Pokercode Charity Event to Stream Live on Twitch

Pokercode’s exclusive Charity Event will take place at 6pm Central European Time (5pm GMT) so the world will be able to watch, join in and donate, too. With a livestream throughout via

Pokercode’s official Twitch page anyone who tunes in and donates will be delighted to know that Pokercode will match donations (via PayPal) to a total of €2,000.

Alongside the charity donations is an exclusive freeroll Home Game tournament. Every poker player loves something for nothing and the free-to-play event takes place on ClubGG, which is available in almost every territory out there.

With special guests appearing throughout the live stream, Fedor Holz’s hosting skills will be on show as the site he co-owns with Austrian high roller Matthias Eibinger explains what they’ll be up to in 2023 and beyond.

Join Fedor Holz for a special charity home game and play against the High Stakes boss himself

Don’t miss out!

– https://t.co/iCG0oufXpf pic.twitter.com/gsm8mo3L2B

— Pokercode (@_pokercode) December 19, 2022

How to Play the Pokercode Freeroll Home Game

Anyone who has already downloaded the ClubbGG software can register for the tournament right now within the lobby. Pokercode, who offer advice and tips such as their bankroll advice on their website are not only a site for great players to become elite. They help any regular Joe or Jane improve their game and the Home Game this Monday is a great opportunity to make it count.

If you’ve not downloaded ClubGG yet, you can do so via the GGPoker website, by joining the Pokercode Club by using the ID: 970951. When you’ve done that, register for the Freeroll Home Game and join in the Pokercode Discord group. Simply post the name you play under on ClubGG in the Nickname thread and you’ll be ready to play. You can also use the password ‘Charity’ to register for the Freeroll too.

ClubGG is a play money poker client, and therefore since you can’t lose any money, it should be available virtually anywhere. You can register an account via the ClubGG website at any time. The Discord regiatration is vital for anyone who wins, because that’s where Pokercode will head in order to pay you your winnings!

Meet Fedor and Chat Poker

Even if you don’t feel like playing the game but still want to take part, that’s cool too. If you’re a poker fan who wants to be in the known without having to sit down at the live or virtual felt, you’re just as important to Pokercode and ClubGG. You can simply pull up the Twitch stream, introduce yourself to Fedor and his special guests throughout the evening and watch what happens at the table when the action kicks off!

December is a really busy month on Pokercode, with a packed schedule of lessons, coaching and of course this special Charity Event night which will see the livestream and chat action go into the night. Since 2019, Pokercode was formed as a way to help poker players improve their games, but it has since turned into something way bigger, with the Pokercode Stream Team starting in 2020 during the pandemic.

Since live poker returned in a big way in 2021, Pokercode has been at the forefront of some key developments in the post-GTO landscape of the game. As Holz himself has said, “We believe people who are passionate about the game in the format of tournaments should be in one pool,” we believe people who are passionate about the game in the format of tournaments should be in one pool.”

Tonight’s Charity stream and tournament both represent a different way new players are both being welcomed and listened to by one of the most progressive brands out there.

For the seventh consecutive year, Cardplayer Lifestyle is proud to do precisely that by offering you, our readers, this Holiday Gift Guide for Poker Players. As always, there’s a lot to give thanks for. I, for one, am grateful to continue this annual tradition as I look back on what’s thankfully been another successful year both personally and professionally.

We always try to put together an eclectic mix of poker-themed products, services, and paraphernalia, and this year was no exception. In the guide below you’ll find a number of new, creative entries on our list as well as some annual stalwarts with top-tier wares to proffer.

Whether you’re looking for the perfect gift for your poker-loving partner or, alternatively, just want to treat yourself to something nice, be sure to take advantage!

We hope you enjoy this year’s guide!

SKIP TO: 1. D&B POKER BOOKS | 2. THE GTO+ RANGES APP BY RED CHIP POKER | 3. CUSTOM ENAMEL POKER PINS | 4. POKERCODE | 5. BBO POKER TABLES | 6. RUN IT ONCE TRAINING | 7. HALL OF FAME POKER ROOM | 8. RUNGOODGEAR APPAREL | 9. THE POKER COURSES VAULT | 10. POKERGO SUBSCRIPTION |

D&B POKER BOOKS

D&B Poker is the leading poker book, ebook, and audiobook publisher in the world. With over 40 poker books in print, many others in production and 19 audiobooks, D&B is where poker players go when they want the highest quality content, written by the most respected authors in the poker world.

Some of their bestsellers are pictured and described below.

Modern Poker Theory – acclaimed by many as the best poker book ever written, Modern Poker Theory, has made an impact that few poker books ever have. this truly remarkable book is the ultimate guide to no-limit hold’em poker based on GTO principles.

Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker: The Essential Guide – a landmark in poker publishing and undoubtedly THE definitive guide to tournament poker.

The 100 Biggest Mistakes that Poker Players Make – written by highly experienced professional player and leading poker coach, Alexander “Assassinato” Fitzgerald.

Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em – Jonathan Little constructs a basic strategy to crush small stakes games and also identifies the adjustments that need to be made when facing more competent opposition.

Mastering Small Stakes Pot-Limit Omaha – a thoroughly comprehensive guide that will give you all the tools you need to gain a huge edge at lower stakes play.

Jonathan Little’s Excelling at Tough No-Limit Hold’em Games – a must-have book if you have ambitions to move up the stakes.

Mastering Small Stakes Cash Games – Renowned poker coach Evan Jarvis shows you how you can achieve your goals to become a better cash player.

D&B books can be purchased through all retailers. Their books, ebooks, videos and audiobooks can be purchased directly from their website: D&B Poker

All of the company’s books make for excellent stocking stuffers, so be sure to treat yourself to some of their finest, most popular titles this holiday season.

THE GTO+ RANGES APP BY RED CHIP POKER

Not all preflop ranges are created equal. Solid GTO poker charts are both complex to set up and costly to run, and that’s before trying to visualize them!

This is why the team at Red Chip Poker spent more than a year developing The GTO Poker Ranges App. This app was released in 2022 with a complete suite of preflop ranges for 6max and live cash game players, along with tournament ranges – and the app has only gotten better.

Since launching, Red Chip added the “world’s-first” most complex live GTO solve allowing for multiple callers which took the server multiple months to compute running 24/7 on a custom server with 2TB of RAM (not a typo!). There have also been two additional tournament GTO solves added for both 40bb and 60bb stack depths.

Red Chip’s server is still running and there are new ranges slated to be released in 2023, including solves for straddle pots and additional tournament ranges too. The free version of the app includes all open-raising ranges, and the paid version gets you everything from preflop calls to 3-bets to 5-betting ranges.

Learn more about The GTO Poker Ranges App here, or search for it in your Android or Apple app store.

CUSTOM ENAMEL POKER PINS with FREE DESIGN SERVICE

Poker is a way of life, not just a hobby or a career. If you have a friend or relative who loves to play poker, or earns a full-time living at it, honing in on multiple poker tables or online poker rooms every night, often sacrificing money, comfort, and sleep in pursuit of their dreams, they’re very important to the World Series of Poker. As much as the rest of us focus on the Super Bowl, the World Cup, or the Oscars.

The ideal gift for poker players is not only to express their passion but also to make a stressful lifestyle easier, more fun, and more comfortable. High-grade customized lapel pins – these have a unique process of hand sanding to a glossy finish. Besides the delicate surface, the enamel is vibrant, giving people a sense of noble luxury. The price is also very affordable. This material is widely used in the company’s high-end pins, high-end commemorative pins, high-end collection pins, etc.

