Poker Training Videos - Part III

Grinder School

I'm going to recommend anyone playing microstakes Texas Holdem to join GrinderSchool.com. This is a site specifically designed with low stakes players in mind.

Most players playing Microstakes poker are doing so because:
1. They are inexperienced and are trying to get better at Texas Holdem
2. They don't have the bankroll to play the higher stakes
3. Or both

Grinder School describes their site as:
Grinderschool is a novel idea in poker websites. We are a strategy site specifically designed with the low stakes player in mind. We realize the need for quality poker strategy, including vidoes and articles, for players on a budget. Grinderschool will provide in-depth strategy instruction for low stakes players, most notably through videos and direct access to our team of successful player for questions and advice. For a glimpse of what we offer, check out our free articles and videos.

Most advice on other sites is aimed at high stakes players. Many of those tactics do not necessarily apply well in low stakes games. Further, these sites can charge $100s in up front costs, followed by expensive monthly fees. To put it bluntly, a low stakes player is screwed! This has created a void for low stakes poker strategy. We seek to fill that void. Grinderschool charges no up front costs. All you pay is the monthly enrollment fee, which is much smaller than the fees charged by other sites.

You can suscribe via PayPal or a PokerSite Transfer (PokerStars, Full Tilt or Ultimate Bet), which is pretty neat.

The Grinder School team consists of:

AApoker: Adil began playing poker in 2005. He started off playing low stakes cash games and grinding bonuses for extra income each month...
JGB146: Jeffrey has been playing poker since 2004. In that time, he has been profitable in every format of No Limit Texas Hold'em....
Jyms: Jim has been playing online poker since January of 2006. He started out playing the odd home game with friends...
Spenda: Cullen has been playing poker for 4 years. He began taking the game seriously when he was living in Las Vegas...

Check out this site. Check out the free videos and give it a try. I don't think you will be disappointed and will be a winner in the long run.

Poker Training Videos - Part II

FREE VIDEOS

There are two sites that I have found on the internet that offer a multitude of free Poker Training Videos. The first site is Flop Turn River which has a total of 43 free videos that cover a gamut of games. There is an Omaha video but the majority are No Limit Texas Hold'em covering everything from microstakes games to $400 dollar No Limit and SitNGos and MTTs.

Flop Turn River describes their videos as: FTR is now offering free instructional poker videos with commentary made by FTR members to demonstrate certain tactics, strategies, and thought processes. We're always trying to learn more about the game of poker, and watching videos of others playing poker while listening to their poker video commentary can open our eyes to new ideas, alternate strategies or provide confirmation on how to play a given situation.

Many of the videos were made by players that have not moved on to their own pay for video site GrinderSchool.com which I will talk about in part III of this series.

The second site is Poker Trikz. The site describes itself as: PokerTrikz.com is the newest online poker training site that is totally free of charge. We are dedicated to bring you top notch free poker instruction and all you have to do is want to learn. If you are a struggling player and looking to beat micro stakes or small stakes poker games, you came to the right place.

The free videos are the big draw for Poker Trikz but there is more to the site than just videos. They are really promoting rakeback from a number of poker sites as well as a Forum section, Articles section, Reviews section, Blogs section (not quite up and running yet) and a Coaching section.

I really like Poker Trikz and heartily recommend everyone joining up and watching the videos. There are at leasat 29 different videos and they are geared to teaching a specific part of No Limit Texas Holdem. One video describes on How to Deal with Down Swings, another talks about Moving Up in Stakes and another is about How to Continuation Bet. The best part is that you are learning all of the other aspects of Texas Holdem while concentrating on one area. This helps reinforce all of the other things you must know how to do well to become a winnner at No Limit Texas Holdem.

It's no secret that I am a big fan of Poker Training Videos and these two sites are awesome to provide Free Training Videos to everyone.

Poker Training Videos - Part I

All of us who play online poker seriously have purchased and read at least one or two (and probably more) books on how to play Texas Hold’em poker- Poker's most popular game. We want to become good players, so it is almost mandatory to read and digest the quality poker instruction books that are available. After playing live or online for several months, any serious player should take the next step to improve their game and become a consistently winning poker player.

That step would be to begin watching and digesting poker instructional videos. There are a wealth of sites on the internet that have Poker Training Videos.

Card Runners
Stoxpoker
DeucesCracked
Poker Savvy Plus
Grinder School

To name just a few.

All of these sites offer a multitude of instructional videos, narrated by tried and true professional poker players and offering a variety of games (Holdem, Omaha, RAZZ, Stud, etc.) The membership fees range from a one time fee, monthly payments or a sign up fee plus monthly payments.

