One of the key faultlines that all poker players are balanced on is choosing between too much theory and how to spend time putting those ideas into practice. Rabichow believes that keeping that balance, while difficult, is essential for any poker player who aspires to a high level.

“I suspect most players don’t think about these as things that need to be balanced,” he says. “I’ve worked with many students who study theory intensely but end up playing quite differently from how they think. Similarly common are players who are intuitive and very skilled but can’t discuss theoretical topics with any confidence. Because it’s rare to balance both skill sets, I try to emphasize both in my coaching and push the people who are leaning one way closer to the middle.”

The very nature of poker is applying oneself to a number of different situations in increasingly better ways. Is the fact that there are so many variables what make structured coaching such as Kevin’s so valuable? The creator of The Game Plan himself says that understanding the value of what he provides didn’t become clear until he started committing all his time to coaching.

“Most players are lost in the chaos of the game, picking up tips here and there, and randomly focusing their attention on whatever seems important or exciting at the time,” says Rabichow. “The most valuable part in my experience is honestly evaluating where you’re at right now. Once players realize where their strengths and weaknesses lie, they become far more motivated to structure their learning to address those weaknesses.”

Enjoying His Students’ Success

Clearly, Rabichow has a deep love of teaching, and his coaching work allows him to explore that area of professional passion which has proved so popular. He has carved out a niche in an at-times crowded market and it’s obvious by speaking with him that the work is its own reward.

“When I engaged more with poker forums, I found myself in a position where others cared to hear what I had to say,” he tells us. “It’s a nice feeling to know that your opinion is respected, and after enough people had privately requested coaching, I started publicly advertising it. Poker coaching requires an entirely different skill set than poker playing, and I’ve really enjoyed working on improving mine.”

Rabichow’s experience has been positive that he admits the most pleasure he now takes from the game of poker is down to the success of others, namely his many students.

“Perhaps the best feeling I’ve experienced in poker is when a student shares their success, either a big tournament score or a record year in cash games. Coaching keeps me engaged with the poker community, and lately feels more gratifying than being a successful player.”

Rabichow’s passion for coaching is self-evident, but it’s worth pausing to qualify that statement in financial terms. Rabichow has cashed for $2.3 million in live tournaments alone in his career, and his biggest win is one of more than seven figures, the $1.2 million he won in the 2021 $100,000 NLHE High Roller tournament in Las Vegas which formed part of the World Series of Poker. Such an achievement – coming second to Michael Addamo in ‘The Year of Addamo’ – is no mean feat.

A Proven Poker Methodology

Rabichow’s work can be – and is – categorized into different strategy sections, with strategy evaluation, theory evaluation, study evaluation and skills evaluation guiding players through the process in a structure way that is designed to give them the most out of the experience.

“These categories came together quite naturally when I found the direction for this course, and it’s entirely possible that I over or under emphasized certain areas,” reveals Rabichow. The American, who hails from Chicago, Illinois, doesn’t believe that the order of the sections themselves is too important, but breaking it down into those areas is vital. Poker players often respond well to training or coaching coming in bitesize pieces that are easy for the brain to take in and process. How we process information cognitively is an important part of what makes the best poker coaching stand out from the competition – exactly what poker players hope to do themselves.

“There are unique areas of focus that go into becoming a great poker player. Theory vs practice is a major theme in the course, and here I’ve just broken it down further. Your individual skills come together to form a strategy, and your ability to study informs your understanding of theory.”

Processing what you’ve learned and then moving forward in the course with a greater understanding of why is key to how The Game Plan can benefit any player’s game.

“The evaluations are meant to highlight your strengths and weaknesses, but also help you realize how you ended up there and how to move forward.”

Coaching is all about identifying talent and nurturing it, to an extent. What key skills does Rabichow look for in his students and how is he able to identify those skills to nurture them? “The new players I’ve worked with have generally grown up on solvers, and they show varying degrees of theoretical mastery,” he says. “I’m most impressed when these same players have a sense for the limitations of this knowledge, showing a healthy amount of self-criticism and therefore a willingness to grow. There isn’t one ‘right’ way to approach the game, and the best players are always questioning whether they’ve missed some piece of information, or if their opponents are doing something worth investigating.”

Rabichow’s own experiences of receiving coaching as a player are sparse. He spent very little time doing so, having the fortune of being surrounded by great players, who were happy to share their knowledge. That isn’t always the case, however, so for players who feel on the outside looking in, poker coaching can be a vital bridge between knowing you have skills to develop and, crucially, making the most of them.

“I think this is why I’m such a strong proponent of study groups,” he admits. “Not everyone can be friends with a group of professional poker players, so it’s important to me to help provide that opportunity through my course and through my private coaching. Connecting with people who are working towards the same goals as you can easily be the difference between success and failure.”

The Game Plan is available for use and you can find out a lot more about it here. In an age where poker coaching can be the difference between winning and losing, having a game plan is more important than ever before. Kevin Rabichow’s course is a brilliant way to so that without breaking the bank, making profit more attainable than ever.

Brad is active on Twitter as @CPGPodcast and you should check out his podcast “Chasing Poker Greatness”

We also go over this week’s home game results and discuss these topics:
How to help us out – https://rec.poker/support/
Home Games – https://rec.poker/homegame/
Go Premium! – https://rec.poker/premium/

RecPoker is a vibrant and encouraging poker learning community. We are committed to learning the game, but our priority is building healthy relationships where we can not only grow in the game, but grow in our enjoyment of life. The membership website at rec. poker is awesome, but it’s just a tool to help us build that community. You can join for FREE, giving you access to the groups, forums, and other member benefits. If you want to enjoy the premium content, or become part of the RECing Crew, those options are available, and you can get $10 off your first payment using the code RECPOKER.

Time Stamps

If you’re looking to improve your poker game, getting poker coaching from a proven player or coach can be a fantastic option!

• To improve your overall gameplay strategy
• Boost your winrate
• Help you move up stakes
• Eliminate tilt
• Keep up with the changing trends in poker

Coaching in poker isn’t for everyone, though. Not all players are where personalised coaching will help them get their biggest bang for their buck.

So, in this article, we’re going to dissect poker coaching and reveal everything to consider:

To read the full article please visit 888poker Magazine: Use Poker Coaching to Improve Your Strategy – Boost Your Winrate – Up Your Stakes!

There are a few of these multi-lesson challenges available, but in this review we’re looking at the 30-Day Tournament Preparation Challenge. For 30 consecutive days a new video lesson was released, accompanied by a short quiz upon completion to test your newfound skills. Now, as mentioned, all 30 days of content are available on demand, and can be consumed in whichever order you choose. First, here’s a look at the list of all 30 lessons:

1. Learning Your Opponents Through Preflop play – Jonathan Jaffe (35 min)
2. 3-betting at Different Stack Depths – Jonathan Little (12 min)
3. Exploitative Plays to Crush Live Tournaments part 1 – Faraz Jaka (62 min)
4. Short Stack Preflop Play – Matt Affleck (80 min)
5. Exploitative Plays to Crush Live Tournaments part 2 – Jaka (50 min)
6. Short Stack Post-flop Play – Affleck (64 min)
7. $10k Bellagio Day 1 & 2 Review – Jaffe (83 min)
8. Live Play & Explain Part 1 – Little (38 min)
9. Button vs Big Blind Play – Jaffe (91 min)
10. Advanced Big Blind Defence Strategies in Tournaments – Affleck (73 min)
11. Review of Blaz $10 Online Tournament Win Part 1 – Little (21 min)
12. Review of Blaz $10 Online Tournament Win Part 2 – Little (23 min)
13. Review of Blaz $10 Online Tournament Win Part 3 – Little (18 min)
14. How to Complete PokerCoaching Homework – Little (24 min)
15. Complete October 2019 Tournament Homework – Little (37 min)
16. Reviewing Jonathan’s Deep Run in the Online $1k Freezeout Part 1 – Michael Acevedo/Little (61 min)
17. Reviewing Jonathan’s Deep Run in the Online $1k Freezeout Part 2 – Acevedo/Little (102 min)
18. Live Play & Explain Part 2 – Little (49 min)
19. Mastering the HUD: VPIP & PFR – Alex Fitzgerald (33 min)
20. Mastering the HUD: C-Bet Statistics – Fitzgerald (35 min)
21. Mastering the HUD: Fold to C-Bet Statistic – Fitzgerald (12 min)
22. Mastering the HUD: Check-Raise Statistic – Fitzgerald (13 min)
23. Mastering the HUD: Test Your Skills – Fitzgerald (72 min)
24. Live Play & Explain Part 3 – Little (50 min)
25. Bubble Thoughts – Little (22 min)
26. Introduction to ICM – Affleck (92 min)
27. Mastering High Roller Final Tables Intro & Part 1 – Little (30 min)
28. Mastering High Roller Final Tables Part 2 – Little (27 min)
29. Mastering High Roller Final Tables Part 3 – Little (27 min)
30. Tips to Crush Small Stakes Tournaments & Final Exam (30 questions) – Little (63 min)

In total, this adds up to almost 24 hours worth of elite No Limit Hold ‘em training content.