GS-JJ.com is an enamel pin manufacturer with 20 years of production experience. Order No Minimum Hard Enamel Pins from them and enjoy the best quality and factory direct prices. Custom enamel pins made by them are of the highest quality and are made exactly to your specifications. Card dice and poker chip pins as well as a variety of hobby and interest pins support a free design service. Let them make your poker tournament and personalized card pins, allowing your recipient to add a sign of his/her passion for poker to the pin, perfect for poker players, poker tournaments, or event volunteers!

POKERCODE

Treat yourself during the holiday season and take your game to the next level with Pokercode. The mastermind behind this powerful all-in-one poker solution is none-other than Fedor Holz.

Pokercode is way more than just a poker course. It combines all the building blocks of successful poker in one place: Premium poker content, live coaching by some of the game’s best, excellent ranges, and at the heart of it all access to the exclusive Pokercode community.

On their buzzing Discord server, you can talk strategy with thousands of members and take on challenges to drill preflop and postflop spots. You can also take part in community events and free home games (with nice prizes). But most importantly, you have direct access to your mentors Fedor Holz, Matthias Eibinger, and Steffen Sontheimer.

You can fuel your poker development with not one but two top-of-the-line masterclasses. Tournament poker is covered by strategy wizards Eibinger and Holz, whose track records speak for themselves. Cash games are taught via a unique holistic approach designed by Sontheimer, the Purple Jacket Winner who has been crushing the games for years.

Everything is rounded out by multiple world-class live coaching sessions every month, which range from streamlining your fundamentals to taking a deep dive into advanced concepts. Pokercode covers both online and live play, regular tournaments, and knock-out formats to give you an all-around poker education to excel in every area.

BBO POKER TABLES

The ultimate thoughtful and lasting holiday gift for the poker player in your life is a personalized BBO poker table. BBO is the leader in customized poker tables and their tables are guaranteed to invoke table envy!

Choose from the largest selection of armrest materials, custom layouts, and accessories to create your own dream poker table, hand-built in Las Vegas. They are the only poker table company that offers free shipping and a lifetime guarantee and have been powering unforgettable poker nights for over 15 years.

Your BBO poker table will utilize exclusive materials and can even feature customized layouts as well as hi-tech built-in USB chargers. They’ve been recognized as the premier supplier to many of the biggest names and events in poker, including the World Poker Tour!

They are currently running holiday specials for a very limited time so head over to BBOpokertables.com and build a dream table for the special poker player in your life, or for yourself!

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RUN IT ONCE TRAINING

If you want to start taking your game seriously in 2023 you’ll find everything you need to back up your commitment at Run It Once Training. Launched in 2012 by high stakes legend Phil Galfond, Run It Once has always been the place for dedicated poker players to advance to the next level and stay ahead of their opponents.

The slogan ‘Train With the Best’ doesn’t only reflect that you’ll learn from the highest tier coaches like 2022 Main Event Champion Espen Jorstad, Kevin Rabichow, or Phil Galfond himself. It also means you’ll benefit from a community of students that have the highest aspirations in poker and are often professional players themselves.

Members of Run It Once Training Plans get access to an expansive library of over 7,200 training videos, with two brand new videos every single day to make sure you’re always learning the newest strategies. No matter which form of poker you play or which area of your game you need to work on, Run It Once has you covered.

Just starting out in poker or want to transition to a new game format? Run It Once Courses were specifically designed for new players who want to start learning poker from the beginning, the right way. The courses follow a carefully crafted learning journey until you have the proper foundation you need to expand your game to the highest levels.

Want to give yourself or loved ones a special gift? For a limited time, you can now save $200 on a full year of the Run It Once Elite membership while also locking in a bonus gift and the chance to get your play reviewed by a Run It Once Pro.

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HALL OF FAME POKER ROOM HORSESHOE LAS VEGAS

The Hall of Fame Poker Room at Horseshoe Las Vegas, home of the World Series of Poker, features 18 tables and offers many exciting varieties of live poker suited for the recreational poker player or the seasoned veteran.

You are sure to find your favorite with games ranging from $1-$3 to $5-$10 No-Limit Hold’em, $3/$6 and $4/$8 Limit Hold’em as well as Pot Limit Omaha and Omaha Eight or Better.

Our High Hand Madness promotion pays $200 every 20 minutes for the highest hand of that period of time.

Players earn $1 per hour and 17 tier credits for $1/$3 No-Limit Hold’em and $3/$6 Limit Hold’em, or double that at $2 per hour and 34 tier credits for any game $2/$3 No-Limit Hold’em and above.

Test your luck with six exciting tournament times daily, highlighted by our Horseshoe Saturday Special with a $5,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Call 702-976-4403 and get your name on the Hall of Fame Poker Room waiting list this holiday season.

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RUNGOODGEAR APPAREL

RunGoodGear is poker’s premier clothing line for apparel both on and off the felt. Based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and founded by Tana Karn in 2012, our clothing line goes hand-in-hand with the two-time Global Poker Award-winning RunGood Poker Series, where we do regular apparel giveaways to some of our events.

We carry your favorite items including our ultra soft flagship RUNGOOD Classic tees in a multitude of colors and sizes up to 4XL, priced at $20 across the board for all sizes (some long sleeve T-shirt options are available as well). We also stock a variety of sweatshirts including hoodies, crewnecks, full zips, and quarter zips in plenty of colors and styles that are all priced at $50. Our hats are a top-selling item and we have both flex-fit and snapback mesh back trucker cap options, and those are $25.

We pride ourselves on staying stylish and comfortable while remaining affordable to low-stakes NLH poker room grinders. We also offer a few other items like golf shirts, drawstring bags, and Oakley brand backpacks.

Use code RUNGOODFREESHIP for free shipping on all orders placed within the United States!

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THE POKER COURSES VAULT (FROM SPLITSUIT)

There are few poker coaches more prolific than James “SplitSuit” Sweeney. From his VLOG to his hosting of the Red Chip Poker podcast to his excellent free poker quizzes – you’ll find training content for all cash game players.

So SplitSuit bundled up all of his best courses and put them together inside of a membership he calls “The Vault”. Vault includes 24/7 streaming access to courses like The Hand Reading Lab, The One Percent, The Mental Advantage, and more.

Instead of paying hundreds of dollars per course, you can study everything for just one monthly price. On top of the courses, you also get access to a private Discord server, homework, and pay nothing extra for new books & courses he releases in the future.

Join The Vault today and take control of your poker training for 2023.

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POKERGO SUBSCRIPTION

If you are looking for the perfect poker player gift, or just want to treat yourself this holiday season, look no further than a PokerGO subscription. Think of PokerGO as the Netflix of poker. Home to the iconic High Stakes Poker, poker’s hottest new show No Gamble, No Future, World Series of Poker live broadcasts, and an enormous portfolio of live and on-demand content, PokerGO is an absolute must-have for any poker enthusiast.

PokerGO offers monthly, quarterly, and annual subscription plans. The best deal is an annual subscription. At a regular price of $99.99, a PokerGO annual subscription breaks down to less than $9 per month — less than the price of two grande peppermint mochas for all you Starbucks lovers out there. But, for a limited time, Cardplayer Lifestyle readers can get an even better deal.

