Folding A7o from the CO does not make you a nit!

I have no idea whether GS is any good or not, never watch so much as a demo from there, but you can't just define some one as 'playing like a squeaky little nit' bc they fold A7o from the CO.

For the record - I'm opening A7o from the CO too, of course.

I apologize too mate. Just a bit of a laugh between us. I'm sure GS has plenty of good content. I've signed up, but not bought a subscription yet. I'll buy in when I have a bit more time to watch the videos.

I only open A7o from the CO if btn is a nit and i'm not going to get 3bet a bunch. I would rather open A5o at least it has more possibilities post flop.

Just FYI - I don't subscribe to GS. I use DC and RIO. I really like a lot of what RIO has to offer, actually. That said, I've watched a lot of videos over the last two months. My priority is switching over to playing and posting/reviewing hand histories now. Sure, I'll still watch videos but I have so many downloaded from a one month sub of DC to keep me busy for quite a while. I like a lot of their math and theory videos.

Me too.

Me and GB were winding each other up.

A7 - Do you think it's - EV to min raise A7? I think it's + EV to MR A2+. I may be wrong though. TDA knows his theory. Maybe he could tell us.

I should clarify, that I mean v unknowns. It is + EV v players with high fold to steals.

I agree RIO essential, sounds like the best deal of all the coaching sites.

This just came up in another thread but aside from the 2p2 forums, it seems to just be coming up a lot in the poker world, period now. The essential for $9.99 is such a great price. Beats every other price on the market and gets people on board with the site. By the time you move up in stakes to where it's necessary, $99/mo. for the elite is nothing for what they have to offer over there.

It's also got the highest quality videos from a technical standpoint. AFAIK, none of the other sites are offering videos in 1080p.

^What videos would you recommend for RIO? I'm thinking of getting a sub, since it's only $10 for the essential vids.

A mod might get upset if I start posting links to RIO videos. I'm not sure if that's cool or not here. If you PM me though, when I get a minute I'll copy down the links to some of the ones that are applicable to even micros players and message them to you.

For RIO essential watch all the free James Hudson and Galfond stuff without a doubt.

Can anyone who's had any positive experiences with Grinderschool post in the thread? I know you guys are out there and I think GS has been on the receiving end of some negative variance in this thread. I'm highly contemplating trying it out for $20/mo but I haven't viewed a video from there in ages and some of the comments in here are leaving me wondering if it's actually gone downhill. It seems to actually have more coaches and is releasing a higher volume of videos than the last time I checked several months ago.

Thoughts from GS members?

Thinking of trying some trainingsite soon after having the exams over at the uni so I'll actually have the time to study. Thinking of RIO or Iveyleague, what do you guys suggest?

I also have some deucescracked videos that I haven't yet watched. Only watched the first coaching kristy series and it felt a bit too basic. What are the series worth watching there? Below are the series I have downloaded. I'm currently playing NL25 at stars and think I'have OK understanding of poker compared to my limit, also currently reading Jandas book which I find very interesting.

Applied game theory
Applied math
Coaching kristy 2
Blah Blah GTO
Mathematiccs of Holdem
REM
Search and destroy (2011 and 13-14 seris)
The Playbook
There will be homework

I'd be pretty surprised if anyone recommended IL over RIO to you. RIO is on another level.

As for DC videos: That's the thing in that so many of the videos up there are timeless since they're math, theory, and software based. That's what I like most about DC is how they dig into that kind of leg work behind the scenes. In general though at this point, it's tough for me to put a ton of stock into hand history reviews and sweat sessions from 2008, you know? That's the one rub...a lot of the content that isn't math based, which people refer to as the "best of DC" videos, goes back to a day and age of poker that is so long ago now the strategies and concepts crafted around it is outdated.

what does RIO stand for?

RunItOnce

Agreed. I stick to recent vids.

There are some GS samples on youtube. Carroters seems ok. I couldn't find TDA. So please get some up there TDA.

What DC vids did you like? I had downloaded some, but haven't watched them, as one coach put me off. Buluga Whale is a good player. I have his Easy Game ebooks. I didn't download his vids though, as I wasn't playing 6 max at the time.