My recommendation for consuming this challenge would be to tackle it in one of two ways: either as originally intended with one lesson per day over 30 days, which is the most easily digestible process, or by combining the multi-part lessons and consuming those together in slightly longer chunks.

For example, Faraz Jaka’s 2-part series on Exploitative Plays to Crush Live Tournaments could be watched together. Moreover, Days 11-13 could easily be watched in one sitting, as they are a 3-part hand history review. Also, if you wanted to merge lessons on pre- and post-flop short stacked play, Matt Affleck’s Day 4 and 6 lessons could be watched together.

There are other examples of this as well, and for the purposes of a more easy-to-follow review of the content, I’ll be combining those lessons and reviewing them one section at a time, with their days of the challenge denoted at the top of each section.

Now, with that all said, let’s dive into it!

Day 1: Learning Your Opponents Through Pre-flop Play

I was very happy to see this lesson, which I’ve discussed in previous reviews, included in the challenge, and even kicking it off on Day 1 no less.

Jonathan Jaffe takes students through a series of pre-flop situations and provides analysis of what tendencies a player will have based on their actions. A super light raise from early position obviously suggests a loose/maniacal player, but there can be a lot more behind that raise. Getting reads on your opponents is critical, and Jaffe guides the student through the multitude of other things to consider. This is a lesson that’s useful for players of all skill levels.

Day 2: 3-betting at Different Stack Depths

Jonathan Little brings us an intensive crash course on how you should be 3-betting, outlining the many different strategies required based on your stack size. Range charts are provided for a variety of stack depths, from 15 BB to 75 BB and up, along with a chart breaking down what 3-bet sizing you should be using, based on your stack depth.

The importance of 3-betting with good blockers when short stacked vs. 3-betting with a more linear range when deep is discussed, along with what stack size your 3-bets should be an all-in.

Plus, Little lays out the situations in which you should defend more and not 3-bet from the big blind when short.

Days 3 & 5: Exploitative Plays to Crush Live Tournaments Parts 1 & 2

Given that this review was being written during the COVID-19 pandemic with live tournament poker at a minimum around the world, I’ll admit that I saved these videos for last. And wow, was I pleasantly surprised by how much of these videos are also applicable to the online game, notably smaller stakes where players are very exploitable!

Part 1 focuses on pre-flop exploits, such as how to target weak opponents, exploitative blind stealing, 3-bet attacks, and the ever popular psychological warfare! Getting too boggled down in the specifics would take too much time, but I will mention one critical concept of playing strong exploitative poker: you are going to be playing more hands. Maybe not as many as Faraz Jaka is known to, but to play this style effectively, you will be widening your ranges. (Jaka will explain where and when are the best spots for this throughout – it actually ties together nicely with theories from Jaffe’s lesson on learning your opponents’ pre-flop play. The supposed maniac raising suited Kx in early position? Well here he is.) As such, YOU MUST BE FOCUSED and paying incredible attention to the table and know how to potentially exploit each player.

Of note in part 1, easily the coolest slide I’ve seen in any poker training material out there is Jaka’s section on psychological warfare. That’s right, sorry to disappoint, but you don’t want to be the Macho Man when you’re playing. Oooooooooh…no?

Part 2 goes into post-flop play, with a lot of discussion on downbetting and smaller post-flop bet sizes, except when you can exploitatively use larger sizing against the non-believers to maximize value. The importance of recognizing and overfolding against players who are completely unbalanced in their ranges is also discussed.

Jaka wraps the series by analyzing several live hands he’s played, including a cool hand against Jessica Dawley at the final table of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, and why at a table with just them and three amateurs, he felt she was the player he could most successfully exploit.

Days 4 & 6: Short Stack Pre-flop and Post-flop Play

If I was compelled to pick something as the best or most important section of the series, Matt Affleck’s videos on short-stacked play would get my vote. This is mainly because, as Affleck himself notes, of any element of tournament poker short stack is what you’ll be playing the most, and it’s an area where you can create more EV than the majority of your opponents.

The pre-flop video discusses the hugely important concept of ‘lazy shoves’ and how to better play a 15-20 BB stack by using split ranges. Sure, just piling in your 15 BB stack with KQo in the hijack is profitable, but if you take a more strategic polarized/linear approach, there is much more EV to be made.

Affleck breaks down which hands to instead min-raise and call off to a 3-bet shove, which hands to min-raise/fold, and which are still just a straight shove.

Re-jamming is also discussed thoroughly, with the key concepts of getting hands you dominate to call and getting hands that dominate you to fold!

Why are we 3-bet shoving A9s, A5s and A4s along with AKs and AQs, but not AJs and ATs?

These are solid GTO baselines for 3-bet jamming, but Affleck also notes that there are plenty of opponent-based exploits that must be considered as well.

The short stack post-flop video uses a lot of PioSolver and hand breakdowns to analyze what your best options are with a shallow stack-to-pot ratio (SPR). I think many amateur players would be surprised how much play you have on a sub-25 BB stack. Protection and equity denial is king, and every 4-5 BB pot you can drag when short stacked is a huge win. Affleck guides you through when your top pair is a monster, when your 2nd pair is safe and when it isn’t, which draws are worth applying pressure with, and which blockers can be bluffed to steal a key pot for you.

I can honestly say I am infinitely more comfortable playing a short stack since studying these videos. There are spots I wouldn’t have taken before that have now kept my stack alive and grown it repeatedly at key points in a tournament. Recently I navigated my way into the money of the WPT Poker Industry Invitational despite being on a 15-20 BB stack with 30 players left and 15 making the money. Affleck’s teachings kept me alive, got my stack healthy, and gave me the best opportunities possible to run my stack up. I even got my 2nd pair in dominant for a potential 36 BB double up with 11 left, until the 2-outer came for my opponent on the river. But hey, I got it in good, thanks to what I learned from this training.

Day 7: 10k Bellagio Day 1 & 2 Review

The first week of lessons wraps up with what kind of felt like an extended version of one of PokerCoaching.com’s hand quizzes. Jonathan Jaffe is back with a review of hands he played on the first two days of his 6th place run in the 2019 Bellagio Five Diamond Main Event.

Hands are all from earlier levels with deeper stacked play and, as such, Jaffe explains how he likes to play these levels more like a cash game (more PokerCoaching.com Cash Game resources here), making his opponents uncomfortable by playing bigger pots than they may have liked or expected to. He goes deep into his thought process of each hand, analyzing his decisions street by street. Throughout the video, Jaffe takes questions from students on each hand, also discussing how he would have played alternate runouts on certain hands.

He discusses various concepts, including the importance at higher stakes of having some ace/wheel bluffs in early position against other early position opponents.

There are plenty of fun and interesting hands to dissect, including a wild one four ways with AJo on the BTN vs. a UTG raise, a UTG+1 call, and then a call from the SB. How good do you feel on an A87 rainbow flop, and how do you proceed?

Days 8, 18, 24: Live Play and Explain Parts 1, 2, & 3

Recently, Jonathan Little has been streaming his Sunday online tournament sessions, and naturally he saw this as an opportunity to teach his students how to better grind the online streets.

The 3-part series is a cool look at, and explanation of, Little’s Sunday grind, firing tournament after tournament with tables covering every corner of his computer monitor.

If you’re not a multi-tabler, this series will definitely boost your comfort level of adding volume to your sessions. In general, I wasn’t, but since watching this series I’m more comfortable adding three or four tables to my sessions, and am still seeing my winrate move in the right direction.

Little provides plenty of advice and tips throughout including…

• Play as many tables as you’re comfortable with.
• Use a HUD if you can.
• Organize and prioritize your tables to keep track more easily.
• Don’t waste time sweating results, just make the best decision and move on.
• Don’t let bad runouts on smaller buy-in tables tilt you and impact your decisions on higher priority tables.
• Multi-tabling is not about improving skills. It’s about utilizing strategies and maximizing volume.
• If you’re rebuying or buying in short, there will be more variance. Be ready for it.
• Don’t just register everything. Game select and find the best games to maximize your ROI.

Lower priority tables cascaded top left. Higher priority tables separate.

It really is impressive to watch Little playing 10+ tables and having no issues keeping track and playing as optimally as possible. While he admits that occasionally he does make mistakes, and that will come with mass multi-tabling, his focus and decision making is almost always on point. It was very cool to see him recognize a spot where he needed to fold a flush in one of his smaller buy-in tourneys where a lesser player would have just gone ‘oh, flush, call’, before clicking on to the next decision.