Purchase a new PokerGO annual subscription using the promo code CPLHOLIDAY2022 at checkout to save $20 off the regular annual price. That will give you the gift of unlimited PokerGO access for $79.99 for the year, which comes to less than $7 per month. If you’re already a PokerGO subscriber on a monthly or quarterly plan, you can use the CPLHOLIDAY2022 discount code to upgrade to an annual plan for some cost-saving.

The best holiday gift for a poker player is a PokerGO subscription. Head to get.PokerGO.com to purchase one today.

*Ed. note: Enter our contest to win a FREE 1-year PokerGO subscription. Details here.

Join Team Pokercode now! With the Pokercode Black Friday deal, you can grab a €100 discount on a yearly subscription! Now, instead of a monthly subscription costing €89/month, you can get in for just €50/month, a massive 45% savings!

What is Pokercode?

Pokercode was founded by German Super High Roller and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Fedor Holz, together with the #1 on the Austrian all-time money list, Matthias Eibinger. They were joined by Danish online crusher Simon ‘IgorKarkarof’ Rønnow to create the best study material focused on tournament poker.

Steffen Sontheimer is the latest addition to the team, having joined Pokercode in 2021 to provide cash game content. The high-stakes player knows his way around tournaments as he won the purple jacket at the inaugural Poker Masters, but he dedicates most of his life to his first love: cash games. 

A subscription to Pokercode doesn’t just give you access to an insane amount of study content on their own Netflix-like video platform; it also includes access to our community with like-minded poker players searching for improvement. Instead of approaching difficult topics by yourself, you have access to hundreds of poker players, including their top tier coaches, to help answer your questions. 

Community member Tim Bakker:

“From the very first moment I joined Pokercode it has been a warm welcome for me. The coaches are really great and helpful in all kinds of ways and the community is really mind-blowing. Everyone is always ready to help, they’re very friendly, and most importantly very passionate about the most beautiful game in the world: POKER!”

Live Study Sessions + The Best Tools

But that’s not all! Every Pokercode coach provides live study sessions exclusively accessible to Pokercode members. Plainly put: you can ask your questions directly to some of the world’s best poker players. And if you miss out on the live session, you can always watch it on-demand on our study platform and ask your questions to the coaches in the Pokercode community. 

If you want to take your study game to the next level a Pokercode membership grants you access to some of the biggest discounts for the best tools. Pokercode members get a 45% discount on ODIN; never use a solver again! Other discounts exclusive to Pokercode members include an offer for Hold’em Resources Manager, and Primed Mind. 

The Pokercode Community

The study material at Pokercode is one of the best tools to improve, but the Pokercode community is the catalyst to achieve your goals faster than ever. Whether you have a specific question for one of our coaches, are looking for a couple of brains to help you break down an ICM spot deep in a tournament, or if you’re looking for some advice on how to structure your study days, there’s an answer for everything. There’s an incredible amount of experience available to you to truly step up your game.   

Community member Alex Baier (3rd place finisher in the inaugural Pokercode Festival in Bratislava):

“I was part of a lot of different communities so far but I’ve definitely felt the most welcome at Pokercode. I was fortunate enough to win my first 3 months through a promotion of Steffen Sontheimer. I met a lot of community members during the first live event and I made friends with them and started studying with some of them. It helps me a lot, looking at hand reviews. The coaches regularly post their opinions on and give feedback on the proper thought process that we should apply. It keeps me motivated having a lot of like-minded players around me that I can talk to, celebrate wins with, and cheer for each other!”

Company founder Fedor Holz of course knows all about what it takes to win, and he is dedicated to giving Pokercode community members the support and tools it takes to get to the winner’s circle:

“Progress doesn’t happen overnight. It’s something you need to continuously work on. However much time you want to dedicate, we are there to help you set and achieve your goals. Whether you just like the challenge, want to become a full-time pro or move up the stakes, we can help you.”

Pokercode Grindhouse Showcases the Power of Community

You might be jaded at listening to fancy marketing talk, telling you how good Pokercode must be. So rather than do that, we’ll just demonstrate it to you.

Pokercode decided back in 2020 to trial a project with a select group to showcase the power of community. Mario Mosboeck and some of his friends were the chosen ones and after spending two months in a house living, breathing, eating, studying, and playing together, there was no proof yet if they were successful in their approach. 

After the project, however, they went on a tear.

The Pokercode Grindhouse boys collectively won over $1,000,000 in a week during a trip to Las Vegas, and Mario himself was crowned SCOOP Main Event champion after he took down the $1,050 Main event for well over $800,000. 

We’ve decided to repeat this project for a shorter time frame in 2022. All episodes are available on the Pokercode YouTube channel.

Of course, Pokercode is offering a great poker training product, championed by Fedor Holz and Matthias Eibinger, two undoubtedly established high stakes poker crushers. But Pokercode offers way more for their members and the poker community in general.

Teamwork and community

Fedor Holz has been preaching over the past couple of years that a strong community and teamwork is crucial to be successful in poker and in business. And the Germans have been generally proving this in countless high roller tournaments across the world. Working and studying together to collectively become better in your craft should be a no-brainer, but poker in many ways remains a world of lone wolves, fighting for themselves, winning for themselves. 

We can probably all agree that this team strategy of the German players has been working just fine. But this successful group of players is the crème de la crème, of course, the best players in the business. Fedor Holz, Matthias Eibinger, Rainer Kempe, Christoph Vogelsang are some of the most famous names in poker, shining with finesse, that the game has not seen in many other player groups around the world. But what about the upcoming poker players who want to get as close as possible to their idols or at least crush the stakes they are currently playing at?

READ MORE: Review of Pokercode Training

Capturing the German community

If you want to capture the German poker market you need to get close to the community. In the past few years it has been established that the German poker community has chosen Twitch as their platform of choice. Pokercode recognised this and signed a handful of streamers to become ambassadors and so earned the favour of many German Twitch Poker fans. The German speaking Pokercode Stream Team today consists of Pferdinho, HansiWurst, Q_Poker and Moni_Poker.

In summer 2020 Pokercode established the Grindhouse, where a bunch of online grinders came together to study, play and live the good life. Pokercode produced a lot of video blogs around this in English, showcasing the dedication and hard work, but also the fun times of this group of grinders.

Earlier this year Pokercode announced a new project where magic world champion Alexander Straub, a poker beginner, embarks on a journey to improve his game so significantly that he can play the WSOP main event this year and be more or less successful in playing it. This journey is also captured on Twitch and fans can follow along, cheering for him succeeding in Las Vegas.

In addition to that, a new blog has been created informing poker fans about all the activities in the Pokercode community and also delivers strategy advice by the top pros.

Present and Future

A current project is the Stream House, which is made up of four German Twitch streamers living in a house in Vienna grinding the spring online poker schedule. 

They produce a LOT of content: Besides their own Twitch streams in German, they are also featured in high quality video blogs in English on the Pokercode YouTube channel. In addition to that there is a Big Brother-style stream on the Pokercode main Twitch channel where you can watch the four grinders going about their day from different camera angles. They are being coached in all areas of life by the Pokercode team with their own cook, a performance coach and obviously poker theory taught by the best themselves.

Despite doing so many things, Pokercode is only at the beginning and it will be thrilling to see how they develop over the next couple of months and years when it comes to content in German and also in English.