If you are dedicated to bettering your game and will put the time and effort into learning how to play you will probably be able to justify the expense of joining one of these rooms from your increased winnings at the tables. All of these rooms offer free videos for you to watch so you can become familiar with how the videos are made, the type of instruction you will receive, and if the commentary is to your liking or not. These also work great for those of you who are in a rut and feel the need for a short lesson to help pick up your game.

There are plenty of free videos out there to watch and learn if you don’t have the funds or just don’t want to join one of the sites that charges to view their videos. I’ll comment on that more next post.

Them's Quad B*******!!

This wasn't even my big hand of the day. At this same table after I had already doubled up I was dealt Aces in the Big Blind. I went all in and got two callers and they held up to help me triple up. I did much better today than on Wednesday and won back quite a bit of my losses so am sitting better now.

Got My ass handed to me today

I dropped quite a few buy-ins today on Full tilt when my good hands were always second best to another hand and my great hands either got no action or lost. The worse was when my Pocket Kings ran into trips jacks and I rebuy now. Pocket aces, everyone folds and I just win the blinds. I would raise preflop with A/K, A/Q, A/J, K/Q several times and miss every single flop. I would continuation bet and before it was all over I lose $3 on the hand and after 10 or more times of that the losses add up.

My $VPIP was only 19% for 6-max so I wasn't playing too many hands. I was just losing the hands I was playing.

I did win on Absolute Poker when my pocket Jacks hit another Jack on the river to give me a full house and beat a lower full house. That has made my Absolute bankroll at one of its highest points ever. I have played well there but was lucky today when I caught that jack on the river.
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I moved down in stakes on Full Tilt yesterday to the .50/.10 ($10) No Limit tables and I will never do that again. The play at that level was atrocious. You could not get people off of a hand and a preflop raise was a joke as they called everything. Now I remember why I hated playing that level so much. As far as I am concerned the play at the $25 dollar level is head and shuolders above the $10 level. With that being said, you still find donkeys at the $25 dollar level but there are only one or two per table, not 4 or 5 so chances are much better for you and play is much better. It doesn't take long to figure out who the donkeys are and then you can try to exploit them.

You just have to hit a few flops to be successful and today I was not. My worse day of poker in a month.

Some good, some bad

I have been watching a lot of poker training videos and have enjoyed them immensely. The nice thing is that they reinforce many aspects of my play while they are teaching me new things about Texas Holdem. A nice little double up in the learning department. It is always good to know that you are doing some things right and good to learn new things.

I was able to put my new found wisdom into play tonight with mixed results. Overall I was a winning player tonight but 3 hands (all at the same table to 3 different players) cost me from having a really, really good night. The first was when I ran pocket Kings into pocket Aces. All in after the flop and I rebuy. The second was when My A/Q on a queen high board ran into pocket Kings which were played pretty well and I rebuy again. The third was when my Pocket Queens went up against A/K off, an ace on the flop and an ace on the turn and it was time for me to leave that table.

My pocket Kings running into Pocket Aces is just poker. Hard to get away from that hand. The other two hands were probably not played well by me as I was trying to recoup my stack after the Aces vs. King fiasco.

Like I said, though, overall I was a winner and took a nice little profit in for the night. Just wasn't as good as I had hoped. I'll be watching more videos and trying to recoup those losses.

The Perfect Storm

Remember the movie, The Perfect Storm with George Clooney when, in October 1991, three weather systems collided off the coast of Nova Scotia to create a storm of singular fury, boasting waves over one hundred feet high. It was the storm of the century, a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." Well, I had the "Perfect Hand" today when a combination of factors all came together to let me triple up my buy-in.

The first sign of good fortune was when I was allowed to limp into a 3 way pot with 3/3 from the BB. The second sign of good fortune was when I hit my set on a flop of K/4/3, two of them clubs. The third sign of good fortune was when the 4 of clubs came on the flop to make a flush possible and give me a full house. The river was a queen and I was all in. UTG called as he had made his flush and an MP player called with trip 4's. I took this hand down with my full house and tripled up.

It was the "Perfect Hand" because of all of the above factors coming together to make for a large pot. The player with the flush had to figure his hand was pretty good and the guy with trip 4's was probably betting on a wing and a prayer as his trip 4's was the worse hand of the three and it looks like he just couldn't get away from it.
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I saw another hand that was the perfect hand for someone else. I don't remember what I had but I folded preflop. Two other players played out the hand and one was stacked when his King high flush ran into his opponents straight flush. The funny thing is the guy with the King (Kc/Js) actually had a bigger straight (as well as a flush) but his Jack was a spade and his opponent had 8/J of clubs to complete the idiot end of the straight but because his cards were clubs, his was a straight flush.