Day 9: Button vs. Big Blind Play

Jonathan Jaffe says he considers button vs. big blind play the most complex area of No Limit Hold ‘em because you’re dealing with such wide ranges in both spots, leading to difficult situations. I’ll happily agree with him. Range analysis in this scenario is very difficult, but Jaffe does a good job as he runs through a simulated session with two of his students using PokerStars play money home game software.

To be honest, this was a bit confusing to follow at times because it was set up visually as a heads up match, with the button player instructed to act as if there was an imaginary small blind between himself and the simulated big blind. There are a bunch of different scenarios presented, but I would recommend primarily listening to Jaffe’s commentary as opposed to watching the action to avoid the visual confusion.

Day 10: Advanced Big Blind Strategies in Tournaments

Day 10 brings another meaty and thorough class with Matt Affleck, which was also one of my favourites in the 30-Day Tournament Preparation Challenge.

Remember the good old days when the big blind would fold too much because they didn’t want to play a junk hand out of position? Remember when it was then determined that it was mathematically correct to defend the BB with a wide range because the pot odds dictated it? Well, now the problem with most players is that they’re defending too wide, and you likely are too, especially multiway!

Affleck discusses how most poker players make a lot of mistakes in the big blind because they assume their pot odds are correct to be seeing a flop in almost any situation that hasn’t been 3-bet. Position of the raise, and the size of the raise are not fully considered, leading to players getting themselves into horrific spots. And just because your pot odds are so fantastic with five players in the pot by no means justifies flicking in a few more chips with a junk hand that can easily be dominated if you hit the board.

The coordination between raw equity, EV, and equity realization % is broken down, with Equilab used to illustrate the key points.

One solution to poor big blind play is to increase your 3-betting. As much as players over defend the big blind by calling, they’re under 3-betting grossly in spots that are very profitable. Most players just default to calling, again ‘since they’re getting such a great price’, but there are plenty of hands that can be 3-bet, and Affleck shows you where and why. Some theories referenced in his short stack videos are applicable here as well, as we’re now 3-betting weak aces to get medium aces to fold. Some marginal suited hands can be 3-bet as well because most people just are not calling enough 3-bets in general, and many hands that would have you dominated are now folding!

Finally, while fewer hands should be defended from the big blind with deeper stacks, the opposite is true with a short stack! It may seem counter-intuitive to defend a higher percentage of your stack when short, but that’s just it. If you’re short, you can happily get your stack in with pairs and good draws, whereas it would be heinous to commit a larger stack with the same hand strength.

Day 11-13: Review of Blaz $10 Online Tournament Win

As mentioned earlier, this 3-part miniseries can be ripped through in a little over an hour, as Little reviews a student’s win in a $10 6-handed tournament. Despite the relatively short runtimes of each of the three videos, there are still many key strategies to take away. None is bigger than the simple reminder that just because a tournament is short-handed, it does not justify opening ranges unnecessarily wide. A 6-handed table is just like a 9-handed table, just that the first 3 players have folded.

Case in point, one of the student’s opponents is playing a ridiculous 79% VPIP with a 13% PFR. Several pots are contested against this player, with maximally exploitative lines discussed in both small and large pots. Plus, not only are they an absolute muffin to play against, a blatant bet-sizing tell is picked up, too!

Once that player is disposed of, other situations are analyzed, including vs. a player the exact opposite of our 79/13 friend. What adjustments need to be made against a far more aggressive player with a high 3-bet percentage?

At the final table, an ICM suicide is narrowly averted thanks to the opponent folding vs. the student’s overplay of third pair with an open-ended straight flush draw on the turn.

Oh, you got called and the 4 of diamonds rolled off? Cool 3rd pair bro.

Days 14 & 15: How to Complete Poker Coaching Homework & October 2019 Tournament Homework

A staple of any PokerCoaching.com curriculum is the monthly homework assignments, and the 30-Day Tournament Preparation Challenge is no exception.

Using the PokerCoaching.com Range Analyzer, students input their own ranges into a chart based on a hand scenario provided by Little. The student first creates a pre-flop action chart, saves it, then adjusts it street by street, based on the community cards and opponent actions of the hand.  Hand combinations are categorized into ranges for premium made hands, marginal made hands, draws, and junk.

The Day 14 video is a tutorial on how to create your charts and save them in the PokerCoaching.com forum for review during the monthly homework webinars hosted by Little. On Day 15 you’ll actually create a series of range charts, and then compare them to the analysis provided in the accompanying video.

Little will suggest how you should balance your betting and checking ranges, by adding or removing hands from the various categories. I would recommend familiarizing yourself with them though before jumping into these homework assignments. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed by them, but have since learned to love them as a great way to study ranges and work on GTO range balancing.

Days 16 & 17: Reviewing Jonathan’s Deep Run in the Online $1k Freezeout Parts 1 & 2

In this pair of videos, PokerCoaching.com’s GTO wizard Michael Acevedo dissects Little’s play in a deep run against a table full of online killers.

A warning before you dive into these videos. This is VERY high-level GTO hand analysis between Acevedo and Little. Acevedo analyzes mostly to Little’s level of understanding, not necessarily to a student of the site. PioSolver is used frequently, and not explained to the layman poker player at all. You will need to be somewhat familiar with the program.

With that said, indeed, this is some VERY high-level GTO hand analysis!

REVIEW: Michael Acevedo’s Modern Poker Theory Video Packs

It’s fascinating to observe their poker minds at work, breaking down a queen-high river call, discussing the merits of min raising vs. slightly bumping up raise sizes, analyzing when a 15-20 BB shove is recommended (contrary to other short stack lessons), range betting vs. pot control, and tons more.

Remember, this is an elite player analyzing an elite player, playing against other elite players. This is NOT the review of the $10 tourney. There is some discussion of exploitative plays that could be applicable to smaller stakes tournaments, but for the most part we’re flying way above the rim here.

Day 19-23: Mastering the HUD (VPIP & PFR, C-bet, Fold to C-bet, Check-Raise, Test Your Skills)

It’s nearly three weeks into the 30-Day Tournament Preparation Challenge before Alex Fitzgerald makes his first appearance, but the Assassinato’s entire course on Mastering the HUD gets a full five days worth of attention and it’s invaluable.

NOTE: Importantly, if you don’t play in an online poker room that allows HUDs, the 30-day challenge essentially just became a 25-day challenge. You can skip it entirely.

Fitzgerald admits he hated using a HUD at first and actually didn’t for five years. However, if you play on a site allowing HUDs and are not using one, you’re at a tremendous disadvantage against players who are.

Lots of numbers and colors can be scary, but once you learn them you’ll be the one they fear!

You’ll learn the ins and outs of the key numbers, learning how to play optimally against, and maximally exploit your opponents, based on their statistical tendencies. Fitzgerald acknowledges that unless you’re playing regularly with the same players your sample sizes will be small, but that will still tell you at least as much as in a live tournament setting.

Plenty of hand examples are provided in each section (especially Day 23) for students to consider, not just based on their potential opponent’s stats, but on other players and factors.

After watching this course, I’ve revamped my own HUD and am using it much more effectively. It’s undeniable that the difference in how the game feels based on using or not using a HUD is pretty large. With that said, if you can gain that advantage in decision making based on live analytics, it really is something you should be doing, and this section will prepare you thoroughly.

Day 25: Bubble Thoughts

Little’s 22-minute Bubble Thoughts class is all about pressure, pressure and more pressure; determining if your opponents care about sliding into the money, and if so, making life as uncomfortable for them as possible.

Find out where they don’t want to go, then make them go there!

Jonathan Little

There are obviously specifics to consider, such as stack sizes, position, and player type, and Little will go through what to look for that will give you the green light to attack. Reading weakness is always key to playing aggressive poker, but no time more so than on the bubble.

Several examples are analyzed, including an interesting situation showing how drastically a button shoving range changes on the bubble, depending on the quality of opponents in the blinds. A 64% range dropping down to 8%, sounds extreme, but it is justified against players who will call off too wide.

This section also leads into the next part of the challenge with some ICM discussion, and a reminder to pass on those tiny edges if you have a skill advantage, because ICM doesn’t take skill into consideration.

Day 26: Introduction to ICM

In this section you’ll dive deep into ICM with Matt Affleck. The title may say ‘Introduction’, but this class has heaps of great info throughout the beefy 92-minute runtime.

For those completely unfamiliar, Affleck starts off with a brief discussion on the difference between chip EV and $ EV, with a simple example of a winner-take-all sit n’ go payout vs. a top 3 payout.

The very cool concept of ‘Risk Premiums’ takes up a good chunk of the lesson. Affleck assigns an added percentage to a player’s pot odds when determining whether to make a call (think of it like a calling tax). We know a big stack is risking very little by calling a shove against a short stack, but to see specific formulas incorporated into various all-in situations based on stack sizes is a very cool guide to consider.