The Pokercode Academy – WSOP 2020 is a special eight-week coaching program with some of the best coaches in the world. Pokercode’s own Fedor Holz, Matthias Eibinger, “IgorKarkarof”, and their friends Claas Segebrecht, Steffen Sontheimer, and mindset coach Elliot Roe teach you how to prepare for the World Series of Poker and crush it! Players can enroll for only €199 and they will get access to eight live coaching sessions, an interactive and supportive community with like-minded poker players, and Pokercode’s state-of-the-art content platform to go back and re-watch the live coaching sessions. 

Holz and his cadre of coaching cohorts will take students through all aspects of tournament poker. They will discuss early deep stacked play, important ICM situations around the bubble, and of course on the final table. They will do everything they can to prepare their students in the best way possible in the quest to WSOP gold!

With dozens of cashes, many millions of dollars in tournament winnings, and loads of deep WSOP performances and memorable runs among them, the Pokercode team is immensely qualified to teach you their tricks such that you can hopefully emulate their successes and possibly even win a bracelet of your own.

Players who sign up for the the Pokercode Academy – WSOP 2020 will have full access to the Pokercode community as well as the Netflix-like content platform for the months of July, August, and September where they are free to re-watch the live coaching session content as many times as they like. Plus, they can discuss everything taught by the instructors with other students in the community as well as the coaches themselves. 

WSOP bracelet winner Fedor Holz remarked that “I think it’s a great way to work very closely with people, but also put out relevant content that will help them perform better throughout the WSOP series. I personally like that I can share my results and my journey. My ups and downs. I’m excited for the academy and I’m looking forward to welcoming a lot of new people.” 

With some of the best players in the world in various poker formats on the coaching team, the Pokercode staff is equipped to help you will all facets of your tournament game.

Matthias Eibinger added, “I am happy to open up the Team Pokercode Community over the course of the WSOP so that also other players can enjoy the like-minded community feeling and get accompanied by other players in this intense time of grinding the WSOP online series.”

What’s certain is that beyond being highly motivated to have a successful 2020 WSOP online, Holz, Eibinger, and the rest of the Pokercode coaching team are equally as driven to ensuring their students have a solid shot at success of their own by enrolling in the Pokercode Academy – WSOP 2020. 

The Pokercode Academy – WSOP 2020 kicks off on July 12th! Plug your leaks and get coached by the best in the world

Learn more on https://t.co/Pkyeut4F9p #Poker #pokercode #WSOP pic.twitter.com/xzraisPuze

— pokercodeofficial (@_pokercode) July 6, 2020

Personally, I felt a bit scared starting it all up as I had never done any poker study before trying Pokercode. This was going to be my first proper go at becoming a better poker player. The lectures started out very welcoming, with Fedor referencing a book outside of poker that helped him get in the proper mindset. That one word — MINDSET — is something he talks about a lot in the first couple of videos and that sets the tone for what you will eventually learn during the course. Right from the get-go I immediately began to feel some sort of change happening in my head that motivated me to tackle the beast that is the Pokercode and become a better player.

Holz is very clear that this course is based on GTO play, but he will also teach you how to adjust your strategy so you can exploit your opponents and their weaknesses. He does have separate videos at the end of most sections of the course that illustrate how Fedor himself adjusts and deviates from GTO strategy to exploit his opponents even more.

The Pokercode consists of five parts, and the first part begins with a general introduction called “Getting Started: Pre-flop.” After the introduction we begin diving headfirst in the first bits of poker strategy, and — WOW — we zoom from 0 to 100 really quickly! I have to admit that I was pretty overwhelmed by the rapid-fire of information that was given over in the first couple of sections.

Before going any further, let’s break down the Pokercode by the numbers:

• 5 parts
• 24 sections
• 100+ lessons
• 60+ hours of video content
• 30+ hours of community coaching added since day 1
• 1 weekly live coaching session
• 3 brilliant minds (Fedor, Matthias, and Simon Rønnow)
• 1 brilliant host instructor (Fedor)
• 1 hurting brain at the end (mine!)

Getting Started: Pre-flop

The first part of the course consists of 24 videos varying from a couple of minutes to about 15 minutes in length. The videos are split up into five sections:

• Introduction
• Pre-flop Fundamentals
• How to Defend the Blinds
• Playing in Position
• Facing 3-Bets

All sections contain multiple videos and after each video there’s a quiz. The questions are either multiple choice or true/false and you will get 1, 3, or 5 points depending on how many tries it takes you to give the correct answer.

If you don’t get the answer after three tries, you have the option to skip the question, but you are actively encouraged to re-watch the video. It’s really critical to understand the first part of the course before moving on to the next part. I must admit that I had to re-watch some of the videos because there was just too much information for me to absorb. This might not be the case for most students, but since I had never studied poker properly before it was a bit overwhelming.

Pokercode Quiz; sample questions

The first couple of quizzes I did were manageable, but the deeper I dove into the course the tougher the questions ended up being. At first, I didn’t even realize I was able to skip the questions so I just re-watched the videos, which I feel is a good thing. Fedor explains at the beginning of the course that your pre-flop mistakes can do more damage when you continue post-flop. Like most players, ideally I want to get better at poker quickly. That’s why I felt it was great for Pokercode to encourage that you get the pre-flop fundamentals straight before hopping over to the post-flop section. Just like in poker, you can’t force the action!

I internalized an important thing from this course, namely that there is no shortcut to getting better: you must learn one video and one concept at a time. The quizzes helped to give me a great idea as to whether I had correctly understood the concepts being taught. It’s one thing to understand the rationale given for decision-making in one specific situation. It’s another thing entirely to be able to understand the underlying decision-making rationale and be able to apply it to all situations that come up at the poker table.

Disclaimer: Complicated strategy ahead!

I feel it’s important to note that the Pokercode is not designed for complete beginners. You need to have a good understanding of the game’s basic strategy or you’re going to have a tough time understanding what Fedor is talking about. Also, you need to be more than “just a little bit motivated” to learn and improve your game because these videos are not made for casual, passive viewing. Focus is required and the subject matter being taught is very tough, but there is tremendous value in making the effort to study properly. That said, it would’ve been good to see some sort of disclaimer at the start that this course can get complicated.

After about one hour of study, I started to feel a bit of information overload, so I quit for the day and started again with a fresh head the following day. There’s a lesson in there for you if you’re thinking of subscribing to Pokercode: don’t think that you can just zip through all the poker training content in one day. Your head will explode! You’ve got to give yourself enough time to process and internalize each of the lessons before moving on to the next steps and videos.

Once you reach the “How to Defend  the Blinds” portion of the course, you’ll for the first time be exposed to… Charts! Glorious charts! Fedor will explain to you how the charts work and in which situations they’re relevant. While charts might be a familiar sight to many poker players, they still scared me a little bit as I had never taken such a deep dive into poker strategy before. The charts not only tell you what actions to take and when, but also how frequently you should take a certain action. I understood these general concepts pretty quickly, but figuring out specifically how the charts were supposed to work kind of rattled me in a way that I didn’t expect when I started the course.

For me, this was my first time actively learning about frequencies, and I finally came to understand what “balancing” meant. (Spoiler: It’s not standing on one foot and trying not to fall over.) I had to watch and re-watch the videos multiple times to understand what Fedor was telling me, and — once again — the quizzes helped me gauge whether I properly understood the concepts being taught.

