How to make the most out of on line poker training sites
How to make the most out of on line poker training sites
When I first started playing poker on line I used to watch all the cardrunners (leading poker training site)videos on a regular basis for the first year or two. However I think during that time I did not once take down a note. It did however teach me the basis about playing in position and continuation betting which really helped my game at the time.
However these days, nearly every player bar the complete novice knows how to play more in position than out of position and are also less likely to stack off with top pair type hands so the art of watching training videos has now changed if you still want to see improvements in your game.
Below is what I think is the best way to utilise the video training sites
1. Concentrate on video series which explain a concept using power point first and then follow this up with hand histories or else some live sessions.
This covers both the theory and practical element of teaching. Deuces Cracked were the innovators of the training video series and I believe still are best at this today
2. You must buy yourself a big refill pad and take as much notes as possible, like you are taking minutes at a meeting. There are two reasons for this
To keep you awake and attentive - we all like to do well in a subject but lets be honest no one really likes to study, so by taking minutes style notes we concentrate fully for the whole length of the video
At the end of video you can go back over your notes and highlight the relevant sections where you actually learnt something. When I say learnt this means maybe a play you always do but didn't fully understand the concept, or an old play you did but had forgotten about, or hopefully a new 'Aha' moment
3. When you have highlighted relevant sections of the notes, you should transfer this data into a spreadsheet which includes date, video name etc and a new column called say 'Comfort %' . So now when you go play your next few thousand hands and have identified the opportunities to use this new concept a few times you can now mark off this concept in the spreadsheet as 100%.
4. Do not overload yourself with watching videos. 1 video series a week is plenty and may even be too much but you yourself will be able to decide how much time and effort your going to spend studying away from the tables. I would recommend 5 days playing and 1 full day studying videos taking notes. (the mathematics of poker series took me 6 weeks and I still need to revisit it!)
So that's how I think you can get the best out of poker training videos. It wont turn you into Durr overnight but at least it will keep you ahead of regulars at your current level.