My Pokerstrategy Coaches Rant

I want to agree here, but only in general and not towards the specific coaches mentioned. It is noticable that the general attitued of the coaches have become to relaxed IMHO. We understand that poker is part of the entertainment industry and there are many distractions for these people BUT I believe it is not funny when a professional coach admits, during a live session, that he/she is under the inffluance of achahol or some other drug.

When I sarted at pokerstrategy all the videos started with "Welcome ...pokerstrategy YOUR PROFESIONAL POKER SCHOOL..." and the coaches tried to live up to that. They dont say that any more and I am sorry to say that, generally speaking, they are not.

Poker has become more difficult and real winning players may be less eager to do this BUT do we need coaches who need to cheat to win like we had in the past ?

On the hand I cannot understate the value of some of the really hard working coaches. It is just the "party" element that detracts from the real professionals.

Hi z1pz0r,

thanks for your "rant".

For the expertise in NL100+, we have as you correctly pointed out, hired lilDave. We strongly believe in his skill and got independent verification from NL1k+ players that indicate that his skill is very appropriate for our Hand Evaluation forum.
This said, I have to mention that as a highstakes player he is currently preparing for the WSOP, and is at most times without internet access. Therefore I have to apologize for the delay in responses that you are currently experiencing, however CallumN & Pleno1 are helping out there a bit,too.

I hope you do understand that your feedback on the personal performance of our coaches is also appreciated. Please understand that we won't discuss it in the public forums but be rest assured that your comments are welcome.

For the winning graphs of our coaches I have to unfortunately admit that the case is not that easy. Some of our coaches rely on us that we do neither publish screen names (otherwise opponents could easier read their actions) nor their graphs, since some of them are subject to unclear fiscal regulations in their country of residence. Please be also assured here that both our QA and us are checking on the quality of coaches play and in case of doubt request proof.

@mineriva I think you are speaking about our live coaching sessions, do you ? Please bear in mind that unconcrete feedback is not efficient, as I can not derive any follow ups here. I would be happy if you could email me your specific complaints to coach@pokerstrategy.com ,the same goes for z1pz0r and everyone else,too.
To some degree I somehow have to disagree that coaches should always appear as hard working guys. As we know it is easier to learn in a relaxed atmosphere where one or another joke plays a role,too (live coaching sessions). Also not all of our customers are focused on becoming the next jungleman12, they just want to be somehow decent in Poker. A both entertaining and educating coaching can help a lot here,too.

best regards,SvenBe

Hey,

Yeh as most people in the UK know, LilDave who normally blogs on a weekly if not daily basis hasn't updated his blog for over 3 weeks. He is really famous for his active blog and people have been commenting recently asking if things are ok etc.

I can confirm that he is fine, but has a huge 2 months coming up with the WSOP and has been sorting out all his real life business stuff over the last month so that it is all ok whilst he is in the states. Dave has told me that organisation is absolutely key in Vegas and he will strive to be as focused and organised as possible, part of this is keeping the poker mindset and answering the hand evaluations on a regular basis.

Regarding his tone of reply, I see where you are coming from, but he genuinely wants to do this to help people and speaks more as if he is on Skype talking to a friend through Skype, he is in the top 5 most analytical thinkers of the game that I have ever spoken to and is definitely a big addition for PS.com.

As far as nl100+ judging goes, it is obviously very hard to find people who are willing to spend the time and energy answering hand evaluations on the forum as most mid stakes players foucs purely on their hourly which means that doing detailed replies including mathematical theory is going to make it a minus ev thing for them to do. I can assure you that Dave's motivation does not come from $ but from helping people.

I've personally set daily reminders on my calender to checks hand evaluations on my lunch and when I get home from work. I will try my best to keep posting as much as possible there and helping out the guys as best as I can.

Thanks
Patrick

Yes I am speaking of the live coachings but also about the videos.

As to specific complaints, I do not have any simply because I stop attending these live coachings. The reason I stop attending was because the second to last coaching I attended the coach said: "sorry if my speach is a bit hard to understand tonight but I have just return from XXX party and I am a little bit high...." The last coaching I attend was ended with a debate/competition where the students were ask to guess how much the coach LOST during the session. This to me is not entertainment and is simply unacceptable.

