Heads Up SNG Coaching (As Low As $20)
12-31-2009
, 02:18 PM
May 2012 Update - Holding off on new students until August due to time constraints.
You can visit my new video pack thread.
If you need some advice/direction/brief questions, feel free to add me on AIM (HUSNGcom) or SKype (ryanryan1313) and I'm happy to help. Previous students are welcome to continue coaching as needed, just contact me as normal.
Introduction
In the last 18 months I've coached over 100 heads up sng players. In early 2009 I founded the training site HUSNG, which I currently operate.
I firmly believe that the game of heads up sng is a game of adjustments. Opponents vary greatly in characteristics and you need to constantly identify what they are doing and counteract that with an exploitative strategy to maximize your edge in these games.
I help lower stakes students develop an understanding of the game. Then I help them lay a foundation for "default" play and teach them how to make adjustments against any type of opponent they may encounter. Throughout discussions, reviews or sweats, I also dive into the mental aspects of the game. This usually includes tilt control, confidence building and the impact that volume may have on emotions.
For more experienced players, I review their situation, offer a specific, personally tailored suggestion of coaching methods and then work to improve their decision making and understanding.
I always strive to make logical decisions in the game and while I don't play a very high volume, I have found various ways to manage and deal with the tilt and frustration associated with poker, particularly heads up poker.
My mind is always open to new changes, theories and adjustments in the game and I regularly talk to dozens of successful high stakes heads up sng players from around the world, giving me a well rounded and balanced view of the game.
On a personal note, I am 24 years old and reside in Chicago.
Coaching Information and Methods
My goal is to efficiently analyze your play and offer logical adjustments to help improve your game and turn you into a (more) profitable heads up sng player. I have several ways that I achieve this and while I like to recommend coaching plans on a student by student basis, some general examples of how I approach coaching new students is listed below:
Low Stakes and New Players
On average, these students have a lower budget and greater number of easily correctable weaknesses. I therefore suggest my lower stakes heads up sng students to start off with one hand history review. A hand history review has two major advantages to newer students; 1) It is cost effective for the student and 2) It allows me to quickly identify and give advice on issues a student is having trouble with.
I recommend starting with a single hand history at first so that there is a minimal amount of repeat advice in the review. Students can often understand the changes I am advocating in 1-2 examples in a review and if they properly study and work on it they can eliminate many weaknesses very quickly. If you decided to start out with five reviews, you might end up seeing a lot of the same issues being addressed, especially very common spots that won't need much repeating to be corrected (a very general example would be limping instead of raising against a player that folds to a lot of raises out of position).
Hand histories work as follows: The student selects a hand history, unedited, from one of their games (If you don't automatically save hand histories to your computer from the poker room and cannot find any in HoldemManager or do not have HoldemManager, you can email the site to receive your full hand histories). The student then sends the hand history to my email, either attached in .txt format or simply pasted into the email text. The student then pays for the review (email me the payment options that work best for you and I can usually make it work out). I then review the hand history, usually within 2-3 days of receiving it, and send it back fully reviewed, with comments under each relevant hand.
*Note: Hands with large pots are not the only situations reviewed. A situation as simple as folding Q2o in the small blind may be talked about, even if it's the correct play. It's important to sometimes highlight not only why a decision was incorrect, but also why a good decision was correct.
Mid Stakes Winning Players, $100-220 Buyin Struggling Players
For this type of student, it is often preferable to start with an option other than a hand history review. While I do recommend hand history reviews for players of all stakes and success levels, if you have a higher budget and want to focus on a very specific section of your game, single hand reviews, theory sessions, leakfinders or sweat sessions may be more ideal compared to a hand history review (though a well selected hand histories may still suffice).
Single hand (or per hand) reviews are similar to the posting hands on poker forums such as these. A student will send me a hand (or multiple hands) and I will fully analyze it/them. If you have specific notes or reads on your opponent, they are taken into consideration and explained why they may be important to the hand in question. Hands without any reads you will receive the "readless" analysis on, as well as the possibility of changes in your approach to the hand if you were up against a common opponent type (for example a common low stakes opponent may be loose, and play in a hand may be different against a loose player 10 hands into the match compared to the first hand of a match against a player you know nothing about).
