Eldora

Hey Estuary interesting questions,
I can't answer all of them and will leave these to the RIO Poker experts and I also suspect some of these questions might be revealed at a later point

1) Note Taking
Yes, you will be able to take notes on the players at your tables. In addition, there's also a color coding system allowing you to mark players at your table.

2) Chatting
Chatting will be allowed during hands, however, the traditional chat function is replaced by an emoji and standard (poker) conversation selection - so there will be no freestyle type chat.

You can also check out these two features in Phil's latest video update where he plays on the site and explains how it works (if you haven't done so in the meantime).

Even though the flop is pretty good for our range his range still is the strong 3betting one with lots of top broadways (that have hit this board quite well) and overpairs. Even top two pair is as much in his range as it is in ours. It's definitely an interesting strategy to think about but I wouldn't go that far here to shift this into a range bet with a small sizing personally.

I personally wouldn't be concerned too much about getting check-raised in this spot. This board is already one that the 3bettor shouldn't love on the flop and it's continuing ugly for his range on the turn. I would assume that this forces him to check many hands as strong as decent top pairs because HE would hate getting check-raised by us. So when trying to decide whether to bluff this turn or not I would be rather concerned that he has strong bluffcatcher hands he checked twice based on how ranges connect with this flop and not too much of getting check-raised.

Our hand is kind of sexy to turn into a two-barrel bluff given its nut blockers to various straights (J9s/K9s) and that we could make him fold many Tx by betting twice. But I'm sure checking it down can be fine too.

I think I agree that you have to get it in on the river. Although he should often check-raise 55 and 99 on the flop and rather 3bet AKo/s and QQ preflop he might still have these holdings (especially readless at NL5). I'm not sure if JTs with a bd flushdraw might be an ok continue on the flop in his shoes but even discounting all his offsuit combinations of JT is a strong reduction of hands having us beat.

I feel pretty strongly about your flop sizing here though -> this is a dry texture and without knowing the WPN pool generally, micro stakes pools overfold to small sizings and are inelastic towards sizing. This means if they don't like their hand they will fold to a 1/3 sizing exactly the same than to our bigger sizing. There are some exceptions where recreationals go crazy when facing a tiny sizing interpreting it as a sign of weakness but I think that's rather sth unique on certain flop textures (like paired boards) and the first effect should overweight. Thus I fall even more in love with the smaller size at this player pool than theory would suggest anyway.

Also, I'm not 100% sure but I believe KK is one of the first hands we start checking (given we are way ahead or way behind - either already beat or we need very few protection). When we use a bigger sizing more hands should fall into the checking range and we can bet fewer hands. So when KK can certainly a bet with a 1/3 pot sizing (because we might just bet 100% of our range on this flop if we bet small) it should almost surely be a check if we cbet 80% pot. It could be it's still a bet at the half pot sizing you selected but because of the other reasons mentioned above 30% > 50% imo. It also simplifies our life when we just bet small with (almost) all our hands compared to finding the correct frequencies when betting bigger.

Note that a seemingly unimportant sizing choice like this might influence our game more in the long run than the big river decision in this very spot just because it occurs so frequently.

After giving you all this shit still well played overall and interesting hand ;)

Hey! Although this response might come a bit late I still wanted to get back to your post.

I can imagine that some things might have changed quite a bit depending on the amount of time that has passed since you grinded the games. My personal guess would be that watching some live play vids from a variety of coaches has the potential to freshen up your memory and sleeping poker skills as well as raise your awareness for things that have changed in the fastest way.

Once you noticed where your game feels most rusty and outdated you could start looking for specific theory videos to gain in-depth understanding and proficiency in specific areas. Generally it's never a bad idea to start with preflop (as you mentioned) as well.

After all, I think this choice is still highly individual and if you enjoy theory content a lot it might work different for you. This is just my first thoughts on your specific situation.

Note that a powerful way to find most recent live play videos is filtering the video library, especially when you don't have any favourite coaches yet. For instance this sends you to the most recent NLHE 6-max Live Play Videos in Essential but another method would be to look for the most popular Live Play Videos in this category for the last year to get a different selection of videos and you can do many things similar to this by playing around with the filtering options.

For very recent and also creative theoretical content I would suggest you checking out Peter Clarke, Francesco Lacriola and also the extensive library of Paul Atwal who recently got promoted to the Elite Plan but all of his former videos are still accessible as Essential.

Let us know how your first steps back to the games worked out!

Given the stakes you play and the things you want to learn I'd definitely say you'll find almost endless content that would push your understanding to the next level and accompany you in your studying process.