Post-flop ICM consideration with regard to bet sizing is compared to Risk Premiums, as the larger the bet you face, the higher the risk premium. You may seemingly only need 25% pot odds to make a call, but considering ICM and your risk premium, you need as much as 45-50% to justify putting your stack at risk.

Plenty of in-game examples are dissected through ICMizer to determine the profitability of potential all-ins. Consideration of risk premiums are thoroughly incorporated and considered.

Of note, Affleck discusses how risk premiums are even higher in satellite play. In a recent WSOP Online satellite, I was in a lengthy stretch of play with a ton of smallish/medium stacks (myself included) at the table as the bubble approached. Accounting for risk premiums saved my stack in a couple of key spots, whereas had I only considered the pot odds, I would have made an incorrect and tournament-ending decision. Instead, I made tighter folds, where others committed ICM suicide. As a result, I made it to the target tourney while others did not.

Days 27-29: Mastering High Roller Final Tables

We’re into the home stretch as we hit Day 27, and after almost four weeks of hard work this part of the series almost feels like the end of a school year when you’d get treated to watching a movie in class.

Yes, there is obviously a lot of high level poker that can be studied and learned from here, but you can also just kick back and enjoy watching some of the very best in the world play a $2,000 online final table.

Little had not actually watched this final table before doing the commentary on it, so it’s fun to watch him analyze the play in real time.

Since it is an online high roller final table with plenty of wizards, there is a lot to be taken away from it, notably the almost universally EXCELLENT play. Things you’ll see that Little discuses and analyzes include:

• Lots of GTO play
• Additional thoughts on min-raising vs. raising slightly more
• Players knowing when to check their marginal hands
• Tiny C-bets that make it difficult for opponents to defend properly against, instead of ‘betting to make your opponent fold’
• No blind C-betting – lots of consideration of opponents’ ranges
• Proper ICM-related decisions and play
• Minimal over-aggression and unnecessary 3-betting
• Good river decisions; recognizing showdown value and not needing to bluff
• Developing a final table limping range
• High level exploitative plays
• Head- up strategies and ranges

Day 30: Tips to Crush Small Stakes Tournaments and Final Exam

Congratulations! You made it to Day 30!

But before you can say you’ve completed the 30-Day Tournament Preparation Challenge, there’s one more lesson with three tips to crush small stakes tournaments.

Oh… and the final exam!

You’ll have to check out the video for all the details, but the three tips are:

1. Exploit wide ranges! Low-stakes players don’t play well with wide ranges. Little will teach you how to combat these players most effectively, especially in late position.
2. Maximally exploit weak players! As you get deeper in tourneys, the stakes get higher and many players will get uncomfortable.
3. Play optimally on pay jumps! Your timebank is your friend. No, tanking isn’t sexy, but if it’s the difference in making a pay jump and boosting your ROI, then it’s tank time, baby!

After Little goes through these points, he wraps up with a 40-minute Q & A session with students on a wide variety of topics.

The final exam consists of 30 multiple choice questions, similar to the short quizzes at the end of each day’s lesson. Many of them aren’t too tough, but there are a few that might catch you. But really, if you’ve paid attention and have absorbed the information provided, you should have no problem registering a strong score (ahem…)

Aced it!

PokerCoaching.com 30-Day Tournament Preparation Challenge: Worth the Price!

As I have mentioned a couple of times in this review, I’ve had immediate success implementing the teachings of the 30-Day Tournament Preparation Challenge, to my own game.

One test of the effectiveness of a training course is how quickly it pays for itself. Well, while working through the challenge for this review, it paid for itself multiple times over! With so many different aspects of tournament play discussed in this series, its an invaluable resource that can be enjoyed by signing up for just 1 month of PokerCoaching.com Premium access.

If you take on the 30-Day Tournament Preparation Challenge and put in the work, improved tournament results are a virtual certainty.

Lexy Gavin

In this episode of The Bernard Lee Poker Show on the Cardplayer Lifestyle Podcast Family, Bernard Lee interviews RunGoodGear Ambassador and poker coach, Lexy Gavin. Having placed 10th, Lexy describes the details of the Bay 101 Main Event (March 11-13, 2020) that ended in a 10-way chop due to COVID-19. Also, Lexy describes how she got started in poker online during college and eventually transitioned to live poker. Currently, she is focusing on live tournament poker and also poker coaching.

The good folks at PokerCoaching.com know that many of you have waited all year for the best deals on poker training courses and they certainly do not disappoint, having just unveiled their best offer of 2019 to mark Black Friday.

As part of Jonathan Little’s 2019 Black Friday sale, here’s what you can take advantage of:

• 30 courses are now available at up to a 87% discount
• PokerCoaching ANNUAL memberships are on sale at MASSIVE discounts
• PokerCoaching Premium ANNUAL is on sale for the first time EVER!

Aside from 2-time World Poker Tour champion Jonathan Little, you’ve also got the opportunity to learn from some of the best poker coaches out there, including Matt Affleck, Jonathan Jaffe, Evan Jarvis, Alex Fitzgerald, and other top poker crushers.

READ MORE from Matt Affleck: The Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Play Online Poker

One of the best aspects of this sale is that if you decide to “go all in” and purchase a PokerCoaching Premium Annual Membership, you’ll get free access to 62 poker videos, including all 30 Black Friday courses.

If you’ve visited our site before, you’ve likely seen the top-notch review that our contributor Mike Patrick has given Jonathan Little’s Master Cash Game Master Class. This is just one of the many great cash game-focused products PokerCoaching has on offer. Why not maximize your value and get the best bang for your buck by giving yourself access to the entire tool chest they’ve got available?

If you prefer poker tournaments to cash games and want to work on that area of your game in particular, PokerCoaching’s got you covered, and then some. Whatever the stakes you play for, there’s plenty to benefit from in taking some of courses that they’ve got available. You may already be familiar with Jonathan Little’s $25K Platinum Coaching series, which the aforementioned Mike Patrick gave very high marks as well. There’s of course tons more to learn about proper tournament strategy, and PokerCoaching’s full suite of offerings really has all the angles covered.

We’re all poker players, so we know how important it is to always try and get the best value. If that’s your mindset (and, of course, it’s the right one to have!), then we’ll reiterate that your best bet is to become a PokerCoaching Premium Annual member. Here’s a list of everything you’ll be entitled to when you jump in:

• 12 months of PokerCoaching Premium
• 600+ Hand Quizzes
• 110+ Video Classes
• 40+ Challenge Webinars
• 30+ Coaching Webinars
• Pre-flop Charts For 100BB, 25BB and 15BB
• 300+ NEW Hand Quizzes (25+ new quizzes EVERY month for 12 months)
• 48 LIVE Coaching Webinars (4 coaching webinars EVERY month for 12 months)
• 24 NEW Video Classes (2 new video classes EVERY month for 12 months)
• 12 LIVE Challenge Webinars (a live challenge webinar EVERY month for 12 months)

Convinced yet?

In short, PokerCoaching.com’s BIGGEST SALE OF THE YEAR is not something you want to miss out on.

It sounds cliche, but to take advantage of this offer, you should really ACT NOW. This limited-time Black Friday deal ends soon.

So instead, let’s just go with substance over style.

Over eight live sessions since taking Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class, I haven’t recorded a single loss. I’ve also had my biggest ever winning session at $1-2 NLHE during this stretch.

In several online sessions since, I’ve not only produced a much better winrate than in recent months, but my desire to play online No Limit Hold ‘em has been rejuvenated.

So, did THAT grab you enough?

Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class: Comprehensive Cash Game Training

Fair warning, if you plan on tackling this 30-video series, get ready to work. This is not a series for beginners. There’s gonna be some math. That all said, the depth this series provides is incredible.

Every aspect of cash game play you can imagine is covered, not just in strategies for every street of play (with tons of examples throughout), but how and when to implement both exploitative and GTO play.

Before Little gets into street-by-street play, the first couple of videos introduce the series, touching on things such as game selection, stack sizes, rake, player types, exploiting weak opponents, equity, and a couple of hand examples. Nothing too crazy yet; just a few things to think about while you fasten your seat belt.

After that though, you better be strapped in, because it’s one heck of a ride!

The third video is an introduction to probably the most important thing that will be stressed throughout the entire series: ranges!

No…. not THAT kind of range…

Long gone are the days of ‘putting your opponent on a hand’. This is 2023, friends. Ultimately, it doesn’t necessarily matter what those two cards in front of you and your opponents are. It’s all about what they could be.

Throughout these videos, you will be constantly prompted to think about ranges, both yours and your opponents’. While there are some specific examples on how certain hands can be played, thinking in terms of ranges is the predominant factor in how you should study and play your hands. This is a tool Little has utilized regularly in his Homework Challenges on Pokercoaching.com.

The video on ranges introduces the concepts of range construction, balancing, counting combinations, blockers, and math-based call/fold spots.