Heads up SNG leakfinders are essentially video reviews of your play. You will need to record your screen while playing using a free recording program like camstudio. You will then send me recorded (without audio) video of your game(s) and I will record myself reviewing it and adding commentary. This allows me to see not only your real time actions, but also your opponent's timing. The pace of the match is also often relevant.
Sweat sessions will include me watching you play a regular session. Most of the time we discuss hands after you make a decision and talk specifically about the opponent you are up against and the adjustments you will need to make to exploit this player.
Higher Stakes Players or Successful Players From Non Heads Up SNG Game Types
I would specifically recommend these prospective students to email me prior to coaching and we will usually discuss their needs on Skype or AIM before I agree to coaching them. Depending on their specific skill level and goals, I may recommend anything from specific theory sessions or discussions or even another coach entirely.
Players transitioning into heads up sng often have very specific skill sets that they need to improve on to have the kind of success they are seeking. For example, heads up cash players are often very strong players 50-75bb deep, but are much less skilled in the 10-30bb effective stack areas. Therefore, they often need to work on end game play, the same type of skills that players need to play the super turbo heads up sngs on FTP (25bb starting stacks, very fast structure).
Players coming from games with full ring tables often need more preflop hand selection and postflop aggression oriented advice. Whatever the case may be for you, we can come up with a coaching plan to suit your needs.
My Statistics
For specific level by level statistics, you can sharkscope me under RyPac13 on PokerStars.
My $110+5 turbo speed heads up sng stats are as follows:
Those are my $110+5 turbo speed heads up sng stats. This has been my primary game for some time, though I sometimes play a level or two higher.
Most of that sample size includes playing 2 tables at once. To compare this to the professionals at this level, a 9% ROI is the highest lifetime ROI that I have seen from a single table player with at least a 1,000 game sample size. I am not positive of the highest 2+ tabling ROI, but I would imagine it is no higher than 7% over a large sample size.
In addition to the below quotes (disclaimer: Greg now works with me, he previously did not when he gave me this quote and was actually by definition a competitor of mine at the time) you can feel free to private message regular heads up sng posters from the HuNL forums here on 2p2 or the other heads up sng coaches listed in this forum and ask them about me.
"I am a successful mid stakes hu cash player who was transitioning into the 220 husng games, after struggling initially I did some coaching with Ryan and have improved my husng tremendously since then, particularly on the areas of the mid to end game"
-Bosoxx34, cash game coach at duecescracked
"Ryan and I have discussed strategy since we were both grinding the low stake levels of husngs. He has quickly become one of the top poker minds in the husng community. He is highly proficient in the difficult task of taking advanced husng concepts and explaining them in lehman's terms. I would recommend Ryan as a coach to anyone looking to improve their husng game."
-HokieGreg Hu, professional heads up sng poker player
Rates
Sweat/Theory Session - $80 per hour
Hand History Review (per number of hands in a single, unedited hand history)
0-30 hands - $20
31-40 hands - $25
41-60 hands - $35
61-80 hands - $45
81-100 hands - $60
101+ hands - Private Message/Email*
*Hand histories over 100 hands often include a very slow structure (pokerstars no blind increase or regular speed, full tilt deep stack) but sometimes are not ideal hand histories due to the very passive nature of the match that can often result in 100+ hand histories. For that reason, and the variety of hands a single hand history may contain when it has over 100 hands in it, I prefer to discuss these on an individual basis. You can expect the same type of rates (adjusted for a larger amount of hands) as I charge for shorter hand histories.
Leakfinder Video (personal, non published) - $80 for up to 20 minutes of single table, silently recorded video which usually works out to about 3-5 minutes of final leakfinder video per single minute of silent video that you send me. Private message or email me if you are interested in two table leakfinder rates or for other situations not mentioned here.
Leakfinder Video (published) - $50 for up to 20 minutes of single table, silently recorded video to be published on my website, husng.com (Usually I publish about 2/3 of the videos I do for this option, so there is a chance I may not publish your video, but you will still receive the discount if I do not publish).