As James said the Learning Paths are thoughtfully arranged videos of content that will give you the tools to shape your abilities in the chapter's topic. We often hear concerns about some of the content being 'outdated' so be sure you're not alone with this thought - however, I hope I can give you some thoughts to resolve this concern. I can definitely see the reasoning behind the fear to study outdated content. Of course there is a chance that the vlaue of videos slightly fades as time passes compared to a video on the exact same topic produced just this month - but be sure we only feature videos in the paths if we're still confident of their value to players at the current time.

The described way how learning paths emerge makes them a very diverse library. Will you get a manual on exactly how to play and exactly what step by step process to follow? - Rather not.
But what you will experience by exploring the content published there is widening your horizon on the topic. For example understanding the concept of c-betting from a direction you might have never thought of yourself and that may enrich your further studies on a deeper level. You'll get ideas on the topic from a diverse selection of Run It Once pros and each of them has a different way of thinking about the finer characteristics. It might not always be the fastest method to learn this way and not include copy-paste strategies you can apply instantly to your game. But it forces you to think about the aspect of the game at a deeper level and helps you craft a sustainable improvement for your own strategy.

So to come back to your question if the Learning Paths is a course depends strongly on what you understand by the term course. Rather no for course as - step by step - manual style instructions. Yes if you want to broaden your understanding on a certain topic and enrich your knowdlege of a topic from new ways.

Base on this characteristic and the way learning paths aim to improve your game the issue of outdated content is completely different in my opinion. When you learn from step-by-step instructional course that are several years or even only 6-12 months old this might be dangerous and a very reasonable fear. But given the attributes of the content you'll find in the learning paths we are confident in the value of the videos up to this day as well as for the near future. In case we feel this changes we won't hesitate to exclude all videos for which this doesn't hold true.

Note that we're constantly updating our learning paths and we will add around 50 new videos just by the end of the week over all categories.

Something you should definitely try to avoid though, is only studying with the Learning Paths. The content there is often balanced towards deep theoretical concepts but you should try to profit from the very practical and also guaranteed new and recent content released every week as well. I'd advise you to get accustomed with the filtering options in the Full Library and combine the theoretical, deep approach of the Learning Paths with the newest content tailored to your needs. This will also make it easy for you putting content in perspective in cases where it makes sense and make you see the value of older videos while not trying to copy the concepts 1on1 to your live grind.

Some coaches you could start exploring for brand new NLHE cash game content at the essential level are Peter Clarke, Paul Atwal, Francesco Lacriola, Iain Salter, Dekkers, Brad Wilson and Julian Kopanskiy. Also Phil started putting out some new NLHE Essential content again recently.

To get a mix of all coaches you can just filter for NLHE & Essential to get a nice portfolio of all the coaches and then maybe select the video style you prefer most (Live Play / Session Review / Hand History Review / ProView...)

One way to approach the example you posted - BTN vs BB would be starting off with the Learning Path NLHE - Big Blind Play. There you could elect to watch the videos BB Defense vs BTN (Jonas Smailys) and BB Against Button Raise HH Review (Tyler Forrester). If you're especially interested in c-betting then afterwards you could take a look at the NLHE - Continuation Bets path and might elect C-betting as Button PFR vs Big Blind part 1+2 (Julian Kopanskiy). After feeling more comfortable with these most frequent spots maybe you've heard some interesting thoughts on check-raising the flop with in this situation and want to learn more about that since this is the area where you struggle to find the correct raises. Then you could go to the path NLHE - Postflop Play and watch Check Raising the Flop (Tyler Forrester). If you want to take a look at the situation in the shoes of the player facing the check-raise you see that Nick Howard has released a video on this: Facing Flop Checkraise Hand Review.

By now you've had the chance to watch many different video styles from different coaches to give you a great multi-faceted view on this spot but now you want to take it to practice - What I always do when I've learnt a new concept is watching live play videos of the games you play and just mainly direct your focus to the spot you're currently studying. Then you might take notes on all spots in the live play video where BTN and BB clash and what lines the pro took along with his explanation. Thereby you can see how our RIO pros approach these spots when grinding at the table and see how the professionals apply these concepts in today's games.

Like this you've developed your very own study routine with the material of the Learning Paths and very recent live play content as well. This works for all kinds of different topics you want to study.

Also, in case you would spot an area where you feel there is a gap in our library we're always happy if you let us know in our Video Request Thread. You can even private message one of your favorite coaches and suggest a certain topic or private message one of us and we're happy to find a coach who would be a good fit to produce a video on this topic.

I hope this helped you a bit to determine the value for you personally and feel free to follow up with any other questions you have.

