Tournament Training

So - I did okay in Vegas and would like to re-invest that money plus a bit more in some MTT training.

I know there are some great books and some of them are sitting on my shelf. Despite having been an avid reader all of my life in the past few years something has happened that has greatly impacted my ability to really concentrate when I read. I have not finished a book in years. So that is not a promising part of improving my poker skills.

I keep saying that I need somebody to come to my house and teach me lol. That has not happened yet.

I have recently been looking into the WSOP Academy and the WPT boot camps. They both have 2 day tournament training sessions with pros. I could probably get into one of them for approx $1500 plus flight and hotel. So maybe that would cost about $2200-2400.

Or should I invest some or all of that money with an online trainer or training site? I am not sure if learning from videos would be easy for me or not - I haven't tried it.

What kind of suggestions do you guys have?

My goal is to improve my current skills - not to become the greatest online MTT player ever lol.

unless you're particularly interested in the 'trip' aspect of these you would be far better off just subscribing to Stox or PXF or somewhere seeing as (a) i'm 95% sure they offer better guidance (having not been on the wsop/wpt trips i can't be absolutely conclusive here, but w/e) and (b) an initial month's membership at one of them costs like probably 1/30th of the cost of one of the trips.

Well, before spending $2500 of training, I would suggest signing up for a video training site.

Most sites have some sample clips so watching some of those may be a start to get a feel for what they are like. I'm not sure if all sites do, but Stox and DC both have a dozen or so full length sample clips.

StoxPoker, FTW. The videos alone are worth the $28 per month. Plus, you can chose a personal coach from their line up for extra. I think each one's per-hour rates vary.

Okay - Switch has suggested the same thing so I might sign up at Stox this week and give it a trial run. Not trying to promote spam lol - but if there is a special way I need to do it for the best benefit let me know. Seems like that has been mentioned before.

Dunno how much you play FTP, but you can use your FTP points in the FTP store to buy months of Stox membership. I bought 3 months for 13500 points. I got those extra points by playing points buy-in satellite SNG's and unreg-ing the entries I won.

There's also a way to earn months through the Stox site, but that's geared mostly for cash players on FTP and there's an end-of-month deadline each month.

I only have slightly less than 2500 points at FT.

I don`t have membership of any training site, and therefore no first-hand knowledge. However, I`d be surprised if Stox were the best for MTTs specifically. That honour is usually given to Pokerpwnage and/or PokerXFactor. Or at least, that is the prevailing wisdom at other large forums of which I am a member.

Anybody else have any comments on that? I really am looking strictly for MTT training.

Debi, I will PM you a link to some info which will help you. Can`t post it on the open forum because it is a commercial site with adverts etc.

The Harriginton on Holdem books are were I got most my tournament knowledge.
Although to be fair it is very basic stuff but things such as "M" are vital to get good at tournaments.

I'll have a spy at this thread myself for suggestions as I've always wanted to get my tournament play up to the same standard as my cashgame.
I'm a member of stox but havent found any good videos on MTTs yet.

Oh as for how to sign up to stox you can get a friend to refer you.

they'll either make $25 or 25% on everything you ever pay them.
naturally you should ask said friend for a cut of this money.

No I dont think there is all that much on MTT's on stox.

Does anyone know about CR / DC?

Mentioned in the PM, but stox only has one MTT coach (who is very good) and one STT coach (also v good).

I know PXF and pokerpwnage are more oriented towards MTTs, but the fact that I've heard so little about them probably says something. I know PXF has been around for a while, maybe they might be more useful.

I can't remember what stox's deal is, but if they offer a free trial week or something then don't hesitate to try it out.

DC definitely has some MTT coaches and I know they have a one week trial. I have a sub there too and although I haven't watched their MTT videos, if they're anything close to their ring game vids then they should be fantastic. Try them out.

Debi.

I would be interested in following what you choose cause I have been thinking of doing the same.

Please keep us informed if possible,Thanks

Will do. If I can find a place that can teach me to be a better player - then I will have found a place that can teach anybody lol.

Play the 300 FTP SNG Satt to the $750K Satt. Win gets 2500 pts when you un-reg.
400 FTP SNG = 3500 pts for the win
or even 50 FTP SNG = 200 pts for 1st & 2nd

That's how I did it. They're fun & good practice. ...and cheap.

Good idea - thanks!

If Stox is short on tourney coaches, I think it can be agreed that the videos are still good there. At least worth a trial, if not $28 a month or points.

I also like Leggo Poker, but I just haven't used them as much.

The DC trial requires signing up/paying, then you can cancel in a week, I think. If you keep going, the end of your subscription starts from a week after you start so that's how the free week gets counted.