I still watch the videos and I see that the coaches try with these. The only point is that they not of the same standard they use to be. {maybe a VERY minor gripe but starting a video with "hello boys and girls" does not create a profesional image and no we dont watch the videos for their entertainment value if we did this would be called youtube}

The thing is when I play live and the new players want to start playing online I always recomend pokerstrategy to start with. I know of at least 3 members who I came to pokerstrategy because of my recommendation. (AFAIK none use my referal to register. the one said she tried but could not) I dont want to look bad for recomending a poker entertainment site.

Well dont worry about my rant I have played exactly 0 hands on any of my linked accounts with pokerstrategy this month so I guess I cannot complain.

Hey,

Dave may not be active for next couple of days.. He just beat Bryn Kenney HU and is in the alst 64 of the $3k HU event at the WSOP. Lets hope he ships it!

Originally posted by mineriva
Yes I am speaking of the live coachings but also about the videos.

As to specific complaints, I do not have any simply because I stop attending these live coachings. The reason I stop attending was because the second to last coaching I attended the coach said: "sorry if my speach is a bit hard to understand tonight but I have just return from XXX party and I am a little bit high...." The last coaching I attend was ended with a debate/competition where the students were ask to guess how much the coach LOST during the session. This to me is not entertainment and is simply unacceptable.

I still watch the videos and I see that the coaches try with these. The only point is that they not of the same standard they use to be. {maybe a VERY minor gripe but starting a video with "hello boys and girls" does not create a profesional image and no we dont watch the videos for their entertainment value if we did this would be called youtube}

The thing is when I play live and the new players want to start playing online I always recomend pokerstrategy to start with. I know of at least 3 members who I came to pokerstrategy because of my recommendation. (AFAIK none use my referal to register. the one said she tried but could not) I dont want to look bad for recomending a poker entertainment site.

Well dont worry about my rant I have played exactly 0 hands on any of my linked accounts with pokerstrategy this month so I guess I cannot complain.

You can be assured that if I had to know this about the coach who came from a party I would have intervened. I agree, this should be a no-go.

I appreciate your concerns regarding the videos,too. I can however not blame my coaches for saying "hello boys and girls" - every coach has unique style. Giving an image of a totally serious business that you are demanding where no one is having fun while playing/working/grinding/casually donking just does not represent our community. Giving just facts & notes would mean that poker is totally serious - in fact Poker means fun, means a nice time, means getting some extra-$ if you do it right and serious and hard learning, not just one of those facts.

hey guys,

I've tried to rattle off as many threads as possible without going into auto-pilot, will continue to do this for the forseeable future, as time goes on please give feedback both positive and negative so I know what to chnage and what to keep. The hand evaluation forums are here for YOU and we will do as best as we can to make sure it is as profitable and enjoyable experience as possible.

good luck and lets crush June.

I agree some parts with z1pz0r. Few months ago I used to see his HH's and I used to post alot of HH's too. I stopped because of the same reasons what z1pz0r wrote. I was never playing nl100, I played up to nl50.

And my major concern and what I absolutely hate the most is the content, especially the videos now compared to two years ago when I joined ps.com. First of all its a total mess. I mean a HUGE mess.

- Poker change very fast, so must the content. The videos are at a mess at the moment. It needs a new "search/sort" system (check other similar paid poker video sites, they are better organized). The videos section needs to be better organized. Not useful videos should be just thrown away in the archive or something.

- The articles are getting outdated. It could use a "refresh".Perhaps add small videos as examples during the articles to explain it easier, I notice people like to watch an example after reading the theory but in a video.

- The rank system and its content. It needs better sorting out as well. Do not let NL100 or NL50 videos stay on bronze/silver, because NL100 is much different than NL10. The rank system should focus its target. Silver/bronze for microstakes, gold for low stakes, plat for mid stakes. Sometimes I see way too advanced stuffs for micro stakes player on the article/videos like (reverse) implied odds in 3bet pot, double floating etc. This is not needed on the micros at all.

