Upswing or Raise your Edge?

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Musashi2684

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Greetings friends, I was curious for someone who is newer to poker, prefers to play tournaments, and is eager to improve at this great game, which training site would you recommend? Do you have experience with either, or both of these sites?

A little about me to help you with your recommendation, I've been playing freerolls for the last three months to try to get more confident before depositing my roll. I play on 888 and poker stars, In the last three months on 888 I've won the SNAP tournament once and final tabled it two other times, I also won the $88 Asia tournament (American livin in Thailand) in July before they changed the format to 1c buy in with a 120 minute late reg. On Poker Stars after my first month in the league I was promoted to High school where I've won the tourney once and final tabled it on another occasion.


My problems:

Run up a big stack early in a tournament then either play too lose or too tight and lose my stack.

Get into situations where I'll have the effective stack well covered right before the bubble, one loose player shoves all in, another loose player calls, I'm in position with let's say 75s it'll cost me 4bb to call but I always fold and end up regretting my decision every time.

And every other problem you can think of when you were a newer player :)


Upswing:

I've purchased the post flop game plan and it's helped a lot, I've read and reread and continue to reread Mr. Fee's 6max strategy guide, and I love Mr. Parker, so I was wondering how much content has he put on the site, and is he active in the facebook group?

Raise your Edge:

I'm a huge fan of Mr. Staples (who is crushing the prop bet) and Mr. Jeff Gross (Who I heard uses both, including run it once, as well) Lot's of content from many different experts, is this a plus or minus?


Thank you so much for your time, if you've reached here I really appreciate it. Please, all and any experience you have with these sites would be great to hear, or just recommendations of what should be the next steps for someone at my experience level.

Kind regards,
Your friend
 
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AviCKter

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I've never had a subscription at Upswing or RaiseYourEdge, but had bought in for a few months subscription at TournamentPokerEdge.

As I understand, you're having trouble navigating through the middle & late phases of a tournament, especially the bubble. For that you'll need to study & practice those phases specifically. On a very general note, the middle phase is where you're going to start loosening up your game, i.e. you'll start stealing from late position, loosen your opening range (to add more bluffs) and add a bit of aggression to your game. In the late game, the strategy involves getting more aggressive, taking flips, 3-betting more often, and in general, loosening your range a bit further from the previous phase. If you really want to improve those parts, you'll need practice and this is where SnGs come in to play. SnGs are great for getting to those middle, late phases, since the number of players are limited and you'll make it to those phases more often.

As for the note of which site do you choose, I don't know. My game did improve on joining the site, but not that much. Yes, they gave me exposure to certain concepts and gave me access to examples on how to apply, which otherwise was bit tough to comprehend. But what I learnt/analyzed by myself proved more reliable and helped me become better. So, if you're looking to improve you might have to put in effort from your side, off course these sites may help you, but they're not going to give you a recipe for success, just a snippet of how you should proceed.
 
Poker Orifice

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I've never had a subscription at Upswing or RaiseYourEdge, but had bought in for a few months subscription at TournamentPokerEdge.

As I understand, you're having trouble navigating through the middle & late phases of a tournament, especially the bubble. For that you'll need to study & practice those phases specifically. On a very general note, the middle phase is where you're going to start loosening up your game, i.e. you'll start stealing from late position, loosen your opening range (to add more bluffs) and add a bit of aggression to your game. In the late game, the strategy involves getting more aggressive, taking flips, 3-betting more often, and in general, loosening your range a bit further from the previous phase. If you really want to improve those parts, you'll need practice and this is where SnGs come in to play. SnGs are great for getting to those middle, late phases, since the number of players are limited and you'll make it to those phases more often.

As for the note of which site do you choose, I don't know. My game did improve on joining the site, but not that much. Yes, they gave me exposure to certain concepts and gave me access to examples on how to apply, which otherwise was bit tough to comprehend. But what I learnt/analyzed by myself proved more reliable and helped me become better. So, if you're looking to improve you might have to put in effort from your side, off course these sites may help you, but they're not going to give you a recipe for success, just a snippet of how you should proceed.

Seriously? I would've never guessed you ever had a 3 month subscription to TPE.

OP, I can't suggest either as I have no experience with either.
And, it definitely helps to hear from a variety of sources vs. just one player (unless that player is your own coach & is spending time on you personally)
 
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AviCKter

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Seriously? I would've never guessed you ever had a 3 month subscription to TPE.

OP, I can't suggest either as I have no experience with either.
And, it definitely helps to hear from a variety of sources vs. just one player (unless that player is your own coach & is spending time on you personally)

Yes, I did. I was desperate. I had a great start in poker, and it all just went downhills. Life happened, choices were made. Came back to poker, but didn't have the flair to beat it, so tried to find a quick-fix, turned to any and everyone who said I can help. Turns out, there's not much they could do.

I would certainly agree, personal coach would be a value-add, but what these sites offers ("listening to different sources"), are available for free, if anyone is prudent enough to search for it.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to belittle what they do (the sites), just pointing that alternates are available.
 

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608xperience

608xperience

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DISCLAIMER: I am an Upswing Lab member, Upswing Twitch/YouTube stream moderator and Upswing Lab forum moderator. I also proofread/write for the site, so by all means take my comment with a grain or two of salt. My views are heavily biased.

Okay, first off, let's get to the meat and potatoes: The Postflop Game Plan (previously called the Postflop Engine) is a great introduction into how Polk and Fee view hand categorization in terms of raw equity and how categories change vs board texture. The Lab takes that strategy and expands it dramatically in terms of both breadth and depth.

PGP basically begins and ends with basic Preflop strategy and 1st level postflop play. The Lab builds on that by adding 3-bet and 4-bet pots, multiway pots, SPR evaluations, 3-bet pots as PFR, 3-bet pots as PFC, BB defence (both HU and multiway pots). There are also extensive database reviews, tournament hand-history reviews, GTO strategy discussions and "Play & Explain" videos for exploitative and GTO/balanced strategies.

Basically, the Upswing Lab should be able to take you from the micros all the way to the mid-stakes and crush. There are Lab members who play $100+ tournaments / 100NL and higher cash games and still benefit from the content. There are Skype discussion groups and a site forum for discussing spots. The community is extremely supportive.

A note on Fee's 6-max PDF: The strategy is solid and is useful for a beginner 2NL grinder. Be aware that the guide's ranges are suitable for cash games and not MTTs, however; you'd be excessively nitty playing MTTs with the ranges defined in the 6-max guide. IMO, YMMV and all that.

Doug Polk and Ryan Fee are active with providing content and interact with the community. I can't speak for the other site, but I consider Upswing's Lab to be an excellent investment. With the addition of Fried Meulders and Parker "tonkaaaap" Talbot in the coaching staff, Upswing will continue to provide outstanding content for years to come.
 
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TheBull953

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I subscribed to Upswing and found content there to be good. If you're new to ranges (i.e. polarized vs. condensed) and unsure how to play your ranges I think it would be a good buy. There are a lot of advanced topics that can really help with bet sizing and other things as well.
 
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