Adaptation is the Name of the Game

At the end of some lecture sessions, Holz will share with you his personal adaptations to the GTO strategy. He will explain how he adjusts his playing style to exploit his opponents, which gives you the tools to do so yourself. This is where I feel there’s a lot of the value in Pokercode. You can learn GTO poker from many different coaching websites, but Fedor Holz sharing his personal tips, tricks, and exploits is something else and felt incredible to watch. Watching those videos on the train where he explains how he personally adapts gave me the feeling that I needed to cover up the screen on my laptop. It felt as if I was watching porn on the train and no one else should be allowed to see what was on my screen.

Pokercode dashboard

I noticed some changes in the way I approach playing poker after I was done with the first part of Pokercode. Fedor gives you the right tools to start thinking in terms of ranges rather than just specific hands. I was aware that the top pros do this, but I had no clue how to exactly approach it and start doing so myself. Since I’ve begun using the Pokercode I do think I have a better understanding of this concept. I’ve also started to feel more and more sure of what to do in certain spots, which has been a personal breakthrough. I used to sort of guess with my decision-making and never used to analyze any spots after the fact. Now I’ve started asking myself the right questions that help me arrive at what I believe is the best decision, with increasing speed.

Post-flop

The second part of the course consists of six sections with a total of 22 videos. This is where I started to struggle a little bit, but I am already looking forward to re-watching most of these videos to get a better understanding. There’s just so much valuable information to master!

This is also the point where the videos begin getting longer; few of them are shorter than 10 minutes at this point. Within the Pokercode, the videos are labeled as easy, medium, and hard. All of these post-flop sections are labeled hard, and I understand why. There are lots of charts and Fedor presents multiple situations where we can choose to deviate from GTO strategy.

Fedor tackles short-stacked examples, deep stacked examples, looser opponents, tighter opponents, and more. Ranges are examined thoroughly, as well as where and how we can decide to deviate from optimal play. I managed to get through the first video, but the next ones made my head spin. Video is the optimal medium, and the Pokercode lessons are extremely well-produced, but it really takes maximum concentration to try and keep up with Fedor as he goes through the charts and different situations. (I guess if this were easy, everyone would be beasting tournaments and winning millions, right?)

Processing Raw Information

As far as my personal study process, like I mentioned already, I had to pause videos multiple times and re-watch. Even so, I found myself failing the quizzes. While it’s a frustrating process, this did motivate me to keep learning and improving; and this has been happening slowly but surely. That’s what “getting in the lab” to study is all about!

Once again, it’s important to clarify that Pokercode is not a course for beginners or amateurs who just enjoy playing recreationally!

As I progressed through the course’s additional Post-flop sections including: The Turn, The River, 3-Bet Pots, Blind Versus Blind, and Multi-way I noticed that while on the one hand the videos were getting tougher and tougher, their value kept rising At a certain point, I doubled back to review some of the pre-flop sections, so I could get a better understanding of ranges again. This certainly helped in terms of my processing the post-flop lessons. I even started getting more answers right on the quizzes.

One thing I’d recommend: don’t implement a certain strategy in your game yet if you don’t fully understand the concept of why you should implement it in your game.

Next-level Poker Instruction from a Next-level Player

When I try to teach my girlfriend how to play poker, she sometimes says that I explain it in a way that is already too complicated for her. Trying the Pokercode finally made me truly understand what that means. I had a tough time keeping up! That’s not to say that Fedor doesn’t explain things well, but rather that the material itself is just very dense and complex. Even so, I think I have tons to gain by taking the course.

Fedor Holz presenting Pokercode

READ MORE: An Interview with Fedor Holz

I admit that it likely takes me longer to understand all the concepts than it does a medium or high stakes crusher. Even so, in poker it doesn’t matter how long it takes you to reach the finish line, so long as you eventually get there. Pokercode will get you there! You just need to pay close attention to every lesson as you keep building your personal knowledge base.

Perhaps “finish line” isn’t the right term though, as I’m unsure if you can actually finish this course. I feel like the Pokercode is a course that keeps on giving and continues to maintain its value, even if you have already watched the videos and lectures multiple times. You can really get in Fedor´s head throughout this course and it truly feels as if he is your personal coach.

The Pokercode – Start Crushing Now

This is the third part of the course where things got fun for me once again. Winning at poker isn’t just about GTO strategy; it’s about mindset, your behavior at the table, tells, and other important information like how to deal with ICM. This last part of Pokercode consists of four lessons and a combined 19 videos.

First, you’ll learn about ICM, which is a critical subject for tournament players to understand. After explaining the idea, Fedor guides you through how ICM can be applied to your game, and then how to adjust your game after taking into account ICM considerations. Even if you think you have a good understanding of ICM, I’m pretty certain that after watching the six videos in this part of the course you’ll have learned a lot. In other words, whether you’re a starting pro or already an advanced player, there’s value to be had here.

The next lesson, entitled “live game” was my absolute favorite. The videos here take you through all the different aspects of live poker that you don’t have playing online. One of these is obviously trying to profile players and to see if you can spot any tells. After demonstrating how to spot tells, Fedor also teaches you how to mask your own tells and elaborates on the importance of table image. It was quite fun to watch, and really made me eager to hit the tables! I felt sad when this part of the course ended and there were no additional videos of this category to watch.

Mindset, Again

PRICING

While it’s undeniable that Pokercode will boost your poker game and enable you to add tremendously to your overall skillset at the felt, as with most things in life there’s a price to pay. Astute students of poker, however, realize that when it comes to poker training, it’s not a cost, but rather an investment, which is likely to generate anywhere from decent to excellent ROI.

Pokercode recently revamped it’s pricing model to allow for three options:

• Monthly: €99
• Quarterly: €214
• Yearly: €699

While you get the best value by exercising the Yearly option, the other pricing points give you the ability to try out all facets of Pokercode without having to make the full financial commitment if you’re not ready to take the plunge and prefer to just dip your toes in the water. Moreover, you even get a 14-day money-back guarantee!

Conclusion

While I’m sure there’s plenty for cash game specialists to take away, the course is focused on tournament players, as illustrated by Fedor talking about situations that are 20, 40, 60, or 100 big blinds deep. The videos are impeccably well-produced and easily navigable. The quizzes at the end give you a good grasp of how well you understand a certain concept and you can always re-watch a video as many times as you’d like to improve further. This poker training course isn’t for everyone, but if you are interested in learning how to play tournament poker at the very best level, you should definitely give Pokercode a try.

In doing my research on him, I was able to uncover a great deal of information as pertains to his on-felt success, but unfortunately very little about the man himself. Just who is this 20-something Austrian who has earned more in live poker tournaments — $8.5 million! — than any of his fellow countrymen?

These are the types of tales we’re all about here at Cardplayer Lifestyle, so it’s with much gratitude to Matthias for agreeing to this interview that I share his story with you.

How did you first get exposed to the game of poker and what was it that attracted you about it?

I started playing with friends when I was around 17 years old, just for fun, with no money involved. Right from the start I had lots of fun playing, but I was pretty nervous, even with nothing at stake. So everybody knew immediately if I had a good or bad hand, which made me want to practice the game a little more. I started reading poker books and studying the game on a more serious level and soon figured out that this was actually something that I could really enjoy. I also felt that this kind of poker study could fit my talents of logical thinking and a basic understanding of mathematics as well. Basically, the game just fit me, so that’s how my journey started.

I’ve read that you began playing poker online in April 2011. To most people in the poker world, that time reminds them about only one thing: Black Friday. You don’t necessarily have a scale of comparison to before that time, but it would seem in retrospect to be quite the interesting time to begin playing online, no?