I don't know about Stox, but you can go to DC and search for MTT/STT videos and just see how much there is, and what kind of variety of coaches/approaches there are. I've watched a couple but I don't remember how much there is.

What I play is the 650FTP >> 2,500FTP 1st&2nd get 2,500, 3rd-850.

I've heard that pXf & DC are the sites to check out for MTT training videos. I don't have much experience with these myself, aside from when I purchased the book "Winning Poker Tournaments - One Hand At A Time" thru the PokerXfactor site, which then gave me a bonus of 3sets of videos - 25segments in all.

Perhaps coaching might be the way to go?
I've heard of all kinds of different offers out there... .some really good.

btw, sorry to hear about the book-reading thing.... ( I read them ALL ), I think if I were in your shoes I'd for sure go for the training video membership and consider hiring a coach.

Hi dakota-xx,

My name is Ryan and I am an Academy Specialist & Event Manager with the World Series of Poker Academy. Your most recent blog post caught my eye, I'm hoping I can be of assistance.

Given that you have expressed interest in improving your Tournament play, I would kindly like to steer you in the best direction.

With all due respect to poker books and DVD's, the WSOP Academy 2 Day Tournament Academy will be the biggest return on investment for your game.


My best,

Ryan

Well I joined StoxPoker today and watched my first video by Matt Matros. I am impressed already - I feel like I am already learning things. It is about your mindset. It gave me confidence that I am the right kind of person to play in tournaments.

He talked about how to approach the tournament and staying in the moment and not focusing on the wrong things.

He explained why your goal should be to finish in the top 3 and why anything less than that is not good enough. I think at this point I will settle for the final table - but I need to stop worrying about just making sure I cash.

I played the 80k at Pokerstars and I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders that I was unaware I even had. I had no idea how focused I have been on my chip stack - and how afraid I was of losing it early in tournaments. I know I made some moves today that I would not have made yesterday.

I did find that once I got within 30-40 spots of the bubble I tightened up a bit and passed on some hands I might should have played. But it still felt good to get to the bubble and past it in the top half of the field instead of the bottom half as usual.

I was much more focused on my table and was proud to get some good reads on some players.

After the bubble I was card dead and lost my focus. At one point I got moved to a new table and at this point of the tournament I should have been doing nothing but playing that game. I kept getting distracted and would catch myself doing other things. Then when I got less than 10 blinds I knew nothing about the other players on my table. I think I missed a good opportunity for a shove. When I finally did shove on the button with Q9os after everyone in front of me folded I got called by the bb with A7os and lost.

I didn't finish in the top 3 or final table but finished 104th of over 1800 and had a small cash of $141.

Can't wait to see some of his actual playing.

I have attented 2 WSOP Academys, loved them! You might also check out PokerVT this site has improved my game 110%. Then again my game could do nothing but improve. The PVT pros are very active in the forums and quick to answer your questions. Also check out "Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand At A Time" by Rizen, Apestyles and Pearljammer. I have, and read, all of Harringtons books, this book takes it to a whole new level. Good luck! ;-)

Thanks!

herschelw (sp?) is running a MTT camp for two weeks during october. The fee is somewhere in the low 2k range.

He offers two options:

A. You play the fee.
B. You pay a percentage of profits from MTT wins for 6 months.

It seems to be a very good value, considering the success of his other students.

Edit: Herschelw is the head of PokerPwnage, Ghettofabulous will be running it with him.

Theres also a chance they pick you to become a long-term student of them.

Is this a live camp?

Oh ...and ZZFlop since I can see deleted posts I took the liberty of checking out your link - thanks!

For only a small fee I can give you Training on how to go out First in a tourney, guaranteed to work.

Yeah, live camp at a beach house with a good amount of free time, wheres the downside in that? :P.

From what i have seen, you do great in MTTs... Most of it is the waiting game, i need to remember more.

i am fairly certain that this is an empty boast it may be guaranteed to work if it were worded "one of the first to go out", but first...? have you never heard of suckouts?

debi - good luck with your studying! you should also let us know if you decide to try anything else but stox

I will probably end up joining PPXF too at some point - their videos are very clear and easy to see and they have lots of them. I have watched one of the free ones and it was good.

Another thing Matt Matros said was to mix up the field sizes - if your favorite tournament gets 5-7k entries to make sure you play some smaller ones too - some with about 1200-1500ish and some with several hundred.

It is hard to find double and deep stacks with less than a 1000 entrants. And I am absolutely no good at multi table sng's with 1500 starting chips.

Try Bodog.

I refuse to play there once my last $30 is gone until they fix the issue of your table not popping up when the game starts. I am tired of starting tournaments 25 min late when I have been sitting at my computer the whole time because their tables do not pop up for you like every other site.

I had already lost 225 chips in blinds in the last one I played.