I should mention at this point that while there is a good deal of GTO-based theory and strategy in the series, Little does stress the importance of exploitative play as well, especially at lower stakes where there will be a larger population of weaker players. Against them, exploitative play is just going to be far more profitable. In other words, trying to balance a 4-betting range against a nit under the gun just ain’t gonna work. You’re just going to smash into those aces every time.

After that, the meat of the series is basically broken into sections of multiple 10- to 20-minute-long videos discussing aspects of pre-flop, flop, turn, and river play. This is followed by a few videos covering such topics as shallow and deep stacked play, straddled pots, bankroll management, seat and game selection, tells and more.

Ed. Note: PokerCoaching.com also offer some excellent resources for tournament players, such as the 30-Day Tournament Preparation Challenge. See our review of that here.

Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class: Pre-flop Play

This section consists of 9 videos entitled: Pre-flop Bet Sizing, Pre-flop When Folded To, When Your Raise Gets 3-bet, Facing Limpers, Facing a Raise, Facing a Raise and a Call, When You Call and Get 3-bet, Facing a Pre-flop Raise and 3-bet, and Facing a Pre-flop 4-bet.

Pre-flop play is the most heavily discussed element in the series, and for good reason. As Little has imparted in many of his teachings, the first decisions you make in a hand will set you up for success during the rest of the hand. Remember kids, poker actually isn’t about winning and losing, poker’s about making the right decisions. (Thanks Doyle Brunson Poker After Dark intro voiceover!)

The bet sizing section discusses the importance of sizing your pre-flop raises correctly. Little generally suggests a consistent approach, with a pot-sized raise being optimal (plus a little extra when playing out of position), but he also suggests that a more exploitative strategy against weaker players can be beneficial.

Along with your raise sizing, the next consideration is what range to raise with. Little provides a link to a multitude of charts for suggested open raising ranges for each position (based on 100 BB stacks and your opponents being capable players – deviation based on player type is of course encouraged).

Of note, Little dives significantly into small blind raising strategy, as it presents the most unique circumstances going forward in the hand, since you’re guaranteed to be playing out of position. That said, this bit is somewhat irrelevant in a raked game, however, as the common practice of ‘chopping’ and pulling back your blinds is encouraged.

One key topic introduced in the ‘Pre-flop When Folded To’ video is the mathematical formula for Minimum Defence Frequency (MDF). Ever wonder why the Big Blind defends so liberally and hits those “Big Blind Specials” on you? Some guy drew out on you after you 3-bet him pre-flop? Well, those things happen because in a lot of situations, they’re correct to be doing so. Little references MDF throughout the series in a variety of situations.

Speaking of those 3-bet situations, MDF, pot odds, implied odds, opponent type, position, and more important concepts are all discussed in this section. Additional charts are provided as well, breaking down what percentage of hands you should be folding / calling / 4-betting. Again, there’s the caveat of considering your opponents’ style and stack sizes.

Pre-Flop Charts – Live Cash Games: Check out these fundamentally sound ranges for Raise First In, Raise First In vs 3-bet, and Facing Raise First In. This is the first step to becoming a winning player! #Poker #Coaching #Preflop https://t.co/LGnAd4qWPz pic.twitter.com/A0yzgvNr4E

— Jonathan Little (@JonathanLittle) September 30, 2019

For small stakes players, the section on ‘Facing Limpers’ will prove invaluable. It weighs in at a meaty 23 minutes – the second largest in the series, and it’s my favourite video of the entire Jonathan Little Cash Game Master Class.

Before taking this class, I was a firm believer in never limping, and always coming in for a raise. Far too often, however, despite my best intentions, I’d still be facing a flop four or five ways, thinking everyone else in the hand was making the mistakes, not me. Yes, players shouldn’t even be in the hand with Q2s from early position, but if they’re going to limp, then call a raise with a hand like that, you need to play accordingly. You’re making as big a mistake as them if you’re not adjusting! As such, I’ve incorporated more limping into my game when playing $1-2 / $1-3, and some $2-5 games, and seen a world of difference because of it.

The bulk of the section discusses the idea of ‘tricky’ limpers, (you know those guys who limp Aces and Kings UTG, hoping to backraise? Oh sneaky sneaky!) and of straightforward limpers who limp many of their hands that are predominantly garbage. It also breaks down how to play against one, or a series of limpers, how to play based on position, and what to defend with correctly if a raise comes in after you’ve limped.

I would suggest watching the entire series in order to get the best results, but if there is one section for small stakes players to check out first to immediately help their game, I recommend this one.

For games that aren’t super passive limp-fests, the next sections on facing raises (and raises and calls behind) in pots pre-flop will take care of what you need to know. Should you flat call or 3-bet? should you squeeze? What if someone else squeezes? These questions and plenty more will be answered, as most are, with: “well, it depends!” However, all the factors to take into consideration are discussed, most importantly – what are your opponent’s ranges?!

The remaining videos that deal with pre-flop play discuss how to play when the action is 3-bet or 4-bet in front of you. These sections are a bit smaller, as the lessons are quite brief, especially when it involves smaller stakes games. Spoiler: PLAY TIGHT! THEY’VE USUALLY GOT IT! Little does discuss taking player types and game dynamics into consideration, especially in higher stakes games. Yet, when it comes to the $1-2 and $2-5 games, erring on the side of ‘they’ve got it’ is usually the most prudent play, unless you really know your opponent is capable of creative shenanigans.

Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class: Flop Play

This section consists of six videos entitled: The Flop, Flop Examples, When To Bet Summary, When Facing A Flop Bet, Multi-way On The Flop, and Facing A Flop Raise

By now, hopefully students are adhering to Little’s mantra of developing a good pre-flop strategy, so when you get to the flop you can play reasonably well. If you play too much junk, you’re going to have more problems and tougher decisions to make.

The first of six videos on flop play is the longest, at almost 22 minutes, with opponent types, position, and the usual considerations discussed, but the introduction of range advantage and nut advantage considerations are a major talking point. In a nutshell, this section breaks down when and how much you should be betting based on who has the range and/or nut advantage. Far too many players blindly c-bet and play the flop without giving thought to these ideas. This video will teach you how to consider these factors, as well as to exploit players who don’t.

A video of examples incorporating the concepts discussed in the first video follows this up, using position-based ranges, not specific hands. There’s also a cool hand example that suggests a 1 BB c-bet on a J55 flop. (Plus how to consider MDF if someone tries it on you!)

Next up is the ‘When To Bet Summary’. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but it’s quality information based on basically every situation on the flop.

Those players who blindly fire out c-bets with minimal to no thought are discussed in the ‘When Facing A Flop Bet’ video. Your consideration of your opponent’s range is the key factor in constructing an optimal flop play. Are they polarized or linear? What are their tendencies? Who has the nut advantage? Who has the range advantage? There is a lot to consider when facing a flop bet, and if you take the time to do so and your opponents do not, chalk up another street of superior decision making to you!

Much like facing a pre-flop 4-bet in a small stakes game, simple straightforward play is suggested when it comes to playing multi-way on the flop. C-betting polarized ranges three ways can be done, but with four players or more contesting the hand, Little suggests reigning it in and not getting out of line.

There are plenty of talking points in this section, including consideration of your opponents’ ranges (as always), situations in which raising to clean up equity can be pulled off, and avoiding reverse implied odds!

There are also several examples provided with varying positions and flop textures to see these teachings at work.

The final video on flop play is what to do ‘when facing a raise’. Again, the assessment of your opponent’s range is the first factor to consider. The range / nut advantages, player type, blockers and the game’s stakes are all factors that can impact a player’s decision. That flop raise in a $1-2 game can mean something a whole lot different than in a higher stakes game.

Recognizing players who overvalue top pair and stack off against your superior hand is a huge money maker at the smaller stakes. However, not recognizing when your value bets are just dead to a player’s raising range can torch your bankroll.

As usual, accompanying examples support this section.

With a combined 15 videos on pre-flop and flop play, the amount of instruction is intense and truly effective. It’s impossible to give a complete breakdown of all the elements in these videos in a review. They really must be experienced to get the full gist of everything Little presents. Trust me though; these videos are the heart of the series and will set you up extremely well for play on the turn and river.

Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class: Turn Play

This section consists of two videos entitled: The Turn and Turn Examples

“The turn is not some mythical street where people get lost. It’s just one more betting round where the same concepts apply.”

Many players get lost on the turn and I’ll fully admit that I’ve been one. I remember very specifically following a losing session at The Mirage this summer coming away feeling very shaken about my turn (and river) decisions. I wrote a note to myself to study these streets more, so when the opportunity to take Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class came about, I was thrilled with how much confidence it instilled in my late street play.

The turn is just the next street in the hand, where if you’ve made good decisions leading up to this point in the hand, there’s really no reason you can’t keep making them and continue to play the hand confidently.

