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Yeah I don't know if 60 minutes was chosen as the industry standard because it's the best length or because 60 minutes makes an hour! I think they can be good lengths for certain theory/HH videos but if I'm watching a video review/live play and taking everything I can out of it (including pauses) anything over 30-40 minutes is a struggle.

So, 40 minutes videos and 1.5x # of videos/week would be awesome.

I remember when Cardrunners first came out, the videos were around the 40-45 minute mark. I think the same was true for DC. Now, it seems that the average is around 1 hour. I think maybe it's an attempt to give the consumer more "value", but I find because of the length of some of the episodes I've watched less videos, and when I do, I rarely get more than halfway through them.

I wouldn't mind sticking to the 8 episode series, even if the videos were shorter. As long as the content is good. Very few videos on here, or any site for that matter, would suffer from being 15-20 minutes shorter in length.

But to not only spit fire:
- I love Blah's series for sure and there was a gap in this all out approach to poker in first episodes followed by sweats/hhs (well Grindcore's first series was like that a bit)

- Math Attacks rocks, and Bellatrix makes great posts on the forums. A coach linking to The Economist? Golden. 20+hours book walk through series? Just great, I love the idea and it's something new for sure, please bring more unconventional series like this one.

- I love that many coaches respond to old videos when someone posts comments. Props goes to Sthief and Grindcore who respond to ancient videos and always take time to answer, like here:
http://www.deucescracked.com/videos/8981-Episode-Eight. This should be for sure encouraged even more, and I consider it vital if not the most important part of DC videos.

- Forum does get moderated, I got PMed a couple times, and grammar Nazi Tecmo and others take it too far often without even being paid for it, but I don't take stuff personally and love a good argument, maybe lightweight Snappie who kicks you out of a group for disagreeing with him without warning sees it differently ;P I think it works just fine.

One thing to add: I'd like to see blog posts appear in 'last posts' as that's how I read DC and many others do as well and I missed so many great posts because blogs don't get shown there

and why not take on some more people? Tbh, you are not doing a great job atm

Members report threads all the time to us, we can only do as well as the members reporting.

Ratings are going to give you a skewed perspective. An awful lot of videos have really close to 100% marks.

We removed the ratings system long ago. I was referring to the site metrics we keep in our database.

Blah's series has very few hands so far, so it's hard to implement. The fact that he's talking about strategies is good, but it's unusable: for example, he is addressing 3bet/4bet/5bet without changing range IP and OOP. He talks about adjusting 3bet range to exploit reads but not what to do in the absence of reads. Similarly, he's got 1/2 a vid on LAG play without any examples. Go watch episode 2, and try to figure out what changes you'd make to your ranges, or what plays you would add to become a LAG.

Worse than that, any series that tries to cover the same material adding in specific hand examples, or addressing IP/OOP factors is going to be "just like Apex Predator". I know I'm coming over as negative here, but that's mainly because the series seems to be the missing "Grindcore theory series" that I've been jonesing for since Thin Red Line episode 1.

His "reads" video is very good stuff.. I could handle the whole rest of the series being based on looking at hands like the two hands in the middle.

I hope you have taken this up with Blah in the video thread.

I've always assumed that it was any of the founders who were the moderators. Anytime I've had a problem, I just pm one of them.

Yep.

I hope you take out what you can to improve the site, Joe. So far I have the feeling you are more defending why I am "wrong".

I hope you take out what you can to improve the site, Joe. So far I have the feeling you are more defending why I am "wrong".

I'm just being objective, honestly. And as you know DeucesCracked, we beg for the criticisms. We would like constructive feedback, which is also why I asked you a few questions in my frist reply.

I'm just being objective, honestly. And as you know DeucesCracked, we beg for the criticisms. We would like constructive feedback, which is also why I asked you a few questions in my frist reply.

Deucescracked has a really nice layout, good forums and great blog feature, I love it versus all the other sites in terms of how the site itself works.

Downsides I noticed before stopped renewing were that a lot of videos were aimed at micro-stakes poker and also many producers were not bringing anything new that they hadn't covered in previous series. Also there didnt feel like there was enough community participation in videos at the stakes I wanted to beat.

More videos that go through the 'coaching model' would be great; taking a student, finding his leaks and plugging them over the course of the series. This is what is really good because often the player being helped in the series has the same leaks you can relate to, and you can find out how to plug them properly, without one to one coaching which is really expensive.

Moneytrain to midstakesville and Real life no limit grinder pro were good examples

okay, to answer your question in the first reply: No, I haven't watch Blah's series, because I heard from some people I respect its nothing really new

Take a break Snappie. If you come back in a while and you still feel the same, it's probly time to move on.
fwiw, I find that the typical response to criticism of this place tends to be "Lord of the Flies"-like, especially towards low/no status members, but I suspect this has more to do with team spirit and the legitimate frustration of wanting to get it right, rather than just for the sake of bieng dicks, lazy or complacent.

fwiw, I find that the typical response to criticism of this place tends to be "Lord of the Flies"-like, especially towards low/no status members, but I suspect this has more to do with team spirit and the legitimate frustration of wanting to get it right, rather than just for the sake of bieng dicks, lazy or complacent.