Bulk Discount Rates - For experienced and highly dedicated students we may be able to work out a traditional bulk discount rate. However, I've found that coaches that offer bulk discounts experience a higher rate of issues with students that ultimately leads to more time wasted for both a student and coach. Therefore, I prefer to use an alternative solution for both myself and students regarding discounts (*Note - I have no issue with coaches that use bulk discounts, as many very good coaches use them. I just believe I've found a better solution for myself than the traditional method of bulk discounts offered).
If you're a regular student of mine you may receive a free hand history review after paying for and receiving a specified amount of hand histories.
For example, instead of a 20% discount on 10 hand history reviews paid up front (at $20 each that would be $200 regular price and $160 after discount) I may just make the 10th HH review free (and if a 20% discount were the target it could represent a $40 value review). That way, a student does not have valuable money tied up for a long period of time. I also do not have to worry about holding your money and dealing with situations such as students quitting poker, moving to another form of poker or losing their bankroll in higher stakes games. The solution offers you the same monetary discount you would receive if you had paid up front, but without some of the problems that may come up when you pay for 10+ lessons up front and in advance.
If you have any questions, feel free to post them in this thread or private message me. Users that do not have a private message feature setup yet can email me rypac13@husng.com .
You can visit my new video pack thread.
If you need some advice/direction/brief questions, feel free to add me on AIM (HUSNGcom) or SKype (ryanryan1313) and I'm happy to help. Previous students are welcome to continue coaching as needed, just contact me as normal.
Introduction
In the last 18 months I've coached over 100 heads up sng players. In early 2009 I founded the training site HUSNG, which I currently operate.
I firmly believe that the game of heads up sng is a game of adjustments. Opponents vary greatly in characteristics and you need to constantly identify what they are doing and counteract that with an exploitative strategy to maximize your edge in these games.
I help lower stakes students develop an understanding of the game. Then I help them lay a foundation for "default" play and teach them how to make adjustments against any type of opponent they may encounter. Throughout discussions, reviews or sweats, I also dive into the mental aspects of the game. This usually includes tilt control, confidence building and the impact that volume may have on emotions.
For more experienced players, I review their situation, offer a specific, personally tailored suggestion of coaching methods and then work to improve their decision making and understanding.
I always strive to make logical decisions in the game and while I don't play a very high volume, I have found various ways to manage and deal with the tilt and frustration associated with poker, particularly heads up poker.
My mind is always open to new changes, theories and adjustments in the game and I regularly talk to dozens of successful high stakes heads up sng players from around the world, giving me a well rounded and balanced view of the game.
On a personal note, I am 24 years old and reside in Chicago.
Coaching Information and Methods
My goal is to efficiently analyze your play and offer logical adjustments to help improve your game and turn you into a (more) profitable heads up sng player. I have several ways that I achieve this and while I like to recommend coaching plans on a student by student basis, some general examples of how I approach coaching new students is listed below:
Low Stakes and New Players
On average, these students have a lower budget and greater number of easily correctable weaknesses. I therefore suggest my lower stakes heads up sng students to start off with one hand history review. A hand history review has two major advantages to newer students; 1) It is cost effective for the student and 2) It allows me to quickly identify and give advice on issues a student is having trouble with.
I recommend starting with a single hand history at first so that there is a minimal amount of repeat advice in the review. Students can often understand the changes I am advocating in 1-2 examples in a review and if they properly study and work on it they can eliminate many weaknesses very quickly. If you decided to start out with five reviews, you might end up seeing a lot of the same issues being addressed, especially very common spots that won't need much repeating to be corrected (a very general example would be limping instead of raising against a player that folds to a lot of raises out of position).
Hand histories work as follows: The student selects a hand history, unedited, from one of their games (If you don't automatically save hand histories to your computer from the poker room and cannot find any in HoldemManager or do not have HoldemManager, you can email the site to receive your full hand histories). The student then sends the hand history to my email, either attached in .txt format or simply pasted into the email text. The student then pays for the review (email me the payment options that work best for you and I can usually make it work out). I then review the hand history, usually within 2-3 days of receiving it, and send it back fully reviewed, with comments under each relevant hand.