Regarding stakes - check out phil's release of yesterday (also played on wsop.com)

$5/$10 6-Max PLO Live Session (Part 1)

Welcome man!

There are two things which make this spot especially ugly imo:
1) We are facing his bet in relative bad position since BB and UTG are still behind us. Like that we don't only have to be concerned about 1 limping range but about a second limping range plus the BB - and this flop hits especially the limping ranges very hard (as opposed to our range).
I'd assume both limpers have almost all of their 55, 66, 77, 56s, 67s, 89s maybe even 57s in their ranges. The BB should be weighted more to stronger broadway hands and better pocket pairs so I wouldn't worry about him too much. But the UTG limper could have hit this board very hard as well.

2) We are in best shape on this flop vs pocket pairs like 99/TT/JJ/QQ but given CO just overlimped I'm very skeptical about him holding these. So many of the combos you mentioned that we beat are not always in his range (because he might raise them preflop) and another thing shifting the balance is that when he's behind he most likely has more equity against us than we have against him when we are currently ahead. For instance against many combo-draws (78s/88/9Tcc/other flushdraws) we are not in crazy good shape but between 60-65%.

That having said, generally with a stack to pot ratio of 3 it is super hard to get away here especially at a 1€ tournament where people might show up with very random things now and then. But I believe I would try to call his bet and if there follows crazy action afterwards (e.g. UTG jamming and CO calling all-in before us) I would strongly consider laying my KK down. I would be less cautious if the BB comes along because his range is stronger as the cold-caller facing your big raise.

But I'm not sure if at the 1€ environment just holding on tight to your high overpair and never folding might still be better.

Thx for your feedback itargetpk - it's surely not the first time we heard the wish for a dark design so we're taking this wish into consideration.

Lausbub with so many things being created and in development right now I wouldn't expect a design update in the near future but we're still happy to hear your ideas for when the time may come.

Interesting question.

Agree to Luigi90250 I think one of the reasons why we are getting 3bet more often is that the balance of cold-calls to 3bets is shifted towards cold-calling when using a smaller size and towards 3betting when using the bigger size. This is because the odds for coldcalling are better with a smaller betsize.
E.g. 2.2x size -> (2.2bb+1.5bb)/2.2bb = 1.68 to 1 => 37% equity needed
3x size -> (3.0bb+1.5bb)/3bb = 1.5 to 1 => 40% equity needed
(given all other players fold)

I think another point that could have an impact is that play is deeper (SPR is higher) on the flop when you are opening smaller (and hence the absolute 3bet size will be smaller too as you said). This should favour a higher 3-bet size to avoid getting called too profitably by the opener. E.g. maybe vs a 3BB open you should 3bet to 3.5x the open in the SB = 10.5BB but vs a 2.2x opening size you could rather make it 4x = 8.8BB. I'm not sure if this makes sense though maybe someone can verify/correct this idea.

You still have a point though that given you would only 3bet or fold that the possible 3bettor facing a small open raise size can assume a wider range and therefore 3bet a wider range himself compared to the bigger size. I'd definitely be interested in a response of a pro on this one.

nice variation of live plsy typos ;) jk

Yeah I agree it's cool that you're sharing your view and attitude towards the game in your blog - I mean that's why we're following along. It's just a rather uncommon thing in poker because usually players are happy facing weaker opposition because of the money on the table. I think in many other sports it's just the most natural thing of the world that you want to play against good and even better players every now and then to be challenged. So it's kind of cool that you're feeling that way and it shows that you're clearly laying your focus on improving and enjoying the game instead of the money only. I can see how some people might misunderstand this at the first read but knowing how you meant it and at least somewhat knowing your character from the videos and this blog I think this definitely has nothing to do with being arrogant.

If you haven't seen it you should definitely check out Apotheosis' series on Transitiong to MTTs:

Transitioning to MTTs (Apotehosis) (Part 1-3)

The learning path james mentioned should give you a lot of tools to work on different areas. I could imagine things like SPR / Preflop Ranges / 3-Bet Sizings and the most obivous thing ICM are good places to start.

Jen Shahade has done a video on SPR and adjusting your bet-sizing so that you can take the lines you want to take on future streets. This should be specifically relevant to MTTs since stacks are much more dynamic there:
Math Class: Getting Faster at SPR and Bet Sizing (Jen Shahde)

Given that you already have the fundamentals down I'd also recommend to watch Live Play Sessions of different pros. Maybe this is even the quickest way to gain an overview of all the differences.

I hope there are some MTT grinders and maybe players who went through that transition before who can share their experience with you.

