March 17, 2011
Programming the Seasons
Our second season of video content in 2011 started Monday. This marks roughly our 20th season of content planning! In order to understand how and why we produce the videos that we do, let’s take the hot tub time machine back to the birth of the original idea to present poker training videos in series.
In mid 2007 I was about a year into running a popular personal coaching website called 3-bet.net. Many of the current Executive Producers and some of our coaches here were coaching there. Cardrunners was the big daddy in poker training, and I recall having several conversations with Chuck about how 3-bet should move into the video game (poker training, not like, Red Dead Redemption). At this point I didn’t have much interest in churning out poker videos. I had just made more money than I ever thought possible playing poker, so if I were going to invest more time into business it was only going to be if I were doing something creative and unique. Awhile later the opportunity came up to fly to Anaheim to discuss doing a merger with Rob, Chris and Joe to form a new company, in which we would approach the best NL coaches at 3-bet about producing videos. But there was still some piece of the puzzle missing. Where was the big idea?
Chuck called me a few days before I was set to head out west. He was working as an economist for NYC at the time. A lightbulb had gone off. What if we produced videos in episodic series? What if you could follow the development of a concept, or your favorite instructor’s progression through the stakes over a set period of time? It clicked right away. It would work like a TV network! We would have seasons with multiple series, series that could be viewed again and again because they had context, were connected, and would represent foundational building blocks of poker knowledge. If books were how everyone was used to learning poker, the video library would become the book and the series the chapters and we would shift the paradigm. I went out to California and pitched the idea to Joe, Chris and Rob. Three days later Chuck quit his job to chase the dream. There was scotch.
Back to today. We have amassed a library of over 2000 videos! Many of those videos, in series, are fixtures of the modern poker training landscape and cover all variety of games. Unconventional Wisdom, The Coaching Tree, The Price is Right, pr1nnyraiding, Mathematics of NLHE, Pokersense, the Haj School, The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment, Dear FoxwoodsFiend, The Blueprint, the Thin Red Line, Where the Buffalo Roam, there are countless others. With a library this large and all this material, what can we bring to the table that hasn’t been seen before? Our EPs and coaches have become experts in the art of making poker training videos and are now adept at producing all variety of material. They are considered by many to be some of the best players in the game, but they are also the best teachers and the most respected thinkers. We are not interested in giving you more videos just like the ones you’ve seen before and neither are they. There isn’t enough time in the day to watch all the content here, or all the content out there. So we design our Seasons by the same principle that has driven us this far: the drive to innovate and be creative.
See some of the content that’s being released so far in 2011: On Balance, The Thin Red Grind, Math Attacks!, pr1nnyraiding 3, Ansky and Blah. We always ask ourselves: will this be fun to watch? Would we watch it? Will it put people to sleep? Will it make you better at poker? Is it answering relevant questions? The way all of us on the content end of things look at it is, if we’re adding another video to that huge library... it better make its presence felt. We are looking for lasting impact, we are looking to pioneer new methods of teaching to help you better absorb the concepts you need to win more money at poker. In my opinion, this year may be our best year of videos yet. There will be new combinations of instructors, new ideas, new ways of presenting old concepts, old ideas updated for the modern, constantly changing playing environments. More and better community involvement. DC Shorts. Because sometimes 20 minutes a day is just enough.
Video Series
DC Shorts
If you have your own ideas, post them there. Some of our best series are born from your ideas or pieces of your ideas. We’re always listening and always trying to give you a nice mix of what you want... and what you need.
Over 2000 videos! Geez. If there’s anyone out there who’s watched them all... scotch is on me.
Krantz
In mid 2007 I was about a year into running a popular personal coaching website called 3-bet.net. Many of the current Executive Producers and some of our coaches here were coaching there. Cardrunners was the big daddy in poker training, and I recall having several conversations with Chuck about how 3-bet should move into the video game (poker training, not like, Red Dead Redemption). At this point I didn’t have much interest in churning out poker videos. I had just made more money than I ever thought possible playing poker, so if I were going to invest more time into business it was only going to be if I were doing something creative and unique. Awhile later the opportunity came up to fly to Anaheim to discuss doing a merger with Rob, Chris and Joe to form a new company, in which we would approach the best NL coaches at 3-bet about producing videos. But there was still some piece of the puzzle missing. Where was the big idea?
Chuck called me a few days before I was set to head out west. He was working as an economist for NYC at the time. A lightbulb had gone off. What if we produced videos in episodic series? What if you could follow the development of a concept, or your favorite instructor’s progression through the stakes over a set period of time? It clicked right away. It would work like a TV network! We would have seasons with multiple series, series that could be viewed again and again because they had context, were connected, and would represent foundational building blocks of poker knowledge. If books were how everyone was used to learning poker, the video library would become the book and the series the chapters and we would shift the paradigm. I went out to California and pitched the idea to Joe, Chris and Rob. Three days later Chuck quit his job to chase the dream. There was scotch.
Back to today. We have amassed a library of over 2000 videos! Many of those videos, in series, are fixtures of the modern poker training landscape and cover all variety of games. Unconventional Wisdom, The Coaching Tree, The Price is Right, pr1nnyraiding, Mathematics of NLHE, Pokersense, the Haj School, The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment, Dear FoxwoodsFiend, The Blueprint, the Thin Red Line, Where the Buffalo Roam, there are countless others. With a library this large and all this material, what can we bring to the table that hasn’t been seen before? Our EPs and coaches have become experts in the art of making poker training videos and are now adept at producing all variety of material. They are considered by many to be some of the best players in the game, but they are also the best teachers and the most respected thinkers. We are not interested in giving you more videos just like the ones you’ve seen before and neither are they. There isn’t enough time in the day to watch all the content here, or all the content out there. So we design our Seasons by the same principle that has driven us this far: the drive to innovate and be creative.
See some of the content that’s being released so far in 2011: On Balance, The Thin Red Grind, Math Attacks!, pr1nnyraiding 3, Ansky and Blah. We always ask ourselves: will this be fun to watch? Would we watch it? Will it put people to sleep? Will it make you better at poker? Is it answering relevant questions? The way all of us on the content end of things look at it is, if we’re adding another video to that huge library... it better make its presence felt. We are looking for lasting impact, we are looking to pioneer new methods of teaching to help you better absorb the concepts you need to win more money at poker. In my opinion, this year may be our best year of videos yet. There will be new combinations of instructors, new ideas, new ways of presenting old concepts, old ideas updated for the modern, constantly changing playing environments. More and better community involvement. DC Shorts. Because sometimes 20 minutes a day is just enough.
Video Series
DC Shorts
If you have your own ideas, post them there. Some of our best series are born from your ideas or pieces of your ideas. We’re always listening and always trying to give you a nice mix of what you want... and what you need.
Over 2000 videos! Geez. If there’s anyone out there who’s watched them all... scotch is on me.
Krantz
2 Comments:
Bonito posted on March 18, 2011 at 19:24 PM
I think you owe Tecmo a lot of scotch.
malfaire posted on March 19, 2011 at 03:03 AM
Greatly looking forward to this season's PLO content!
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