*Note: Hands with large pots are not the only situations reviewed. A situation as simple as folding Q2o in the small blind may be talked about, even if it's the correct play. It's important to sometimes highlight not only why a decision was incorrect, but also why a good decision was correct.
Mid Stakes Winning Players, $100-220 Buyin Struggling Players
For this type of student, it is often preferable to start with an option other than a hand history review. While I do recommend hand history reviews for players of all stakes and success levels, if you have a higher budget and want to focus on a very specific section of your game, single hand reviews, theory sessions, leakfinders or sweat sessions may be more ideal compared to a hand history review (though a well selected hand histories may still suffice).
Single hand (or per hand) reviews are similar to the posting hands on poker forums such as these. A student will send me a hand (or multiple hands) and I will fully analyze it/them. If you have specific notes or reads on your opponent, they are taken into consideration and explained why they may be important to the hand in question. Hands without any reads you will receive the "readless" analysis on, as well as the possibility of changes in your approach to the hand if you were up against a common opponent type (for example a common low stakes opponent may be loose, and play in a hand may be different against a loose player 10 hands into the match compared to the first hand of a match against a player you know nothing about).
Heads up SNG leakfinders are essentially video reviews of your play. You will need to record your screen while playing using a free recording program like camstudio. You will then send me recorded (without audio) video of your game(s) and I will record myself reviewing it and adding commentary. This allows me to see not only your real time actions, but also your opponent's timing. The pace of the match is also often relevant.
Sweat sessions will include me watching you play a regular session. Most of the time we discuss hands after you make a decision and talk specifically about the opponent you are up against and the adjustments you will need to make to exploit this player.
Higher Stakes Players or Successful Players From Non Heads Up SNG Game Types
I would specifically recommend these prospective students to email me prior to coaching and we will usually discuss their needs on Skype or AIM before I agree to coaching them. Depending on their specific skill level and goals, I may recommend anything from specific theory sessions or discussions or even another coach entirely.
Players transitioning into heads up sng often have very specific skill sets that they need to improve on to have the kind of success they are seeking. For example, heads up cash players are often very strong players 50-75bb deep, but are much less skilled in the 10-30bb effective stack areas. Therefore, they often need to work on end game play, the same type of skills that players need to play the super turbo heads up sngs on FTP (25bb starting stacks, very fast structure).
Players coming from games with full ring tables often need more preflop hand selection and postflop aggression oriented advice. Whatever the case may be for you, we can come up with a coaching plan to suit your needs.
My Statistics
For specific level by level statistics, you can sharkscope me under RyPac13 on PokerStars.
My $110+5 turbo speed heads up sng stats are as follows:
Those are my $110+5 turbo speed heads up sng stats. This has been my primary game for some time, though I sometimes play a level or two higher.
Most of that sample size includes playing 2 tables at once. To compare this to the professionals at this level, a 9% ROI is the highest lifetime ROI that I have seen from a single table player with at least a 1,000 game sample size. I am not positive of the highest 2+ tabling ROI, but I would imagine it is no higher than 7% over a large sample size.
In addition to the below quotes (disclaimer: Greg now works with me, he previously did not when he gave me this quote and was actually by definition a competitor of mine at the time) you can feel free to private message regular heads up sng posters from the HuNL forums here on 2p2 or the other heads up sng coaches listed in this forum and ask them about me.
"I am a successful mid stakes hu cash player who was transitioning into the 220 husng games, after struggling initially I did some coaching with Ryan and have improved my husng tremendously since then, particularly on the areas of the mid to end game"
-Bosoxx34, cash game coach at duecescracked
"Ryan and I have discussed strategy since we were both grinding the low stake levels of husngs. He has quickly become one of the top poker minds in the husng community. He is highly proficient in the difficult task of taking advanced husng concepts and explaining them in lehman's terms. I would recommend Ryan as a coach to anyone looking to improve their husng game."