I have to agree with Kenji Yabeta playing break even at NL25 already shows you're doing many things correct given that there are quite some regs around and the rake is not easy to beat (as a player still evolving and not yet polished in all of his lines). Also consider the graph is for 35k hands only and I guess you have put a lot of the study volume in during playing this volume? So probably your current abilities have only had a chance to translate to results for 10-15k hands and it could easily be you are a 3-5bb winner since then. I understand that you told you weren't able to beat the low stakes for quite some time so that might play a big role in your frustration at the moment but if you feel you're making progress I'm sure you will see it in the results sooner or later even if it doesn't look like it currently.

That having said, I don't want to pull you back to a maybe still illusionary view what poker can offer you money whise in your current position. It sounds like it could be way more healthy looking for a balanced income distribution so you can take the pressure out and that you don't feel everything is burning to the ground if you can't instantly improve within the next 4-6 weeks.

And if you're honest with yourself if you are indeed a breakeven player at NL25 at the moment you can't really make money from poker where you stand now. Does this mean everything you have done so far is trash and was useless? Well I don't think so. You seem to be in a position right now where you have developed poker abilities that could boost you to a position where you can make decent money in the future. I think putting yourself in a position where you feel the pressure that you need to improve so much that this takes place within the next couples weeks or even months is critical. The hourly you can earn at NL25 and NL50 is not one many people would envy you for and you need to be aware that even if you start winning at NL25 it doesn't mean you will be making good money (It is cool money considering it's a hobby but not really as a real job substitute). But you're building a decent roll when winning at NL25/NL50 and your skills are becoming closer to the ones you need to earn an hourly to really cash out $$.

I've just recently read a blog of a player regularly cashing between $5-10k (if I recite the graphs correctly) during working full time at a new work position while grinding 100/200zoom. Now this thread was pretty sick and I highly doubt everyone can pull that but there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to grind your way up to beating NL50 and slowly getting ready to transition to NL100/NL200 where the money starts to sit and put your mind around making decent money with poker then. It could easily take 6-24 months though.

So if you really feel that you have improved recently I would be proud of that and continue your journey. Of course there are spots where you'll blast off many chips in stupid hands and you easily can track your mistakes in post-hand analysis. The fact that these things occur doesn't mean you didn't improve and are cursed to never beat low stakes. Even if you reduce the times making a horrible decision by 50% it will already boost your winrate by maybe +3-4BB but during a downswing you will feel like nothing has changed even though it might have.

But yeah it sounds reasonable to readjust the meaning of poker from a money standpoint at your current position and for the short term future to give it a better chance.

I personally have to say I enjoyed this format a lot. While surely I do enjoy Chris analysing his own hands with deep thought processes too this opened up analysis of completely different lines chris would probably not have taken. Given the one of a kind environment these hands took place and Chris trying to combine this setting with theory I liked this a lot despite the fact that obviously we got to see less GTO lines than in a standard vid.

Cool insights! Enjoyed watching this a lot :)

Looking forward to your new videos and surely still watching some of your library!

Welcome to the site!

The concept you want to learn more about is surely one of the most crucial ones to improve your game. I remember many years ago if you just knew that the preflop aggressor should c-bet on many boards this would almost be enough to print money in low stakes. But then players have learnt that if people are c-betting almost every board with a high frequency they should themselves play back more aggressively / call down more frequently with mediocre holdings to profit themselves.

Like that when you will just c-bet by feel on almost each flop with a high frequency opponents can exploit you pretty easily.

The recommendations above are very valuable and I believe too that especially all c-betting videos in the learning paths will improve your basic understanding of these situations.

I can specifically suggest you one video that explains the concept which player has the range advantage on different boards in a very fundamental style:
Range Advantages in 3B Pots (Vincent V)
It visualizes the ranges for both players based on the preflop action and it becomes very intuitive why one player has the range advantage on a given board but on a different flop it might be drastically different.

Another video that explains the process of how to build your exact c-betting range once you know how frequently you should be betting a certain texture is:
Continuation Bets (Vincent V)
Here you learn which hands you should use to bluff and why you should also check some value hands plus which ones are the best candidates.

Don't be deterred that the first video is about 3 bet pots and in a heads-up setting. These videos are super valuable when you want to learn the appropriate thought process and once you've got that down you can build your understanding from watching all further videos that might be close to the game you actually play. Because once you've understood the underlying reasons you can try to make sense of a coach saying "CO has the range advantage on this board and should be betting a lot".

The basic idea behind the range advantage concept is that each player has a different range based on the preflop action. Let's take one of the most common clashes in NLHE. Cut-Off opens and the BB calls. The ranges might look something like this:

(CO Opening Range)

You can see that this is simply the top 25% of his hands which makes this range strong. He has all the premium pairs and all other strong holdings down to a certain threshold.