- And more (but less important) but I don't feel writing too much atm ♦

I was "born" on pokerstrategy.com and now thanks to you guys I've became better. Over the past 2 years I was pretty active on ps.com and I really notice the quality of ps.com in general dropping. Or not adjust/growing fast enough.

I would really love to see more quality instead of quantity. I know I have no right to say about your income/expenses but perhaps people are getting alittle too underpaid for what their doing? Maybe get a true expert to evaluate some content?

Hey guys,

I think I also have something to say.
Well I agree with the ragney about the video section. But that is not what I wanted to say ♦
I would like to go back to the coaches since the rent is created for them:
Veriz
I guess I dont have to say much about him but again I kinda need to TY. Well as coach of the project NL Beginners School and as well as a HE coach is it doing simply an amazing job. I mean since i cooperate with him i had really nice result which is proving my thread in the lockerroom which is still active. Just looking who much time and willingness he is putting into the HE section is just amazing. I mean the number of post for 2011 says everything.

Kaitz20
If you wanna really hear the truth I actually always prey ''please dont evaluate my hand''
I simply dont understand the way he takes this evaluation but I always need to hear Veriz opinion and extremely often they are not the same.

From what I saw pleno could take his place. I got the feeling he makes reasonable and really good evaluation. Guess you could switched them (pleno for Kaitz). So maybe pleno gets more motivated and start acting as a proffesional judge. The combination Veriz - pleno sounds good to me at least for the NL10 and NL50 section.

It is not like a really wanna get Kaitz fired but I simply think he is not good as a judge anymore. And also know people that escaped in their regional community because of his evaluations. I mean you guys have also some other members that you could maybe offer the job so I guess I said enough.

Originally posted by Sikac

Veriz
I guess I dont have to say much about him but again I kinda need to TY. Well as coach of the project NL Beginners School and as well as a HE coach is it doing simply an amazing job. I mean since i cooperate with him i had really nice result which is proving my thread in the lockerroom which is still active. Just looking who much time and willingness he is putting into the HE section is just amazing. I mean the number of post for 2011 says everything.

+1 very well said

Originally posted by Castle93

Originally posted by Sikac

Veriz
I guess I dont have to say much about him but again I kinda need to TY. Well as coach of the project NL Beginners School and as well as a HE coach is it doing simply an amazing job. I mean since i cooperate with him i had really nice result which is proving my thread in the lockerroom which is still active. Just looking who much time and willingness he is putting into the HE section is just amazing. I mean the number of post for 2011 says everything.

+1 very well said

+1

Originally posted by Sikac
Hey guys,

I think I also have something to say.
Well I agree with the ragney about the video section. But that is not what I wanted to say ♦
I would like to go back to the coaches since the rent is created for them:
Veriz
I guess I dont have to say much about him but again I kinda need to TY. Well as coach of the project NL Beginners School and as well as a HE coach is it doing simply an amazing job. I mean since i cooperate with him i had really nice result which is proving my thread in the lockerroom which is still active. Just looking who much time and willingness he is putting into the HE section is just amazing. I mean the number of post for 2011 says everything.

Kaitz20
If you wanna really hear the truth I actually always prey ''please dont evaluate my hand''
I simply dont understand the way he takes this evaluation but I always need to hear Veriz opinion and extremely often they are not the same.

From what I saw pleno could take his place. I got the feeling he makes reasonable and really good evaluation. Guess you could switched them (pleno for Kaitz). So maybe pleno gets more motivated and start acting as a proffesional judge. The combination Veriz - pleno sounds good to me at least for the NL10 and NL50 section.

It is not like a really wanna get Kaitz fired but I simply think he is not good as a judge anymore. And also know people that escaped in their regional community because of his evaluations. I mean you guys have also some other members that you could maybe offer the job so I guess I said enough.
+1

I honestly was SHOCKED to hear that people like kaitz20 are getting paid for the bullshit hand reading eval LOL . IMO kaitz20 should be replaced asap , I agree with the people that posted before me and I also think he is bad as an hand judge.