So Picture this - Player one had Kc/Js, player two had 8c/Jc. Flop is 9c, Qc,6c. Turn is the 10c and I don't remember what the river was but both were all in at this point.

That would have been a very tough hand to lose.

No Poker Today

I haven't played any poker in a couple of days and probably won't be able to play again until Sunday as work is keeping me away from the tables. I am working five 12 hour days this week and that leaves little time for poker after I get some sleep and do my household duties.

I have been able to watch some poker videos and am really enjoying them. I can understand how joing one of the video training sites can really help your game. They are a bit pricey for me at this time so I will probably have to forgo joining any for a while. I realize that I should be able to win the price of admission from what I learn from the videos but it is getting on to summer and I will be golfing more and playing poker less so I think I will wait until the fall.

I bought a six pack of Grolsch Amber Ale on Sale at my local beer store and I enjoyed the first one I had. Grolsch is a Dutch Beer and the amber ale was began distributin to the United States just a few short years ago. I would put this beer on par with Killians.

Rate Beer gave it a so-so rating but Beer Advocate gave it a slightly better rating of B-. Some of the comments were, "It has an excellent malty taste with a bit of light citrus/tangerine flavor. It's not a hoppy beer at all. It goes down extremely smooth, it's a very good beer." and "Taste is really malty, with a nice bitter finish. Great balance."

The funny thing is that the Grolsch website is an interactive site where you have to solve a mystery (if you so chose). It was great fun. If you are going to their website just to read up on their beers you will be greatly disappointed but if you are a gamer and like doing a little role playing and get into this interactive mystery, you will love it. I had a great time trying to solve the mystery which took me about an hour or so to do.

Was this a Donkey Call??

This was the 11th hand in this particular session. I had played only one hand prior to this hand when I limped from the BB w/ A/2 off and I folded on a turn bet. The villain had played one hand prior and folded to a turn bet, too.

Absolute Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $.25/$.10
5 players
Converter

Stack sizes:Seat 3 - TATERLEGS ($54.20 in chips)
Seat 4 - LZFSB3 ($9.15 in chips)
Seat 5 - SKINNY1314 ($81.67 in chips)
Seat 6 - ASHTOXI ($25 in chips)
Seat 1 - BASJE ($11.59 in chips)
Seat 2 - DJ_JIM ($14.15 in chips)

Pre-flop: (5 players) LZFSB3 is SB with :Ks :Ad
UTG folds, DJ_JIM raises to $1, Button folds, LZFSB3 raises to $2.25, BB folds, DJ_JIM calls.

I see this as a blind steal, possibly A/rag or Q/J, K/rag and I reraise in hopes of taking pot right now.

Flop: :4h :2h :Jh ($33.3, 2 players)
LZFSB3 bets $2, DJ_JIM raises to $6.25, LZFSB3 raises all-in $6.90, DJ_JIM calls.

I did standard continuation bet and when he raised there was only .65 cents more for me to go all in so I did. If I call his raise I only have .65 cents left anyway so I go all in. I'm not worried about flush at all and still have him on Blind Steal with A/rag hand.

Turn: :6s ($17.65, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $17.65)

River: :4d ($17.65, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $17.65)

Results:
Final pot: $17.65
DJ_JIM Shows Kd Qh
LZFSB3 Shows Ks Ad
This player started to berate my call, saying such things as "Donkey call", "I had no hearts, how could I call that?", etc.
He commented on my short stack but he didn't have much more than I did so I'm not sure what was up with that.

Was my play so terrible? I only played three hands out of about 26 hands and left because of this player and another berating my play.

Poker Savvy

It has been quite a while since I have talked about Poker Savvy. Poker Savvy is the premeir site for obtaining bonuses from joining a poker room and playing a set amount of hands to garner points for that site and get the bonus. Poker Savvy is a win/win situation where by simply playing good poker you can not only win money at the site you are playing but generate a nice bonus from Poker Savvy at the same time.Prior to the passage of the UIGEA, I had made about $600 dollars from Poker Savvy bonuses. Not too shabby.

Poker Savvy has really expanded since I first joined. They now have videos and articles on poker. These are contributed by players just like you and me and there are some very good players submitting articles, like DoubleAs, who doesn't play so much now but was a premeir player at one time and could be again if he choses.

There is also a new site Poker Savvy Plus that has recently signed Mike "The Mouth" Matusow to make player videos. This is a site that is all about improving your game by making excellent training videos for all forms of poker, from Hold'em to Mike Matusow's specialty, Omaha.

I encourage you to check out both site. Add some bonus money when signing up at a poker room and watch some videos so you will play better when you join that poker room.