If you compare this with the BB calling range:
(BB Calling Range)

This is quite a bit different. First, the BB defends a wider range (30% instead of 25%) which already makes his range weaker. But the most important thing is that the BB has the chance to raise (3bet) over the CO open and the fact that he doesn't weakens his range. BB should raise almost all of his premium holdings - that's why all the good hands in the BB's picture are faded/greyed out - this means he only holds these hands 5-15% of the time. And some others maybe 50% of the time. Both things together make the range considerably weaker.

But the general range advantage CO has over BB will not continue equally on all flops.

Flop 1: Ah 8c 2s
If you look at the pictures above you should see that this range is amazing for the CO-opener. He has more combinations of A with any other card (75 combinations compared to only 45 combinations of the BB - this you can see in software). In addition KK, QQ, JJ are still strong hands on this board despite it's not the perfect flop for them.

Flop 2: 8s 7s 4h
On this flop things become more complex...well the CO still has more premium hands (JJ-AA) which are very strong...but suddenly BB is holding hands like 65s/86s/9s6s which we might not have. These hands are suddenly stronger than our AK. Also the BB may see two overcards e.g. QhJh and decide he's not going to fold. To sum up it's just way easier for the BB to play back.

So comparing these two flops we should c-bet more on the A82 flop because we have more value hands on this flop and the BB has few. And when we have lots of value hands we can also add more bluffs. For instance c-betting JTo here is very valuable since our hand has not much equity if we check down to the river but we can expect our opponent to fold very often (because he connects so poor with the flop and because even if he has 44 he might sometimes fold noticing that we will have lots of Aces or better pocket pairs).

On the 8s7s4h flop however we have to be more selective. If we just start betting KJo here this is critical -> our opponent will have hit a lot of pairs and we're throwing money to his side. Plus our fold equity is worse too because he will have connected more frequently (more pairs / flush draws / straight draws / overcards) and decide to continue.

In your defense the late reg was like 3 hours or sth right? ;)

dough..I'm already regretting this before I start but well...

Va a tener muchas diferentes avatars, no solamente el abuelo ;)
Era un ejemplo para demostrar los diferentes colores para marcar por ejemplo los villains tight o loose aggressive. Entonces los colores son una opción adicionalmente para clasificar tus oponentes

Saludos :D

Here's a screenshot from Update #2 with some examples

This one is tricky but the definition Phil aimed at is the other way round.

Good game quality means many weaker players (which makes the games softer and more juicy -> thus more valuable to play in -> higher game quality).

It's indeed pretty counter-intuitive now that you pointed it out :P

haha no don't run it again all good ;)

Hey QP4NIC welcome here at Run It Once!

Let me start with the most important thing: When subscribing to either Essential or Elite there is no restriction how many videos you can watch. The 5 or 14 new videos each week only refers to the new content being steadily released on the site (which is 5 Essential videos/week plus 9 Elite videos/week). However when signing up you gain access to the complete library (over 4,000 videos) and you can watch all of them even if you just signed up.

Just today we have created a new Learning Path called "Getting Started" for our new members, as a place to get started on the right foot when newly subscribing to one of the plans.

However when looking for specific advice it's a good idea to ask for suggestions of the community since every one has different valuable insights.

The MTT Learning Path is indeed a valuable starting point. But be aware that not all videos make it into the learning paths so it's always a good idea to play around with the filters on the main video page:
For instance this sends you to all videos that cover MTT and are included in the Essential plan. By selecting different sorting types you can either see newest videos first or alternatively sort by popularity.

Ryan Martin has recently produced some theoretical MTT videos that are nice for getting started or if you're more interested in hand history reviews check out the recent series of Owen Shiels in the Powerfest Mini Main Event $22 or Thomas James discussing his way to his win at the Big $22.

Pedro Madeira is one of our newest coaches who dedicated his first series to the strategic differences between progressive knockout tourneys and the traditional freezeout structure.

I hope others will jump in to diversify this starting point but I'm sure you'll find your way around quickly.

okey this may be on myself ;) Spoiler, very boring hand (2BB stack).

~1700th ($108) but no day 2 :(

Although this hand is a bit different Elías gets into why KTs isn't a great 3-bet calling hand in his situation. I think there are some analogies you can extract for the preflop decision here

SinKarma Talsk When & Why to Slow Play (RIO Youtube)

I feel the Learning Path -> NLHE ->
-> Exploitative Play will allow you to investigate this topic. If you feel there‘s still missing something don‘t hesitate to come back here.