I started playing online poker just after Black Friday and I wasn’t a winning player by any means. I was just trying out a lot of different formats, playing for really low stakes, and wasn’t successful at any of the formats. After a while i found hyper six-max sit-and-gos and immediately fell in love with them. I was able to play these games very focused day and night and got very good at that specific format.

A lot of people were telling me that the player pool was extremely soft before Black Friday, so of course I hoped that stuff like the rec-reg ratio would be better. At that time I didn’t know any better, so I just accepted the situation. I made a lot of bad decisions at the beginning bankroll-wise, as everybody does I suppose, so I just learned to really solely focus on myself. Wishing that conditions were as good as before Black Friday or being discouraged by the strong competition isn’t going to get you where you want to be. The more you focus on your own game, the more successful you will be, in my opinion.

What do you feel were some of your greatest achievements playing online for the first five years of your career, and why?

I think that my biggest achievement was being extremely consistent throughout my poker journey. I started playing $3.50 hyper sit and goes basically by myself. I live in Graz, so I didn’t have any poker community like the one in Vienna, but I nonetheless made it up to the highest stakes all alone, sitting at tables online without paying any mind to the line-up.

Aside from that, I also won $100K in a SCOOP tournament, which boosted my bankroll and made things a little easier. Even so, winning a tournament doesn’t mean you’re a good poker player at all. The constant grind in the hyper sit and gos resulted in me achieving Supernova Elite status five times, which was also a huge achievement back then.

In what ways do you feel the online poker landscape has changed over the course of your career?

In the first few years I really liked the platforms a lot. I was only playing PokerStars and they offered a lot of great things and were liked by all of the players on the site because they were rewarding players who grinded a lot. Nowadays, I have the feeling that all of the sites are just squeezing out every dollar they can. Here and there they’re cutting the rakeback a few percent and increasing the rake a few percent.

In my opinion, the online poker environment isn’t as friendly as it used to be to the players, as the sites make it really hard to be profitable. For the best players it’s still profitable of course, however, things just aren’t as easy as back in the day.

What did your family think of your career choice to become a professional poker player?

At the beginning, my family didn’t know what was going on. They knew that I was playing poker, but mainly as a hobby. So they didn’t realize how much time i invested into it at first. For me it was clear that I was going to share it with them as soon as I had some results to demonstrate my consistent winnings and income, so they could actually understand what I was doing.

I really wanted to make sure they understood that I had plan and wasn’t just randomly gambling. After I showed them on paper that what I was doing was serious, they actually were more supportive than I anticipated them to be at the outset. I really felt encouraged by the support my family provided after I shared my passion with them one year into playing poker professionally.

Your HendonMob page lists results going back to June 2016. Describe what it was like for you to transition into playing live poker.

The first time I played a lot of live-poker was in 2015 in Vegas, exclusively playing sit and gos; pretty much just the satellites for the WSOP Main Event and other events. Back then, the difference between playing live vs. online wasn’t too big, I just went from playing sit and gos online to playing sit and go- type events live. I did that in 2015 and 2016 and that’s also where my first HendonMob entry came from. I entered the Colossus and tried an MTT for the first time, as well as a couple other tournaments. It’s also worth mentioning, that I really enjoyed the feeling of playing live, talking to other players; just the whole atmosphere.

I would say that the main reason I decided to switch to live poker was that the format I specialized in online was basically dying due to the pretty severe rakeback changes on PokerStars, which were happening around 2016. I decided to transition to MTTs mainly because some of the skills required in sit and goes, like playing short-stacked or endgame theories and ICM situations, are valuable in MTTs as well.

It seems that you exclusively played in three- and four-figure buy-in events from mid-2016 until January 2018. Then, all of a sudden, you’ve pretty much exclusively stuck to $10Ks and High Roller events, except for WSOP bracelet events. What made you feel you were ready to make the jump, seemingly so quickly?

I think that this was the right decision for me. After switching to MTTs it was clear to me, that the only acceptable outcome was for me to play the highest stakes in MTTs, like I did in sit and gos. If I was aiming to do that and if I was going to invest a lot of time into it, I have to get to the top.

So what I did was quit poker for roughly six months in 2017 and just study from dawn until dusk. I did still fly to Vegas in the summer though,  order to get used to mid-stakes MTTs and live poker in general. Of course it was also important for me to practice my live game and abilities. While playing in Vegas I didn’t feel comfortable enough to tackle the high-stakes games, so that’s why I kept playing $1K and $2K events until I got back home, where I continued studying until the end of the year.

I think that it’s also important to mention, that I literally didn’t do anything other than studying MTTs. No social gatherings, no parties, not a single day off.

In 2018 I decided that I finally felt ready and comfortable enough to play the high-stakes MTTs. I felt like I was able to compete against the best players in the game, for whom I still have a lot of respect, but it’s not like I’m afraid of playing against them anymore.

In 2018 I also got a lot of support from my investors so that I could start playing the 5-figure buy-in events; the $10Ks and the $50Ks. I’m still constantly trying to improve my game and get better and better.

Just arrived at @PokerroomKings to play #wsope
schedule: €250K today, €25K Friday, €100K Sunday, another €25K Sunday, €50K Tuesday, €100K Wednesday
–#poker #pokercode #teampokercode pic.twitter.com/Bk0SgTV1Pe

— Matthias Eibinger (@Matthias_Eibi) October 16, 2019

At what point did you first connect with Fedor? Did you two hit it off right away?

The first time I met Fedor was at the beginning of this year at the PokerStars PSPC in the Bahamas. We were playing at the same table and he had a really sick call down purely based on a live read he had on me. Afterwards we went to breakfast together and I had the impression that we got along really well right away. We connected because we had a lot of similar approaches on the game and he also gave me some great advice on improving my live game, which I highly appreciated. Funnily enough, that’s also where we came up with the idea of creating Pokercode, which finally recently became a reality.

In what ways do you think you and Fedor have made each other better as players, and how (if at all) is what you’ve taught one another reflected in Pokercode?

I certainly do think that we were able to improve each other’s games, since I was very theory-based. I still work with all the solvers and stuff, but Fedor is a fantastic live player with great live-reads and player recognition tendencies. Whenever we talked, we were able to benefit from the other’s opinions and approaches to the game. I really do think that this is reflected in Pokercode.

READ MORE: Pokercode Poker Training Review

We have a lot of different lectures in pre- and post-flop, a section specifically for live-poker and player-adjustments. Both of our specialties are implemented in the course: my theory and point of view as well as Fedor’s strong live abilities. Naturally, we continue to work on improving the platform every day, to make it as good as it possibly can be.

Thanks for visiting @Matthias_Eibi :)) @_pokercode pic.twitter.com/tj3eP0ZeUy

— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) October 14, 2019

When I spoke to Fedor a little while back, he talked to me quite a bit about what Pokercode is all about. What made you decide to get involved in the project with him, and what was the most exciting part of working on it?

We started working on Pokercode in the beginning of 2019 and spent a lot of time throughout the year. The most exciting part of working on Pokercode together was the cooperation among a lot of different people. As I said earlier, in poker I always found my way on my own, but here we have a very cool team. A lot of people were involved in creating the product we are offering now, so it wasn’t just Fedor and me; many other people were part of the entire exciting process as well.