I have a youtube channel actually. Just uploading a video if you're interested in checking it out (should be available in an hour or so):

http://youtu.be/d9Ya0gljb08

Thanks TDA. Much appreciated

Watched the vid. Good stuff TDA. You are obviously a very intelligent guy and deep thinker.

Do you think that depth of thinking is needed, or has available time? I got to the same conclusion as you, by thinking percentages. imho, the bottom line is that people turn up with any and every hand. Don't risk a big call with a smallish hand. The odds dictate my actions, over reads. Although I will call, overly strange bluffs, or on obviously missed boards.

Playing deep - I have started unregistering when I get to 150bb + deep, as that's when I get stacked. It takes a lot of poker to get to 150bb, and getting stacked tilts me.

Last hand - You were right. But in my wrong read, you were halving the pot with any Ace. The risk wasn't worth it on a paired, 3 flush board.

$30 for coaching sounds like great deal.

I mean, it doesn't really come through in this video but a decent part of the reason that you can't just call or fold with hands based on their strength and the odds is that you're going to miss a few very profitable calls as well as some 'hero' folds.

Going to watch it now. Thanks for the upload.

I will note one thing though: TheLandlord and I think one other (IIRC) was judging GS based on the demo videos they have up on the site. GS really should update these at this point as these videos are considerably dated by now. I don't really think using them as a gauge to see how effective the site is today would yield accurate results.

I'll watch this TDA upload and see what I think. As said, I am considering giving it a try for 1 or 3 months due to the fact that it focuses on precisely the stakes I'm playing now.

Meh. I had been writing a whole response to each hand with the time of the video linked to each comment and then I accidentally closed this tab. I'll do my best to recap what I thought here:

Right off the bat one thing that I noticed is that you really shouldn't start the video by apologizing for how it's going to be a low quality video but if we want to see a high quality video, we can always subscribe to GS to watch what you have up on there. It just doesn't look or sound good, you know?

@ 4:02 - This was a bad call, imo. You're getting way too in your head about blockers and combos when the obvious decision is right in front of you. Villain is simply value betting the river where you have at best 30% equity. This is a snap fold on the river.

@ 10:45 - Once again, wtf? You spend minutes going into analysis about combos when the hand is blatantly obvious. There's a four straight on the board, another straight draw on the board, a flush draw, and you're simply holding two pair. Villain is clearly value betting the river 3/4 pot with a better hand. How is this not a thoughtless snap fold to you?

@ 12:38 - I would have rather seen a check/shove by you here on the river. Your range is capped, villain's range is strong, he probably doesn't have the nuts, and he's a 35/17 who I feel very well may call a shove here with a lot. As you see, he folded to your check/raise anyway so you certainly wouldn't have lost any value by shoving here.

@ 17:15 - Is it standard for you to open JTs UTG? Of course villain wound up being a fish who showed up with 99 but to me, this is a pretty basic preflop fold. You seem to have a tendency to play marginal hands OOP and then not want to give up on the river.

@ 21:05 - I understand you want to keep his range in the hand but not cbetting a set of aces on the flop here is pretty horrible, no? I've seen players get bashed to death for that very same thing here on 2p2, specifically when citing your rationale for it.

@ 22:33 - It shouldn't surprise you so much that he showed up with AKs. You're repping nothing and you priced him into the hand with your 1/2 pot turn bet. By you checking the flop like that, and then betting the turn 1/2 pot, you're setting yourself up for only two things: Lose tons of value and keep seeing guys show up with a rivered flush. You and I both know this was a terribly played hand.

@ 25:25 - I don't think the overbet is a bad play here on the river but I would have gone the other way with it and bet $17.50 here. If he raises or shoves over the top, he has us beat. If he calls, we get value. Still not a bad play but I would have done it differently.

After just 25 minutes of hearing you talk, I think you sound like an intelligent, reasonably thinking player who really works on his game. That said, the best part of the video was that it was offered in 1080p. I think you have some significant leaks in your game when you are making mistakes that are that obvious to someone with as little experience as me. My honest assessment here is that if this is the standard quality of the videos and expertise on Grinderschool, both DeucesCracked and RunItOnce are light years ahead of you guys...even for a nanostakes player. I just couldn't justify spending $20/mo there when DC is $29/mo and RIO is $10/mo for the Essential.

That's all just being brutally honest.