I'm not sure how to tell you this, but, Berkey is +410k on 3 Hustler episodes. And it's possible he plays off stream...

(Having said that, I think he's mediocre)

He really is

Someone I play low stakes with told me they paid like $3500 or so for a week of Berkey coaching and it was like a group thing

Mike X is pretty bad at poker but for some reason he gets to play in the game while literally playing tighter than Vertucci.

this

whynotboth.gif

Insufferable

Good personality???? Dudes a complete ass. The way he treated clickr and that woman player a few weeks back was absolutely Abhorrent. Of course im of the belief that people have the right to be jackasses so long as they aren't breaking any rules. Just not sure i would say that's a good thing unless you happen to enjoy the company of abrasive loud mouths

yea if Berkey is half as smart as he thinks he is he'll demand a neutral site

You have to remember the source. Can we just ban sagedonkey2.0 already? Every thread I have to scroll through half of it ffs

I don't really follow live poker much, but S4Y in has a culture of using made up terminology to explain how they are playing poker. Any good poker player can see them for what they are.

It's his poker persona. It isn't real life.

As I've been scrolling past the posts I've never really understood if it is a troll account or not.

That's the issue and I'm surprised you've been duped by it. Airball seems fake af. Laughing at all of his own jokes, trying to talk himself up as a blaster while he folds sets and flushes, acting like he's a gracious guy then talking **** behind people's back. He doesn't even use his real name.

Yea true he's, he's got a golden ticket being able to play in those games with such low vpip

I am not duped by it all, quite the opposite.

It is all part of the live game, although the vast majority of posters on twoplustwo don't get that, especially North Americans.

Furthermore, on HCL especially, the games are deliberately built as half poker, half soap opera, i.e. Ryan Feldman (and DGAF of Mondays) are putting together a cast of characters,
so that the show is entertaining in terms of hands played, characters, and personalities at the table, and rivalries.

If you look at what Live at The Bike are currently doing, well they have almost zero of the soap opera element in their games and their line ups, and in fact when players who have also played on HCL play on LATB, it is noticeable that they tone down their poker persona and are a lot quieter. LATB is frankly very boring, it has the atmosphere of a morgue.

All of the above aside, part of live poker is being able to cope with things you find distracting, such as very talkative or needling players. You can't just dismiss those factors as "wrong". It doesn't work like that.

He goes by "Nik" and his real name is "Nikhil" and you're somehow making a point of that? Bruhh

Bill Klein also uses a fake name eh! (William)

Also, the whole of the list below, and none of them using their real or full names. None of them.

All, very, very, suspicious!

Double M
Mike X
Ryusuke
Mariano
Aussie Al
Ludwig
Prince Charles
DGAF
DQ
Francisco the pro
Mars
Luda Chris
Mr Dr Batman
DJ
Ninja
Lucky
Mayhem
Cowboy John
Sammy The Bull
Sia The Bot
Henry
Bear Jew
Hanks
Veins
San Man
Handz
Krish
J.R.
Tiger
Gal
Reza
Armenian Mike
Yoh Viral
Israeli Ron
Jacky
Beanz
Patrick
Ruflo
Andy Stacks
Big John
Brazil God
Pepe
DJ Washburn
Victor
Wolfgang
Boston Jimmy
Vegas Vinh
Suited Superman
Rainbow Kitty
Gatorwade
Tal
Zeo
Raver Poker

Seismic Pool Tendencies Value Migrations

Sagedonkey palling around with his pals…..

come to think of it, Berkey's... hustle (I think that "scam" is a too strong of a word) is quite smart, maybe even brilliant.

It is trivially true that you can be a losing player and still make a ton of money from staking if you can get multiple stakes for relatively small sample sizes. Of course, the "getting multiple stakes" is the hard part here and Berkey's approach to that is really unique.

Instead of trying to actually get good at poker, he seemes to solely focus on establishing himself as a different thinker than all the pros (thus all the made up terminology etc.). Rich whales will often imagine themselves as elite investors, capable of spotting opportunities others have missed.

So, seeing someone approach the game completely differently, even when ridiculed by his peers, could make them think that they have a unique investment opportunity that others have missed.

The whole coaching/media presence is likely just a byproduct on that, or even means to an end - I thought that he would be losing money on his coaching business, but apparently there are people willing to pay him, so maybe he does profit from that as well. But even if he didn't, that would still be very useful in establishing him is an "independant" and "innovative" poker thinker in the eyes of his marks.

unpopular opinion (come at me):

berkey gets a ton of hate from online regs/fans bc they look at his game through a purely technical "SoLvEr ApPrOvEd" lens. his edge comes from experience with live meta and maximizing off the rails against unpredictable wide fish; granted it's low-hanging fruit, but it's still a valid skillset. the hate reminds me of guys who play at the YMCA talking **** to brian scalabrine ("Listen, I may suck for an NBA player, those guys are pretty good, but I don't suck compared to YOU. Like, you? You suck, compared to me. I suck compared to Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook, and those guys.")

that said, all of these "bootcamps" popping up from various companies give off serious PUA vibes, and I'm expecting someone to start calling themselves a "guru" any day now

Why was this thread deleted and put back on now?

I complained

Sick sample size

Airball and Berkey are both insufferable. Airball is correct though. How S4Y manages to charge several thousand for a training academy that makes you worse at poker is beyond me.

what a strange thing to lie about! you only get weirder for each post of yours i read.

what really happened:


Airball makes the show almost unwatchable for me. him laughing at his own jokes and generally being a douche and flaunting the wealth his mommy has earned, as if it were something he can take credit for.