All the concepts discussed thus far also apply to the turn. Again, range analysis is a key factor, based on the actions on the flop, both heads-up and multi-way. What to do with and against polarized and linear ranges is also discussed.

Ultimately, Little suggests that the turn isn’t really that different than the flop. You just want to have fewer bluffs in your range, and you want to get closer to showdown with your marginal made hands.

The examples video follows up with an extension of the hands from earlier pre-flop and flop example videos, including the next steps in the 1 BB c-bet hand.

Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class: River Play

There’s just one video in this section, entitled The River. The first thing Little mentions in this video is that this is where most of the players “drown”. Yup.

If you’re playing well and polarized, you need to be giving up on some more of your bluffs. This was a HUGE hole in my game that I’ve worked on plugging. Far too often players (myself included) blindly think that if they’re bluffing when they get to the river, that third barrel has to be fired. Consideration of ranges be damned, I’m getting that bluff through! Nope. Bye-bye money.

That said, exploiting weak opponents on the river can be done with proper bet sizing if you have a good feel for their tendencies. Against competent opponents, however, Little stresses the importance of balance and considering MDF.

I was wowed by how much depth there can be to river play. We’re going to be counting combos, thinking about blockers, and doing some math here, especially when it comes to reaching the river with a polarized range. More topics include overbetting (you might be surprised how profitable this can be in small stakes live games, as I’ve recently discovered), betting for thin value, bluffs, and multi-way situations.

Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class: Full Hand Examples

Again, just one video in this section, but this is the time to put everything we’ve learned together. This video contains over 30 minutes of full hand examples. Tons of hands, start to finish. GTO and exploitatively, it’s all here.

Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class: Last Lessons

This final section includes seven videos entitled: Shallow Stacked Play, Deep Stacked Play, Short-Handed Play, Straddled Pots, Bankroll Management, Other Topics, and Final Thoughts.

Now that we’ve given our game an overhaul, it’s time to discuss some other issues that can come into play.

First up are tips on short stack and deep stack play. To be fair, these sections may not be seen as overly groundbreaking by more experienced players, but hearing how Little expands on the ideas is certainly worthwhile.

The shallow stacked section (sub 40 BB) discusses the increased value of high cards, the decreased value of hands with implied odds, and the underrated value of fold equity. This is well elaborated on with a formula showing just how profitable it can be to shove versus a late position raise.

The deep stacked section (100 BB +) discusses the increased value of hands with implied odds that can make the nuts, and how suited connectors that make marginal flushes and straights can win, but are often overrated.

The differences between lower- and higher-stakes games are also discussed. It’s far less likely in a low-stakes game that an opponent is piling in money with a nut blocker type hand. Again though, know your opponent!

Another series of examples is provided, including one that shows the problems with suited connectors if the pot starts getting huge.

The video on short-handed play is the shortest in the series because, really, there are only a couple of considerations to make. As the table gets shorter, you’re just eliminating the early position player ranges (UTG, UTG+1 etc). Also, many players adjust incorrectly (either playing too loose, or too tight – if they still give the first player to act an early position range!)

Next is a section on straddling. I loved this video for no other reason than that I share Little’s beliefs on straddling: we both hate it! There really is no strategic benefit to straddling, other than wanting to play bigger and gamble more. If others want to do it, fine, let them; but now we’re going to be ready to play well against them.

Button straddling is more reasonable, but it’s bad for the game, and especially for the blinds because now they are essentially playing UTG and UTG +1. You don’t want them folding out their garbage hands because of that. You want them contesting the pot!

I’ll include a fun story with regards to this, as it can be instructive. Recently I played in a game where the whole table had to agree to allow a player to button straddle. I sat in the SB, to the direct left of a player who wanted to do this. I was the only person to object, which they did not take kindly to. The player was already quite obnoxious, and despite my efforts to calmly explain the logic behind my protesting, they decided to go to war with me verbally and on the felt. As this had tilted the player so surprisingly much, I was able to take advantage of their reckless aggression against me and stack them three times in an hour!

via GIPHY

To recap: Don’t straddle. Learn to counter the straddle.

Proper bankroll management is a topic many recreational players either don’t adhere to, or if they do, have many questions about. Different people will have different opinions on how many buy-ins you should have to play at a certain level, which Little does, but he also incorporates winrate into calculating what you should be playing. Shot taking and when to move up are discussed (when your bankroll is 1.5x what you should have to comfortably be playing your current level, you can safely move up or take a shot). Little also stresses having discipline with your bankroll. Do not press your risk of ruin if variance has gotten the better of you at your current level. Suck it up, work on your game and move down! I unfortunately had to do this recently, but thanks to this course I’m moving back up.

The penultimate section is a collection of other topics that Little touches on briefly such as game selection, seat selection, what makes for a “good” game, rake, room promotions, buy-in sizing, mindset, and tells. Of note in the tells section is his recommendation of Zachary Elwood’s collection of books/videos on the topic.

LEARN MORE: Reading Poker Tells Video Series

Finally, Little wraps up the series with a thank you and a few last tips and reminders. If you’ve made it here and watched all 30 videos, congratulations, and get excited for what’s coming to you at the tables!

Jonathan Little’s Cash Game Master Class: Worth the Price!

I’ve always been a fan of Jonathan Little’s teachings, but I honestly can’t say that any poker course or training tool I’ve ever studied has had such an immediate positive impact on my game like this Cash Game Master Class has.

I know my graph with which I started out this course review only presents a very small sample size, and a lot had to go well (and not go wrong) for that largest-ever win I scored. Yet, a lot of what I’ve learned from this course has helped me maximize profit and minimize loss in situations I previously wouldn’t have. At the end of a session, knowing I’m leaving a winner has been nice, but above all I’ve been truly satisfied and confident in how I played and the decisions I’ve made.

With that said, I’m glad to once again be moving up in stakes, knowing my game is better than it’s ever been. Yours can be too. It’s just a couple of clicks away at Pokercoaching.com.

As Jonathan has been pumping out training content for years, it’s near impossible to keep track of, let alone ingest, every article / video / webinar he’s provided. There’s a lot.

So, when I was tasked to write a review of one his latest video series, ‘25k Platinum Coaching Sessions’, I was eager, curious, and to be honest a bit skeptical. I mean, I didn’t really expect to learn anything I didn’t already know. But I’m not necessarily who the program is intended for. Yet here I was, plowing through the 6+ hours of videos and being wowed by just how many theories both fundamental and advanced are provided.

Get the 25K Platinum Coaching Sessions module now: available as part of a $99 coaching bundle!

The concept for the series is Little’s coaching of Nikhil Segel, a recreational player from India who won a Platinum Pass from then-PokerStars ambassador Jaime Staples for the site’s incredible Players Championship held earlier this year ahead of the PCA in the Bahamas. The tournament would be the largest $25k buy in tournament in poker history, with over 300 players winning entries through various means courtesy of PokerStars, along with over 700 more who put up the $25k themselves.

The mission: convert Nikhil from a (by his own admission) rank amateur who primarily played freerolls and microstakes tournaments into a contender for life-changing money in the biggest tournament of his life. No biggie.

The 15-video series is a progression of the duo’s work together, and at its core is a series of hand history breakdowns (with Nikhil’s input throughout), but given Nikhil’s inexperience, Little has to try to drill as much into his student as quickly and thoroughly as possible. And believe me, there’s a lot! As I mentioned, I was wowed, and at times, Nikhil said he was a bit overwhelmed.

Let’s get into it.

Section 1 (videos 1-4): We’ve got work to do

The first hand we see is our student open-raising 27x in a SB vs BB situation. Yup, work to do.

We’re going to have to dial back these raise sizes

This is where my skepticism as an experienced poker player kicked in. I was expecting to see all sorts of random nonsense that Little would have to just turn into basic ABC poker instruction, but silly me, this is one of poker’s best coaches we’re talking about and he’s not going to dumb this down. Sure enough, 17 minutes later after completing the first video, the skepticism was gone, and the eagerness and curiosity took over as I couldn’t wait to see where this journey went.

Aside from hand 1, there certainly were some big holes that needed addressing immediately including bet sizing, limping and starting hand selection (you’ll want to fire any Ace-x hand you ever see again across a room before this is done) to name a few.

But as I said, Little doesn’t hold back, and by the end of video 1 of the 25K Platinum Coaching sessions those topics have been addressed, along with:

• considering your play based on player types
• an opponent taking the lead on a paired turn card
• river calls based on bluff vs. value combos
• playing suited connectors and board coverage
• blind play vs. different player types
• C-betting ace-high boards
• river bluffs on a scary run-out
• maximizing value with premium hands
• fold equity
• medium pairs pre-flop vs. a raise and a 3-bet shove
• betting for value vs. protection, and (most importantly)
• practicing like you’re playing the $25k and not a freeroll!

Each of the 15 videos is like this. Almost every hand Nikhil plays is analysed and critiqued accordingly.