I also want to know the results of the coaches , there is A LOOOOT OF STUPID BS VIDEOS on the vids section and I have a strong feeling that these people have no clue about what they are talking about , especially the ones that post a st ton of videos just to get paid . I watch only the ones from the people tht I know for sure they are very good at poker : yourdoom shows his results at the beginning of each video , Gordon is very nice aswell , leatherass , jungleman ofc and just a few others .

I could never bring to myself a logical explanation for why the hell this mlmb guy is keep posting videos after everyone saw in Leatherass database review how HORRIBLE THIS GUY WAS PLAYING , huuge f leaks everywhere that shouldn't even exist for a player at nl100 he had them at nl400 and 600

@wazawanga: that's not a very fair comment at all. give me a chance to defend myself here

name me the leaks which I have that even NL100 players don't. I'll admit I have not been crushing NL400+ but I have always been able to beat NL100 and 200 (which is why I produce videos no higher than NL200)

Originally posted by mbml
@wazawanga: that's not a very fair comment at all. give me a chance to defend myself here

name me the leaks which I have that even NL100 players don't. I'll admit I have not been crushing NL400+ but I have always been able to beat NL100 and 200 (which is why I produce videos no higher than NL200)

ok how did you defend yourself here ? I don't see you posting any results on some big sample sizes .

all I could get on you from the review was this :

I don't care how much they pay you , I couldn't care less if they gave you a milion ... I just care about the information in the videos that I'm watching and when I see that a video producer for NL200 is not positional aware and does some weird crazy stuff like checkcalling 3rd and 4th poket pairs postflop then I might aswell not watch any videos at all .

I don't have anything personally with you , I don't care if you are really old member on pokerstrategy or whatever I just care about the quality of information , and no I'm not one of those monkey see monkey do type of players that just copy play styles - actually I'm exactly the opposite because I can spot bad teaching and bad information quite quickly and I can think very well for myself. Me and everyone of the players here have the right to comment and demand on this because we pay the rake .

okay I just read the last few posts from your blog and I understand you are currently playing nl25 zoom and you are making videos for nl200 . Is this some kind of sick joke or what the hell is going on here ? You are also writing a book on poker about how to CRUSH live and online cash games ? HOLY ****. Will you actually charge real money for it ?

@wazawanga if you read the blog properly you'd realise that mbml is in fact a nl400/600 reg and plays some nl1k iirc. The nl25 content is him working his way though the smaller limits again to gain experience and content for the book. And he is crushing these limits so knows his stuff. Also reading the thought process from hh's in his blog have helped my own game.

I recently found his perfecting preflop play series and imo find it some of the best theory vid for micro/small stakes I have seen (granted i havent seen i huge amount of videos but for silver status i don't think there are many better vids out there).

As the other coaches I can't comment on Kaitz because haven't seen much of his work but Veriz deserves a lot of credit for the effort he puts in

EDIT: Also if you look though mbml's blog you'll see plenty of graphs like these:

Originally posted by mbml

Laptop Hands, more or less breakeven for Desktop Computer

Originally posted by holmeboy
@wazawanga if you read the blog properly you'd realise that mbml is in fact a nl400/600 reg and plays some nl1k iirc. The nl25 content is him working his way though the smaller limits again to gain experience and content for the book. And he is crushing these limits so knows his stuff. Also reading the thought process from hh's in his blog have helped my own game.

I recently found his perfecting preflop play series and imo find it some of the best theory vid for micro/small stakes I have seen (granted i havent seen i huge amount of videos but for silver status i don't think there are many better vids out there).

As the other coaches I can't comment on Kaitz because haven't seen much of his work but Veriz deserves a lot of credit for the effort he puts in

alright no problem , can we see some stats on that crushing part?

In just over a week he's turned $600 to ~$1400 I think plus:

Originally posted by mbml
.....I am just playing quite stationy in spots where I can definitely make a ton of hero folds mostly to collect hand histories for the book

So he has been making -ev decisions on purpose - which affect the winate. And then I'd assume he would have needed time to adjust (never played midstakes so wouldn't know what its like to move from there to micro).