can debate it), as I think this is a pretty good place to leave it on my end.

Very well said.

What would you suggest for someone who just fails at learning no matter what the material? I can't seem to grasp why c-betting is good. Would you be able to help someone like me?

[Insert term paper from student teaching on my educational philosophy about how all students can learn here]

Wow, I would say your qualified...

I think I'm gonna have to look into this later. Is this going to be focused mainly on endgame/Super Turbos or even 50bb-75bb stacks?

lol @ a school paper having to do with this


Anyway, a quick update: Because of all the interest, I think I'm going to end sign-ups on Wednesday, and even some people who apply before then may get turned away just due to me trying to fill out the group with an optimal mixture. Although I disagree with some in this thread, I also am listening - I want to make sure to give this a good trial month (likely on the smaller end of the group coaching sizes), measure results (both in terms of my time and student reviews), and then re-evaluate going forward, adjusting accordingly based on what comes of it. Personally, as others have alluded to in this thread, I don't do things halfway, and I am very confident I will be able to make my students exceedingly happy with their decisions to subscribe.

Thanks for those with well wishes, especially those of you who aren't friends of mine, I appreciate it.

Reg speeds/turbos/STs. I've been commenting on some deep stack stuff as well but I'm most comfortable <75bb.

lol this idea is so awesome. The point of coaching is to make money while helping people. If mers was doing this as a public service it would be free. Why is it a crime if people are ready and willing to pay it, its called supply and demand.

BUT WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO. why would u want to coach more people up to the higher levels as effectively as you can? WHY tell me why. please.

you must be the nicest guy in the world you want to help as many people get up to the higher levels as effectively as you can.

what you don't realize is you are hurting other people.

sure 30 and 50 regs will love you your helping them climb up. but i bet if you asked higher stakes regs if they are happy you are trying to help everyone move up as fast and effectively as possible some might not care but I don't think any would be happy about it. Unless they plan to start playing them more higher

like i understand why your doing it and don't argue that your coaching. I think its good to coach and get money but you make it seem like your trying to help EVERYONE move up levels. its gonna be tough to keep having months like you've been having is all im trying to say

I would much much much prefer if you were doing like 10 hours one on one with less students and charging them more. not like anything i say will change anything

I see your point of view but it seems like you can't see mine.

Well he is a school math teacher so I guess he likes teaching.

this should be a complement to a husng.com subscription, not a substitution. Mers' package and a husng.com membership both have their own unique benefits.

as hard as i've worked on my game and as much experience as i have, new questions still come up for me all the time. a good % of the time i go to Mers for the answer (thx!). i might pay for a month subscription for the forum, just bc i feel bad spamming his IM box all the time.

First of all, to get this out of the way because I think it's completely justified, it's really, really ****ing scummy for you to lie to lower stakes people in this thread like you did for your perceived financial gain, especially to the lengths of saying I'm taking advantage of people, which is a really serious charge in the poker world (and I think some people took seriously). You now admit you've been bashing this and calling it a ripoff because of the above reasoning (it's so damn helpful to students it could put a serious dent in the games). That's just a super ****ty thing to do and you deserve a ton of "wadz is a joke" for it. You can and should take it personally.

Second of all, the reason why is because I enjoy it. I like teaching poker. I like the feeling of communicating a concept to someone who finally gets it. I like solving puzzles and helping others get how puzzles work. I get paid to solve puzzles for people over breakfast and teach them how to think as I eat a variety of different cereals, and I like that a lot. It adds variety to my profession and makes my job have more of the good kind of social interaction in it.

It's not about charity, but I do like the sense of justice in the poker world that those who are willing to work hard and set their egos to the side and learn what they're doing wrong can rise to the top. That's how I feel I got to where I am: I was willing to listen and take advice from those who were far my superior at the time. I said this early on in this thread and I still think it rings true: "I expect to help my students a ton. I don't expect to make Primo homeless. I don't think good players are going to be scared of something like this." Poker is (or at least should be) a meritocracy, and that's why people like Pistons would never be worried about something like this - I doubt Pistons is scared of getting outworked and out-skilled. I don't think most people at the top are, especially from a one-man operation like this. So why are you?

I'd rather pay 400 bucks to get acces to:




Not saying mers is a bad coach, not at all, I just don't see myself getting better attending this program. 1on1 coaching would still be the best imo.

haha I feel like such a baller for being in that screenshot!!!

In a greedy way, I'm kinda glad this never got out becuase it was pure gold. Much like I'm sure mers's program will be...

PS: Was worth way more than $400

I sure realized it was pure gold by the time h2 posted that screenie He told me it would become public soon for every1, more than a year ago I figured it got "cancelled"

I even was so desperate that I tried googling those keywords in threadtiltes...maybe you guys forgot to disable googlebots on it hehehehe

This is a very good point.
Of course mersenneary will adjust the price according to the relation of supply to demand. If some people think that the price is too high, then they obviously don't see enough value in the coaching in relation to the price and that's fine because there are others that view the value-price-relation differently and therefore will purchase his coaching. As long as the Pareto optimality is met for a sufficient number of people (which obviously is the case), there is absolutely no reason for mersenneary to lower the price and nobody can blame him for it because anything else would be irrational.