Video 2 introduces some staples of poker training, Pokerstrategy.com’s Equilab program, and a pair of resources from Little’s Float the Turn site, his push/fold app, and fold equity calculator.

Little takes Nikhil’s propensity for playing Ace-x and breaks down the numbers for it in a few situations, with all results showing that Ace-x (with a non-shove stack) is generally garbage.

With the help of the push/fold app, charts, and fold equity calculator, Little emphasizes the importance of shoving or folding instead of calling in spots with hands like QJ.

Along with the introduction of these tools of the trade, several other concepts are discussed as well, including 3-bet sizing and calling ranges vs. a 3-bet.

Videos 3 and 4 continue with Nikhil’s first set of pre-coaching hand histories. Several more key situations are discussed including play from the blinds, as well as a spot where he obviously should be playing the Ace-x. There are also a couple of fun hands discussing pocket aces, and when you should slow play to induce bluffs and get max value.

This first section is really about examining Nikhil’s level of play, giving him the groundwork to be more successful in the tournaments he plays regularly, and to have a shot in the $25k event. Plenty of concepts you will know, but examining how someone of Nikhil’s skill level plays and presenting a higher level of thought to him by Little is very intriguing.

Section 2 (Videos 5-7): Let’s see what you’ve learned

The next 3 videos contain hand histories following Little’s first series of coaching sessions with Nikhil. Video 5 begins with an update from Nikhil, saying he’s working on trying to be tighter, with no more limping and not playing Ace-x (we’ll see about that…). Nikhil also says he still has concerns about his bet sizing, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, so let’s see how Little’s coaching is kicking in, shall we?

Immediately, we see that Nikhil’s hand selection is better, with a lot of trouble hands like KJo, QTo being played much more prudently by recognizing the strength of an early position raiser and folding.

His open-raise sizing is generally better as well with a few exceptions, notably in the small blind, where Little stresses the importance of increasing the sizing, given that you do not want to give the big blind pot odds to call, then having to play the hand out of position.

Flop bet sizing and board texture is also addressed in a couple of spots. Nikhil’s sizing in general is better, but he has the potential to get himself into trouble on highly coordinated boards that are likely to have hit his opponent’s range (see example below).

Now since the fundamentals are generally improving, how about we throw some high-level stuff in there to spice things up a bit? Little introduces an advanced play from the big blind, 3-betting ragged suited aces, kings and queens, then C-betting small on the flop! Yup, lots of fun things you can do in the blinds and here’s one of them!

Also, since we’ve got most of the issues out of the way with regards to weak aces and limping, now it’s time to introduce spots where it’s OK to do just that. The power of position!

Nikhil’s play shows improvement (“a million times better from the first session”, Little compliments), but there are still plenty of lessons to learn in this section, notably a couple of hard ones in post-flop play with suited connectors. Nikhil tends to overplay marginal made hands, which will be a point Little takes great care of working with him on throughout the series.

Section 3 (Video 8) An update from Nikhil / Overload

The 8th video of the 25K Platinum Coaching series stands on its own as an update on Nikhil’s mindset as the tournament approaches. It’s a good discussion on not overwhelming yourself and adding on unnecessary pressure.

Little goes through his student’s lengthy email, where he illustrates the amount of study and preparation he’s undergoing, including a breakdown of ‘strategies’ he’s preparing for the tournament. It’s obvious Nikhil is taking the upcoming tournament very seriously, but Little suggests he may be overwhelming himself with the amount of work he’s doing not only with him, but with other coaching sites. Little’s advice is to just prepare as best he can and play solid fundamental poker.

Another great point about mindset is brought up as Nikhil suggests several times that if he’s feeling overwhelmed or tilted at the table he will walk away and take a break. Little acknowledges this can be good at certain times, but with the amount of instances Nikhil suggests he’d leave, he’d be better to just sit there and “be sane” in most of them. Cooling off can be beneficial but missing too many hands would be detrimental.

Section 4 (Videos 9-11) 1 Month to go / old habits die hard

With the $25k fast approaching and Nikhil showing signs of mental fatigue from his hard work, some bad habits creep back into his game that Little must squash as he also adds to his student’s preparation.

Some poor hand selection and irregular pre-flop raise sizing pop up again, but post-flop play is where most of the work still needs to be done.

Nikhil’s post-flop tendencies to bet in poor spots or bet too large — allowing his opponents to play perfectly, while missing value in others — is really highlighted here. He tends to open himself up to getting blown off his hand too often when he should be looking to get to showdown (as illustrated below).

These situations are addressed and worked through very well with several situations showing a check-raise to be the optimal play (while others illustrate why it’s definitely not). This section will help any player with their post-flop game.

Video 11 deals primarily with short stack play and situations late in a tournament. Little wraps up this section acknowledging small blind raise sizing, short stack push/fold decisions and the marginal made hand trouble need to be worked on. As we get to the home stretch, let’s see what improvements are made.

Section 5 (Video 12) Standalone 6-handed tourney

The 12th video of the 25K Platinum Coaching series stands on its own as a 40-minute training session in shorthanded play as Nikhil navigates his way through a 6-max tournament.

In an email at the beginning, he acknowledges his concerns about regression, noting a recent series of bad results. Little tries to calm his fears with a reminder of how high-variance tournament poker is in general.

Adjustments when playing 6-handed are discussed throughout this video, hand selection will be somewhat looser, stats will appear wilder, but really 6-max is just like full ring with UTG, +1 and +2 removed.

That said, there’s still no excuse for what we see below, a stone bluff with air into a horror show of a board that could prove disastrous for our student!

Section 6 (Videos 13-15) Hard work pays off!

The final section of videos is a hand history of a tournament Nikhil wins shortly before he heads to the Bahamas. The main theme of this lesson is ‘take advantage of the mistakes your opponents will make’! Granted, this is still a micro stakes tournament, but the work Nikhil has put in shows, as he outplays his opponents and capitalizes on their egregious errors (see below).

One caveat – Ace-x still rears it’s ugly head and Little must implore him once more about the problems with reverse implied odds this hand can cause (“ask yourself, would you play K7o? The answer’s just no!”).

It is great to see how Nikhil has improved and how Little’s teachings have influenced his game. The final video deals with final table play, pressuring your opponents, more push/fold situations and ICM considerations.

Of course, there’s nothing like heading to the biggest tournament of your life coming off the high of a victory and seeing the fruits of your labour.

Jonathan Little’s 25k Platinum Coaching Series: Worth the Price?

As I mentioned at the outset of this review, I was skeptical about what I may or may not learn from this video series. Now having watched the entire series, not only was I reminded of concepts that had maybe slid out of my game, but plenty more were introduced as well. The combo of a bombardment of information along with the story of Nikhil Segel’s progression throughout these lessons make for a tremendous training tool for poker players of all skill levels.

In summary, Jonathan Little’s 25k Platinum series is certainly one of the finest hand history training sessions available.

Epilogue

So I bet you’re wondering how Nikhil did at the PSPC in the Bahamas?!

He made it to day 2 with over 90,000 in chips from a starting stack of 60,000. However, his run ended there, but not in sadness as he called it “the best possible experience” and “one of the best days of his life”. Now if you don’t make the money, that’s about the best consolation prize you can get.

Busted #myultimatesweat ends. But I’m not sad. This has been the best possible experience thanks for all the love. @PokerStarsIN @PokerStars @PokerStarsBlog

— Nikhil Segel (@NikhilSegel) January 7, 2019

“We built a platform recently where you can give group training sessions in a new fun way. The main idea is that the trainer gives the session to six students simultaneously. While the students play one against another at a 6-max table, you can watch them play (they are able to play random or custom hands) while the coach can see all the cards. There is an audio conference call running in the background, so everybody at the table can hear each other. After each hand the coach can give the players feedback about how they played, ask questions and even show the ranges table.”

Simple, Intuitive User Experience

Moran then invited me to create a table the following weekend, so I could try it out. I was nervous doing so, but as I quickly discovered, there was no need to fear. Poker Castle is so easy to use both from the coach’s and students’ perspectives. My fears fell away as soon as Moran gave me a walk-through of the software. As a Mechanical Designer, I have always appreciated not only form and function, but simplicity. Basically, I want something that helps me do a job more easily, I want it to look cool, and I only want it to do what I need it to do, nothing more and nothing less.

Poker Castle is unique in that it has combined a few critical poker learning tools into one software interface. I can create a table and I have everything I need to coach poker and generate some income, or alternatively, I can log on as a student and learn from some great coaches; all without ever having to leave the comfort of my couch!

First-Rate Coaching

When a student first logs in to Poker Castle for a training session, the coach greets everyone and the students then introduce themselves one at a time, each giving a quick rundown of their poker experience up until that point. The coaches are top-notch, friendly, and understand that not every student is at the same level. As such, to properly tailor the coaching, they ask each student specifically what aspects of poker strategy they wish to focus on.

