.... which underscores why videos like these are good for encouraging viewers to join games....

"No! Try not, only do or do not. There is no try".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4yd2W50No

doug, do you have wet dreams with dur

So, In his last video, when he talks about the 2nd hand, he says that Calderado shouldn't have too many bluffs when he raises Doug's limp to 6 BB (lol).
Well, maybe it's time to be a LITTLE exploitative here and not have limp reraise bluffs at all right ?
I don't understand why he feels like this decision is OK-ish or close when your opponent is seemingly unbalanced towards value, to me it's either a limp call or just a limp fold preflop, what do you Spin n Go experts think ?

On a side note, why would you risk all your profit on a big gamble towards the end when you can just edge out ppl on hands without so many straddles ? It makes no sense strategy wise, even if it was the right move to do.

That's not how winning poker players think.

Yes it is.
You are looking for the best ratio of high ev and low variance.
Here it is already ev- exploitatively but even it if was slightly ev+, the variance of gambling a 360k pot dominated makes it unappealing.

I say this often but you are wrong, it is that simple.

That is not how winning poker players think.

I don't know what we are talking about, this move is ev- vs this player no matter how you twist it.
Now, let's assume it's ev+ vs a random player, if you have the bankroll and the mental to support the swing, go ahead, but it's still ridiculous to be playing such a pot after grinding for hours at 10 times lower stakes.

It's like you destroyed the table the whole night, then it's just you and another reg 1000bb deep, he decides to move all in after your min raise with AK face up and you have TT. Sure on the long run you are +ev calling him, is it the smart decision to do so assuming you can come back the next day and grind all the fishes all over again ?

Obviously.

If you are a robot whose play won't be affected by this pot and have infinite bankroll it is, yes.
Then, you probably wasted your time playing the lower stakes for hours.

The entire point (which you even acknowledge above) is that you have a bankroll. Winning poker players look for any +ev spots that they can take because they know that arbitrarily ending a session isn't ending their real session which is the span of their poker career.

Also, you didn't waste your time. You took all of the +ev spots you could and one didn't work out. It happens.

Obviously. You would look like a complete pussy if you reverted to, "Oh, I was only joking when I said that and made that sarcastic comment about the stakes being too low for durrr."

I liked the video, but man, it's hard to shake this feeling like the more you poke fun at yourself the more it seems like you're actually kind of shook by the comments. And things are not going so well for you after the highs of the summer; seems like you need to take stock a bit and try not do things like punt off on Poker Night in America.

Don't get me wrong, you can no doubt afford it and it's funny, and your video about it was funny, but it's probably not so great for your brand. Also, some of your plays were just bad, you were drunk and not thinking clearly, so the justifications for how you played are somewhat misguided.

I know you commented that you felt you were still playing solid strategy when you had been drinking, but that is like a drunk driver saying that they still basically still knew how to drive as they plowed into a group of school kids. Not playing impaired is a basic rule of poker that everyone should know and as a high profile coach you should be warning players of the dangers. I'm fairly certain you would have thought about those last three hands somewhat differently if you had been sober.

I like that now you're back in Vegas you're churning out content, but is there enough material for you? Some of the news stories are a bit thin -- you even acknowledged this when you made the joke about Tom Dwan playing poker being news.

Hopefully you expand your content and come out guns blazing. Jaime Staples is working out, has a hot girlfriend, is crushing live tournaments and travelling the world in Bill Perkins' boat and private jet, so ****, anything is possible, right?

"risk your profit"

it aint your money til you cash it out at the cage. til then, chips are tools in a box for strategic purpose.

i used to think that way too. I'd get nitty or play like **** because I didnt want to risk some amount "i was up" at the time. so instead I would just play terrible poker with more chips in front of me.

Limping blind and then shoving into a big raise with KJ is just not a good strategy, especially when your table image is "loud, out of control drunk guy". At best you're flipping if you get a call (very, very likely), otherwise you're dominated by a hand like AK, AJ, KK and so on.

I have nothing against taking risks with profit, but they should be properly calculated, not a punt.

And whether the hands were played well or not, it's moot to my mind, because getting steaming drunk is simply -EV. Unless you're Scotty Nguyen.

I saw Doug Polk at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”

I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.

The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence.,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

This was best when it was about flylo.

First time I saw it it was about Mitch Hedberg and I didn't even think it was fake cause it totally seemed like something he would do.

Curious, where did you first see it? I'm not sure how far that one dates back.

Players generally deliberately source coaching, but it's only the minority.

The majority who don't, clearly won't become NLHE geniuses by seeing a few of Doug's strat videos, nor be experts at implementation.

However, they'll be less worse players than they were and could cost you big if they now more often sniff out triple barrels or do some of the relatively simple things a bit better like check folding less OTF when they have decent equity.

Even the weakest of players will surely be improving little by little if they keep watching his very well explained YouTube strat videos.

Yet countless people turn to me after 3betting 300 over a 12 dollar raise with AA and go "I just hate seeing a flop w/ these"

shrug emoji

not saying youre wrong ,but i think it may be closer to insignificant. if anything the middle comes up and the bottom stays where it is?

Some of these strat videos are talking about what is just in the air as internet is working as some kind of common AI. Part of players (I would estimate 20%) have tendency to look for info and learn and they will and they will get their info regardless if Doug is here or not. Doug videos have value for some above intermediate to move more close to top in my opinion (and part of it is that you can see mental process of good player) , I doubt videos have big value for fish except motivation.

This is true - however, Doug's videos are a springboard for players who (until watching the videos) had not really put much time into studying poker.

They might now hear Doug talk about blockers, and not quite understanding the concept, will go away and learn more about the game.

When I first started playing poker, I had no idea about how much strategy was behind the game. I didn't have the first clue what equity was, most Poker terms meant nothing to me.

If a complete fish watches one of Dougs poker videos, they would probably be baffled by the amount of information served up on a plate. Most would not have the faintest idea what to do with it. Some will try and implement it in their game without fully understanding the concept, but others will discover a side to Poker they never knew existed.

I used to respect Doug but after the bad plays against Phil and these last videos Im 90% sure he is just one of that guys that will disappear in 5 years

You sure this wasn't Selbst?

As a fishreg, fwiw, i implement some of Dougs strat in my play @ 25nl on ACR, and get pwned.