Mr. Luckbox

This was my second or third hand since sitting down at the table. I had already won one pot and then was dealt A/K in the SB. (I play as LZFSB3 at all poker rooms)

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Erik Lindgren ($24.65)
Button ($13)
LZFSB3 ($16.50)
BB ($24.55)
UTG ($25.45)
MP ($21)


Preflop: LZFSB3 is SB with Ah, Kc.

1 fold, MP raises to $0.5, Erik Lindgren calls $0.50, Button calls $0.50, LZFSB3 raises to $2.1, 1 fold, MP folds, Erik Lindgren calls $1.50, Button calls $1.50.

The min-raise is curious to me. I figure he either has a monster or maybe small pocket pair and is trying to win blinds but w/ A/K out of position I raise pretty big in hopes of taking down pot right now.

Flop: ($6.85) Td, 4s, Jc (3 players)

LZFSB3 bets $3, Erik Lindgren raises to $7.75, Button folds, LZFSB3 calls $4.75.

Continuation bet here of about half the pot. Erik raises and I am thinking my monster hand theory is holding true. I call because I still have lots of outs.

Turn: ($22.35) Qh (2 players)

LZFSB3 checks, CO bets $4.25, LZFSB3 raises to $6.75 (All-In), Erik Lindgren calls $2.50.

Bingo, the perfect card. I go for the check/raise here and it works to perfection and I am all in.

River: ($0) Qs (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $35.85
Worrisome card here.
Results below:

LZFSB3 has Ah Kc (straight, ace high).
Erik Lindgren has Tc 9s (two pair, queens and tens).

Outcome: LZFSB3 wins $35.85.

So much for a monster hand. Wasn't even the middle pocket pair I expected. Lucky me.

Poker fading to Golf

I didn't play any poker today for the first time in about a week. I really don't want to say anything about my poker because the Gods are favoring me in much of my play. I have had some unbelievable wins lately (will try to post the most unbelievable one tomorrow) and am running good at Absolute Poker and Full Tilt. I am down a bit at PokerStars but it could be much worse as I have been able to claw my way back after being stacked early the last two times I have played.

I know that variance works both ways when one plays a lot of poker but I have to admit when the cards go against me it is a lot harder to take. Isn't that just the smartest thing anyone can say about playing any game or sport. When I lose it sucks. Wow, genius.

Anyone that has played a lot of poker and had the inevitable downswings will know what I am talking about. Aces getting cracked time and again by terrible hands or unbelievable runner/runner or river cards. Full house losing to higher full house, sets losing to flushes over and over. Those times feel like you are never going to win at this game again and closing down the computer or not going on tilt is a victory in itself.

Spring is slowly coming to Michigan and as soon as it is in full bloom and bordering on summer my poker playing will go way down to almost nothing while golf takes over. Just when I am starting to feel like I know what I am doing playing No Limit Texas Hold'em. It has taken me the better part of the winter to finally show some gains in this cruel game. And it may be put on hiatus soon.

I guess I had better put in some productive hours in the next 3 to 4 weeks before I start to curse the golf Gods for guiding my drives into the ponds or smack dab behind the only tree between me and the green.

Good Old JokerStars

I have been fortunate to be a winning player at the higher stakes ($25 No Limit) at Full Tilt and Absolute Poker. So here is what happens when I try the higher stakes at PokerStars.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

MP ($24.35)
CO ($25)
Button ($27.40)
SB ($48.90)
BB ($9.25)
Hero ($9.80)

Preflop: Wolverine Fan is UTG with Qd, Qh.
Wolverine Fan raises to $0.75, MP calls $0.75, 3 folds, BB calls $0.50.

Flop: ($2.35) 4d, 5c, Jd (3 players)
BB bets $1.25, Wolverine Fan raises to $2.5, MP raises to $10, BB folds, Wolverine Fan calls $6.55 (All-In).

Turn: ($21.70) 2d (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($21.70) 3c (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $21.71

Results:
Wolverine Fan has Qd Qh (one pair, queens).
MP has Ah Jc (straight, five high).
Outcome: MP wins $22.64.

I had been playing quite tight and was very patient and this was the first good hand I had in a long time. Good ol' runner-runner.

Typical on PokerStars.

Edit: I reloaded and kept playing at PokerStars. A maniac came to the table and started to run over everyone. I stayed patient and just played good hands. Finally, I got A/J spades UTG and I raised $1 and had two callers including the maniac. Flop comes Jack high with two spades and the maniac bets big and I raise all in. He calls wtih K/Q diamonds. No Kings, no queens but another spade comes on the river and I double up for the first time. A few hands later I get 7/7 and limp in. A 7 comes on the flop to complete my set. The maniac bets big, I go all in and he calls and my set holds up to get me back to even for the day. Maybe JokerStars isn't so bad after all.

Dear Poker Gods. I am still not bragging, just telling my two readers how I did today.