I was so fortunate to sit in on a session with Michael Niwinski who is a professional poker player and coach best known for finishing in 15th place at the 2016 WSOP Main Event for just over $427,000!

This kid Mike Niwinski is lovably nerdy. Hard not to root for him. @WSOP

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) October 22, 2016

I had never had the opportunity to be coached before, and Michael has savoir-faire. In one hour he helped take my 3-betting game from neutral to top gear, plus I got schooled in some of the finer points of bet sizing that I had never considered before. Where else are you going to get a coaching session with someone of that caliber for $30 an hour? The answer is nowhere! Rather, you are likely going to have to pay in the $200-$300 per hour range anywhere else.

Class Is Now In Session

When the time came for me to log on and coach my first session on Poker Castle, my nerves had already been settled by Moran’s encouragement and the overview she had given me. I was ready and excited, as this was to be only my second poker coaching experience.

My students logged on, introduced themselves, and summed up what they were hoping to get out of the session. I introduced myself, rattled off my poker history and background, and we were ready to begin.

As a coach, you can program in custom hands to Poker Castle’s software to work through if you want to set up specific situations that a student may wish to work on. My first time out of the gate I didn’t exercise this option; rather I opted to take advantage of the random hand generator. I clicked the button to start and BANG, we were off to the races. It sounds cliché to say, but from there on in the rest almost seemed like a blur. Our 60-minute poker coaching session was up before we knew it and we were all saying our goodbyes. I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I am a somewhat of an extreme introvert, so I was both relieved to have been done and excited to have completed the session successfully with what appeared to be a group of satisfied students. On the other hand, I was also left wanting to repeat the experience; it was so much fun!

Poker Castle coaching session

Moran had been watching the session “behind the scenes” and I was anxious to hear her thoughts on how it went. My anxiety gave way to elation when the next day she emailed me with the proverbial “thumbs up” and mentioned that she had gotten positive feedback from a couple of the students in the session. What a great feeling… plus, I had made $30! In retrospect, the entire experience was just a ton of fun. I can’t wait to log on, create a table, and do it all over again.

In A Nutshell

When all is said and done, Poker Castle gives you the opportunity to get $200-$300 per hour of coaching value at the rock bottom price of around $30 per hour. It’s a groundbreaking concept, disrupting the known methods of poker coaching and creating something new and unique in the field. For coaches, too, this gives you a brand new, highly intuitive way to share your knowledge as well as create a new revenue stream.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a new kid on the block in the poker training sphere and, if I were a betting man (which I am), I’d say that Poker Castle is positioned to be a clear and decisive standout in the market. There’s always talk of “the next big thing” in poker study – well, for my money, Poker Castle is it!

Seeing these guys sitting down in front of their computers and multi-tabling day in and day out brought the idea from abstract to reality for me. Seeing them do it made it feel possible and gave me the extra oomph I needed to press on in my pursuit. It also gave me ideas and strategies I hadn’t read about in a typical poker strategy book. One of the ideas came from an episode where the guys were on the struggle bus and went on a serious down slide. They were posting significant losses as a group for several sessions over a week or so.

The strategy they used to get out of the red and back into the black was to take on a poker student and coach them. The idea was that coaching someone brings you back to basics and grounds you back into foundational poker strategy principles that you may have gotten complacent about. It is easy to slip into default mode when we’re just so used to playing on autopilot. I wanted to avoid doing that, so I decided to investigate the brand new and exciting world of poker coaching.

Illustrative image: That’s not really what a poker coach does!

I Can Coach Poker… I Think

My plan has ROI in a few different ways: it should help with my tendency to hide away like a hermit, it is a cash gig, and I get the benefits from freshening up on my poker fundamentals. That is a win-win-win! I placed the ad on Craigslist a month or so ago and had one victim, er, I mean student, respond. I kid because I honestly wasn’t even sure I had the credentials to coach someone. I have looked into getting a poker coach before and their credentials are extensive. Most of the coaches that I looked up are they themselves professionals who had boasted $100,000+ online winnings, a book deal, and had already worked with hundreds of students.

Then there’s me. By contrast, I have not yet made my acquaintance with the Hendon Mob, and I have zero students under my belt. I do, however, have one awesome accolade: I am humbled to say that I am a contributor to one of the greatest poker blogs out there! So, I have that, and that’s a big deal. (Editor’s note: I swear I did not pay Shannon to say that!) I may not have written any books, but I have read quite a few and have had the privilege and opportunity to write reviews for them right here at Cardplayer Lifestyle.

I remember when I first started looking into playing poker more seriously I read an article about what steps to take and it stressed the importance of reading books, watching videos, and doing off-the-felt work. Indeed, I have also had the opportunity to review several amazing video series and I studied every hand that those videos were dissecting. It was a lot of hard work. After all, off-the-table study can get nitty gritty, just like that article I had read said it would. Yet, here I am five years later ready and gearing up to do some poker coaching for the first time!

All Prepped and Ready to Go

I am ready to go, I feel confident I have the knowledge to teach someone how to play better poker and I have a student all lined up. Now the question is… can I teach!? It is one thing to have the information, it is another thing to be equipped to relay that information well. I felt like I was equipped to teach poker from some prior experience I have training people at work. I knew being organized was going to be key. I had read enough books to see a common pattern emerge of a good general order of concepts that build well on one another. I highlighted the concepts laid out in a couple books, wrote down key formulas, and printed out resources in order. I have a list of websites and some reputable hand analysis forums, as well as recommendations for some great software, like Equilab, that are key to studying poker.

Equilab by @enpokerstrategy made our best #poker software list w/equity calculation tools: https://t.co/AqAwELBn1A pic.twitter.com/sDNO0DM952

— Red Chip Poker (@RedChipPoker) March 21, 2018

So, the only thing left was just the execution. A person can only be so prepared, you just have to jump in and do it. The real learning always comes from experience. Well, experience and a feedback loop. It’s important to get feedback from the person to see what worked and what didn’t work. You can have your own ideas of things you should have done differently, but having someone else’s input is invaluable to really round off the process.

Meeting My First Student, Jeff

As mentioned, I had posted an ad in Craigslist a few months ago advertising that I was open for business and looking to take on poker students for a whopping $25 for a two-hour session. I landed on $25 because it was my first time. I didn’t want to go with free because then it wouldn’t have any value, and I believe I did have a product that was worth paying a little money for. I even included a guarantee that “after one two-hour session your game would be improved or your money back.”

I have seen coaching go for as little as $75 an hour up to $200 an hour. I know that world-class poker professionals can charge even more! I had pretty much forgot I had posted the ad when I got a response from a gentleman named Jeff Diedrich. At first, I thought it was a hoax. Really, your name is Diedrich!? What a perfect poker name (reread it slowly if you don’t get it). So, we scheduled a time and place at a local coffee shop. When the day finally came after a couple reschedules due to some winter weather here in Minnesota, I was very nervous.

pic.twitter.com/FO589c8sln

— Mack (@__MACK____) August 17, 2017

Self Assessment of My First Coaching Session

I am a pro at not showing outwardly that I am nervous after dealing with being an introvert for all these years, but it sometimes does come out via some of the ridiculous things that I say. I get flustered and if there is silence I fill the void with whatever random thing pops out. I didn’t feel I did too badly. At one point I said to C-bet every time no matter what. Right after the words came out of my mouth I said to myself “that isn’t right.” Jeff even asked, “I am supposed to C-bet every single time?” When I said “no,” you could just see the confusion all over poor Jeff’s face. I had to backpedal and clarify that from what I have learned, 70% is the frequency we want to C-bet at. Besides that, I think I did alright except that rather than follow the step-by-step template that I had prepared, I just shot from the hip. So yeah, I learned quite a bit from that experience.

All in all, I think I got out of it everything I wanted to get out of my first poker coaching session. I asked Jeff what he thought, and he remarked, “Yes, it was helpful. You answered a lot of questions and helped me with a new aspect of poker. I’ve just been working on betting the correct amount. We will have to plan another lesson soon.” So, there you have it; I got a return customer!

Overall Lessons

Even if you aren’t ready to take on a student and do some poker coaching I recommend getting together with some like-minded people to talk poker. Like I mentioned earlier, coaching or just talking poker and going over past hands with some friends really solidifies those strategies that work for you and weeds out those leaks.

A great quote I love is “Practice makes permanent.” Basically, if you don’t talk about what you are doing at the table with someone or post hands in forums, you are going to solidify incorrect strategies. Another quote I love is, “If you can’t spot who the fish is, you are the fish.”

The moral of the story, boys and girls, is to do what you have to do to get to the next level; read the books, watch the videos, participate in forums, study your hand history using software like Equilab, and get together with people and talk poker. Or you can do what I did and coach someone! From just that one experience I was able to hit the tables even harder and really dominate with authority… and you can do the same!