THE TIME HAS COME!!! So excited. @_pokercode will be going live at 1am CEST ~ 3hrs on https://t.co/H9TY2Pytgb | shout out to the entire team for all the hard work & so much love to ALL OF YOU who signed up early. Can’t wait for you to take your game to the next level!! #poker pic.twitter.com/r3Zh1eFuaV

— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) October 1, 2019

Way back in the day, Doyle Brunson was the first to “reveal his secrets” when he came out with Super System and he was widely criticized by his peers. We now live in an age where there’s tons of poker knowledge out there, and with so many people studying the game every edge has the potential to make a huge difference. What is it that specifically makes you feel comfortable sharing your secrets with the poker world via Pokercode?

I think that when the first comprehensive book with poker strategy advice was released, it was quite a different situation. Now there’s so much content out there available for everyone to learn from. It’s not like releasing one product is going to be a huge game changer in terms of making the competition better. My goal was always to provide a platform for people who want to improve that they can really love. When you get such great feedback, it makes you want to work even harder because it’s an enormous motivational boost. I really feel like I have improved as a person through this whole process as well.

In your opinion, what separates Pokercode from all of the other poker training products out there? What makes it unique?

What makes Pokercode unique is the product as a whole. What I mean by that is that we offer 60 lectures with the goal of guiding the user through the game. In the video series we start with pre-and post-flop, then blind versus blind, 3-bet pots and then get to ICM and live games. So we really cover a lot in the video series alone.

On top of that, we provide a community for our users, where they have their questions answered by a hired coach, but Fedor and I are also actively trying to give advice and continuous support regarding specific problems our users have. Of course we have more ideas for the community, on which we are working on a daily basis.

What’s more, the production value of our videos was immensely heightened by the professional team we hired to make it as user-friendly as possible. Combining all of these elements into one product is what makes Pokercode a unique experience for every single one of our users.

How would you classify the difference in the playing competition, generally speaking, in four-figure buy-in events versus High Roller tournaments? What are the types of things that players at the highest levels are just plain better at?

The difference between players of 4-figure buy-ins and players of the highest stakes is evident in pretty much every aspect of the game. Adjusting to different players is a huge deal, as well as adjusting to recreational players. On average, a high roller player will find the better adjustments. In terms of “regular” knowledge vs. GTO knowledge of how to play versus very good regs, high roller players will usually have the higher quality, broader knowledge in this area. On the whole, the highest stakes players just perform better on many different levels.

You’re only in your mid-20s. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you. Have you given any thought to long-term goals that you’d like to achieve at poker beyond continuing to perform well and win big?

If I´m being honest, currently i am putting my mind to being present in the moment and working on a lot of different parts of my game. That´s why I don’t have a clear vision of how my life will look like after poker. With that said, I always wanted to do something that would create positivity and that will help other people. A lot of the high rollers are already donating a percentage of their winnings to charity, and this is certainly something I am interested in doing as well if the next few months and years work out well.

Right now, I´m really happy with the job I have, mainly because I value the independence it gives me a lot. I am my own boss, you know. So, I am the one who decides how I´m going to spend my day and that´s a great thing to be able to enjoy. I´m sure that there are a lot of awesome opportunities and adventures coming my way. I´m really excited about that.

Yet, who among us ever thought one step further? Which of us in our mid- to late 30s said “OK, after I win my millions, here’s what I’m gonna do next…”? A strange thought, right? It would seem that the dream of striking it truly rich through poker would be near impossible, even if on our A+ game at all times and adhering to the best possible money management strategies. Some might even argue that we’d stand a better chance of winning big while playing casino games; after all both casino games and poker involve their fair share of luck and run good. Obviously, almost all of us will never have to worry about any of that, but we knew that some fortunate few would eventually manage to reach that impossible dream; perhaps after a lifetime of play…

But a poker supernova?! A previously unknown player who would solve Texas Hold’em so completely and run so pure that he’d rocket to the all-time career top 10 in earnings by the time he’d hit his mid-20s?! Who would ever have imagined such a thing was possible?!

Enter Fedor Holz, “das wunderkind,” who accomplished nothing short of revolutionizing the game the way Stu Ungar did back in his day. To have essentially reached the pinnacle of poker at such a tender age was practically uncharted territory. With quite literally his entire life ahead of him, what would Holz’s next steps be now that he’d conquered poker?

It’s these types of thoughts that buzzed about my mind as I prepared to interview Fedor. I can’t help but admit how impressed I am with his responses to my questions, and I’m sure you will be, too. He may have already accomplished a lot, but this young man is clearly on the path towards doing really big things.

Oh… and he’s got a pretty cool product called Pokercode that’s about to launch as well

It’s inspiring to witness someone just 26 years old be aiming so high in life, like you are. You’ve been fortunate that poker has been good to you over the last few years, and now it seems like you are focusing on giving back by trying to improve the lives of others. At what point did that epiphany strike you and did you make that mental shift from “being in business for yourself at the poker table” to “let’s make the world a better place”?

It was after my very good poker run in 2016 where I cashed for over $16 million. You’d think that this would be the most amazing time ever for a poker player…

Don’t get me wrong, it was a great feeling and an amazing accomplishment that I worked so hard to achieve, but it was also the day I realized that I didn’t really want to play as much poker anymore. I think I had set expectations of what the feeling would be like to make a lot of money and being #1 poker player in the world, and then once I achieved that I realized that the process of growing and doing something everyday that I’m passionate about was what was most exciting for me.

I guess there just wasn’t much fulfillment for me anymore. The expectation when I started out was that I would reach this point of success, make a lot of money, and then I’m set… happy for the rest of my life. It wasn’t like this at all. It was rather frustrating, mostly because of the expectations I had set. I know it’s cliche to say that “it’s all about the journey,” but it’s so true. The relationships I developed along the way, the countries I got to travel to, and everything that I learned… that’s what really mattered to me, not the end result.

THE RESULT DOESN’T MATTER, IT’S ALL ABOUT WHAT YOU LEARN ALONG THE WAY. What I learned from achieving my goal of becoming the #1 poker player in the world is that it’s all about the passion & the learning curve along the way, & being able to share that with others. @WebSummit pic.twitter.com/l2YDmMrU7M

— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) July 25, 2019

One of the greatest things for me is doing things with other people; not playing against others, but building something together with them. I really enjoy collaborating with others and creating something new. I’m fueled by the idea that I can create an impact somewhere and see the people around me grow, knowing that we are building something that is sustainable and has a positive impact on people.

A huge goal that many poker players strive for is financial security. Of the total population of poker players, very few have gotten to that point, relatively speaking. Once you reached that point, aside from having a higher standard of living, what were the most meaningful changes you made or experienced in life?

This is a question that I find hard to answer. I think one of the biggest changes is thinking BIGGER in terms of what is achievable, and thinking bigger in terms of where to invest my energy. Obviously, a big change was not being restrained by money as much. It freed me to focus my energy on where to invest my money and my time, to build something meaningful that lasts.

One of my realizations after reaching my financial goals in poker is that instead of chasing a result I want to focus on shaping my environment & enjoy the daily process.

— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) May 14, 2019

It seems like you’ve been doing a number of speaking engagements lately, where you share the story about your rise to success. What do you enjoy most about doing that?

Again, for me it’s all about the impact. I love that my speaking has the potential to have a positive impact on someone’s life, whether personally or professionally. I know that a lot of people have a hard time getting started because they see other people in their circle or beyond already having success at something, and they feel discouraged to start from zero.