-HokieGreg Hu, professional heads up sng poker player
Rates
Sweat/Theory Session - $80 per hour
Hand History Review (per number of hands in a single, unedited hand history)
0-30 hands - $20
31-40 hands - $25
41-60 hands - $35
61-80 hands - $45
81-100 hands - $60
101+ hands - Private Message/Email*
*Hand histories over 100 hands often include a very slow structure (pokerstars no blind increase or regular speed, full tilt deep stack) but sometimes are not ideal hand histories due to the very passive nature of the match that can often result in 100+ hand histories. For that reason, and the variety of hands a single hand history may contain when it has over 100 hands in it, I prefer to discuss these on an individual basis. You can expect the same type of rates (adjusted for a larger amount of hands) as I charge for shorter hand histories.
Leakfinder Video (personal, non published) - $80 for up to 20 minutes of single table, silently recorded video which usually works out to about 3-5 minutes of final leakfinder video per single minute of silent video that you send me. Private message or email me if you are interested in two table leakfinder rates or for other situations not mentioned here.
Leakfinder Video (published) - $50 for up to 20 minutes of single table, silently recorded video to be published on my website, husng.com (Usually I publish about 2/3 of the videos I do for this option, so there is a chance I may not publish your video, but you will still receive the discount if I do not publish).
Bulk Discount Rates - For experienced and highly dedicated students we may be able to work out a traditional bulk discount rate. However, I've found that coaches that offer bulk discounts experience a higher rate of issues with students that ultimately leads to more time wasted for both a student and coach. Therefore, I prefer to use an alternative solution for both myself and students regarding discounts (*Note - I have no issue with coaches that use bulk discounts, as many very good coaches use them. I just believe I've found a better solution for myself than the traditional method of bulk discounts offered).
If you're a regular student of mine you may receive a free hand history review after paying for and receiving a specified amount of hand histories.
For example, instead of a 20% discount on 10 hand history reviews paid up front (at $20 each that would be $200 regular price and $160 after discount) I may just make the 10th HH review free (and if a 20% discount were the target it could represent a $40 value review). That way, a student does not have valuable money tied up for a long period of time. I also do not have to worry about holding your money and dealing with situations such as students quitting poker, moving to another form of poker or losing their bankroll in higher stakes games. The solution offers you the same monetary discount you would receive if you had paid up front, but without some of the problems that may come up when you pay for 10+ lessons up front and in advance.
If you have any questions, feel free to post them in this thread or private message me. Users that do not have a private message feature setup yet can email me rypac13@husng.com .
Last edited by ChicagoRy; 11-20-2012 at 03:36 AM.
12-31-2009
, 11:46 PM
01-01-2010
, 05:59 PM
01-02-2010
, 04:44 PM
01-04-2010
, 07:21 PM
01-04-2010
, 11:19 PM
01-05-2010
, 08:06 PM
01-18-2010
, 06:20 PM
For the past year I have gotten 4 hh reviews from ChicagoRy. I've been very happy with them all. After each review ChicagoRy answers all of the questions I have about specific spots or poker theory.
This is my lifetime Pokerstars graph. I started playing on another network at around game 1300 and recently came back. When I did I got a hh review and had a huge upswing. Another hh review sparked an upswing at around game 700, while I was playing the $5s. I am now at the $50s.
I can definitely recommend him as a coach.
This is my lifetime Pokerstars graph. I started playing on another network at around game 1300 and recently came back. When I did I got a hh review and had a huge upswing. Another hh review sparked an upswing at around game 700, while I was playing the $5s. I am now at the $50s.
I can definitely recommend him as a coach.
01-29-2010
, 12:42 PM
02-08-2010
, 03:20 PM
02-20-2010
, 04:00 AM
02-22-2010
, 12:09 PM
02-23-2010
, 01:37 PM
02-28-2010
, 12:25 PM
04-17-2010
, 08:31 AM
Just wanted to post a big recommendation for ChicagoRy. After a huge failed shot at 110$ around game 6800 I paid for some coaching. I have had 4 HH reviews in all, and they have been great. He is very detailed and answers all questions one might have about spots/hands in the HH. Very polite and patient also. I am certain that I have gotten much better after these reviews. I am now playing 110$ games on stars and it is going good:
Got hh reviews right after the huge downswing right before game 7000.
Got hh reviews right after the huge downswing right before game 7000.
09-14-2010
, 10:31 AM
10-08-2010
, 02:29 AM