I really enjoy sharing my story because I started from nothing as well. I wasn’t a great student, I was bullied at school, and I don’t come from a rich family, but I had the drive, passion, and goal to learn, become really good at poker, and reach the top of the game. And that’s what I set out to do.

Behind every action is a legitimate need

— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) August 8, 2019

Poker is an amazing game because you learn so much along the way when you take it seriously. From financial discipline, to patience, to problem solving, to strategy, and even the art of learning and studying… there are so many different skill sets you develop along the way that are extremely useful beyond poker. When I do public speaking, I get to share how I apply these skills in the business world and on a personal level.

Whether it’s at a big conference like WebSummit, corporate retreats, or to soccer teams (shout out to Vfl Wolfsburg), I’ve really enjoyed all the speaking engagements I’ve done. It’s still a relatively new area for me and I’m working hard together with my coach Scott to improve at it, but if there’s an opportunity for me to bring people value, I’ll take it.

Gave a speech to @VfLWolfsburg_EN Biggest takeaway: the importance of marginal gains. This is how I approached getting better at poker – small, consistent improvements in different areas every single day. What starts as a small win accumulates to much much more in the long run. pic.twitter.com/aYWmv3N8ey

— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) August 22, 2019

You’ve also worked hard to develop a new course called Pokercode. Why?

I started thinking about creating a program where I could share my poker knowledge a couple years ago. I would say the first time the idea came to mind was in 2017. I was at a point where I was getting asked the same set of questions over and over again on a daily basis: “What poker books should I read?” “What poker course should I buy?” “How do I improve my game?”

While there was a lot of material out there, there was never anything that I could really stand behind and fully endorse. I felt like all of the available tools were good, but always lacked some solid insight that I knew existed. So, I wanted to create the answer to people’s questions. It took a while but we’re finally here.

I partnered up with Matthias Eibinger who is one of the best professionals in the game right now, and together we created Pokercode, which features 60+ lectures mostly focused on online & live tournaments.

READ MORE: Interview with Matthias Eibinger

There are lots of poker training sites out there these days. What are Pokercode’s unique selling points as opposed to other poker training products out there?

I credit a lot of my success to the community of poker players I was a part of early on. That’s what I want Pokercode to be; not just a poker course, but a poker community with like-minded poker players who are all looking to become better players.

Well before the official launch of the course material, our member-exclusive communication channel already became very active. It’s exciting seeing people sharing hands and helping each other out. It’s also a great opportunity for Matthias and I to extend our support beyond just the course material.

Additionally, a lot of the content…especially in the post-flop section and the live reads sections is just material that I’ve never seen or heard anyone share before. These two sections alone already provide so much value and a great return on investment for our members.

In particular, we’re partnering with other companies to offer our members exclusive deals on very useful poker tools. So far we’ve partnered with Holdem Resources which have the best tools for calculating short stack and ICM spots, offering our members a 75% discount. Our second partner is Primed Mind, where we’re offering members an amazing deal on a lifetime membership ($59 instead of $250).

I am so passionate about this project I could go on and on about it. As long as you have the basic understanding of poker, Pokercode will definitely be valuable and worth the investment.

Why specifically choose Matthias Elbinger as a partner? Was/is anyone else involved behind the scenes?

Matthias is no doubt one of the best poker players in the game right now. We’ve been friends for quite some time and I have to admit, he is probably the hardest working person I know. He’s the type of person who, while traveling around the world, plays online for 12 hours or more, and when he’d get back to the room he sits down at the desk studying, going through hands that he’d played that day trying to improve. It is insane. So inspiring. The amazing thing is that when I started creating the content with Matthias, I realized that I was learning a lot of new material myself. It got me hyped to play poker again. This whole project has got me hyped to study & play more poker.

@Matthias_Eibi – a great friend, poker boss, and my partner on @_pokercode pic.twitter.com/ve203PV4XV

— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) May 31, 2019

Approximately how long will the entire Pokercode production process have taken, from initial concept until launch?

Well, calendar-wise, it’s over two-and-a-half years. Matthias and I spent hundreds of hours actually creating the content and writing the script, and then there was a week of production in Germany. It was such a long week! I think we had 12-hour shoot days that week just for recording the content. Then, post-production once again takes hundreds of hours.

I really appreciate everyone’s patience, especially all our pre-sale members. It’s also amazing to see so many people show their belief in us and investing in Pokercode even before the official release. The community channel is already very active and I can’t wait for everyone to start going through the material.

As we are getting closer to releasing the @_pokercode I want to thank the entire team behind the project. This wouldn’t have been possible without you. Thanks for all the hard work before, during () & after the shoot. ($200 discount till release https://t.co/H9TY2Pytgb) pic.twitter.com/JqtorzPPnO

— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) August 24, 2019

Did you experience any sort of interesting or unforeseen obstacles or challenges along the way when creating the course? If so, how did you tackle/approach them?

I would say that the post-production side of the Pokercode was more complex than I imagined and took longer than expected. We really want to provide the best course out there, and part of that includes cutting down the content in an engaging way using high-end graphics and learning tools that make it a more enjoyable learning experience for our community. We have an amazing team that has put in so much time, effort, and passion into the project, and other than offer my support along the way, I learned to be patient and to trust the process.

During the shoot the heating was too loud and started to mess with the audio so we had to shut it off and record in the cold The rest of the shooting days were very long & cold but shout out to the entire team for pushing through and keeping the energy high!

— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) August 24, 2019

When you decided to embark on the project of creating Pokercode, I imagine you had a specific audience in mind. Who are you targeting and who should NOT be signing up for Pokercode?

I really wanted to provide the answer for all players who would ask me what the best learning resources were for poker. Even though the course is mostly designed for tournament poker players, Pokercode definitely offers amazing value for everyone. As long as you’re well-versed in the basics of poker, you’ll find it to be a valuable learning tool.

Outside of poker, I know that the idea of community is important to you, and that you want to build a community space in Vienna. Tell us more about that.

For me, at the core is having as much impact as possible with the key measure being consciousness. Specifically, I see my personal spot in constantly asking questions not many people are asking. In Vienna we are building a community space to bring together open-minded, creative individuals to explore alternative futures, together.

I’ve always been fascinated by the potential that is created when you bring great people together in one space to learn from each other, work together, collaborate on new ideas, and to grow together. I really believe we do things better in a community than alone. I credit a lot of my poker success to this and I believe it is applicable across the board.

 

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Great dinner in Cologne with some amazing people where I got to speak about the power of community.

A post shared by Fedor Holz (@fedorholz) on Jun 6, 2019 at 10:10am PDT

It’s funny asking this question to someone so young, but you’re obviously on an incredible trajectory that could take you to some amazing places down the road, so: have you ever given any thought to what you would like your legacy to be? Beyond your success at the poker table, is there something for which you would like to be remembered?

I’d love to be remembered for having a positive impact. I know that still sounds quite vague and broad, but I’m being patient with figuring that part out along the way. Until then, I am focused on surrounding myself with amazing people and building great things together.

 

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Happiness first Taking care of & training my mindset was one of the greatest decisions of my life – resulting in boosts in my performance in all areas of life. I credit a lot of my poker success to working with my coach @elliotroe. I hope that there will come a time when everyone is training their mindset. That’s what I’ve been working on with my team at @primedmindapp.

A post shared by Fedor Holz (@fedorholz) on Jun 14, 2019 at 12:20pm PDT