I wouldn't say it's "Lord of the Flies" like, but both, coaches and owners/executive producers, tend to get very defensive quite often despite always asking for criticism. And God forbid the criticism is the slightest bit less than very constructive.

And, when was the last time something was actually changed/content added because of a suggestion from a user or multiple users? A genuine question, haven't been following the forums or the content very carefully for the past few months.

Honestly, this...

And as you know DeucesCracked, we beg for the criticisms. We would like constructive feedback, which is also why I asked you a few questions in my frist reply.

.. is kind of pointless unless you're actually going to improve the site/content based on users' feedback.

I remember asking for SSNL 6max live play videos sometime after BF, and I don't think that even ONE has actually been released by now. Would seem like the easiest thing to do, that's why I don't think that's an unreasonable request. Again, have not been following very carefully and might have missed it, if so, I apologize.

As mentioned, you really have to drop the 8 episode series rule, that way you wouldn't have to get a coach to commit to 8 videos whenever he feels like making 1-3 and only has that much good content to share. Also that would make for some surprise content, released from time to time, otherwise I know already that there's only one or two days a week when something worth watching (for me) gets released and even then it sometimes turns out not to be the case.

I actually like this training site a lot, because of the great community and coaching staff. I have subscriptions on two other sites, and even though everything other than video content is better here, that is what we pay 30$/a month for, and I'm only still here because no matter how little good content there is, it is still def worth more than 30/month to anyone who actually plays poker. I mean that quite literally - just by watching half of a good training vid, your profit should increase by at least 30$ a month so it's definitely still a bargain.

And, when was the last time something was actually changed/content added because of a suggestion from a user or multiple users? A genuine question, haven't been following the forums or the content very carefully for the past few months.

I made a two requests and a suggestion this morning about putting HUD layouts into videos and text size. Joe is all over it same day in the thread at http://www.deucescracked.com/forums/7-Research-and-Development-/topics/429971-Production-Values?#post_3714191

Joe and the team aren't perfect, but they're not exactly Google support, you know?

I remember asking for SSNL 6max live play videos sometime after BF, and I don't think that even ONE has actually been released by now. Would seem like the easiest thing to do, that's why I don't think that's an unreasonable request. Again, have not been following very carefully and might have missed it, if so, I apologize.

When you say "live play", do you mean playing hands + commentary at the same time? Surely that would result in reduced quality of either the play or the commentary? I would imagine also that with the restricted choice of sites, US coaches (probably >80% of them) simply don't want to out their last few accountnames. Also, with the whole poker world spending 2 months in Vegas, it hasn't been the easiest time to respond.

I made a two requests and a suggestion this morning about putting HUD layouts into videos and text size. Joe is all over it same day in the thread at http://www.deucescracked.com/forums/7-Research-and-Development-/topics/429971-Production-Values?#post_3714191

Joe and the team aren't perfect, but they're not exactly Google support, you know?

That's obviously good, but it's far from a significant change and doesn't take more than just Joe PM'img this to every coach and leaving it up to them to stick to that suggestion. Besides, him being all over it in the thread doesn't mean much to me until I actually see every video coming out with this implemented from this day forward. Your suggestion #3 in that thread would be something worth seeing implemented and there is def more than one guy in the world that can do this, I know a couple of people at pokerstrategy do it, but obviously that's not gonna happen here, because it would require some dedication and hiring new people and whatnot.

I was thinking more along the lines if we , for example, made a thread asking for series similar to "Moneytrain to Midstakesville", preferably having jk3a back as the coach, or having Tom as the student, but would obviously be fine with any other coach as long as the idea, content, structure, stakes are similar, and having a decent amount of users support this idea, would we actually see a series like that anytime in the near future, or we'd get the usual Owner: "Definitely looks like a good idea, we'll see what we can do!" reply and get stuck with watching WSOP review, 193 episode long math book review series and 25nl full ring videos for months to come?

When you say "live play", do you mean playing hands + commentary at the same time? Surely that would result in reduced quality of either the play or the commentary? I would imagine also that with the restricted choice of sites, US coaches (probably >80% of them) simply don't want to out their last few accountnames. Also, with the whole poker world spending 2 months in Vegas, it hasn't been the easiest time to respond.

When I say "live play" I mean either what you just described, or a coach reviewing his OWN video. I have said already why I would prefer to see videos like that from time to time in the thread where I requested them, so I'm not going to repeat myself here, as that is not the point. Take Grindcore's series as an example, it's a huge hit within the community and is mostly live play with him commentating. He's also European, so why we are not seeing more videos from him is beyond me, unless of course he is not willing to make vids anymore.

Also It's not like videos like that have been lacking only during the WSOP, apart from the GC's series there haven't been any since January, I believe. And if any small stakes coach wants to hide his screennames he shouldn't really deserve to be a coach.

When you say "live play", do you mean playing hands + commentary at the same time? Surely that would result in reduced quality of either the play or the commentary?

Nooo, live play videos are some of the best to learn from. The reason is that there tends to be a big gap/difference between understanding theory and actually playing poker, which explains why there are a ton of players who understand poker theory very deeply yet don't win a lot of money/play very high, and why there are some players who don't understand poker theory nearly as well as others yet are big winners at high stakes. It also explain why you can often make plays that you "know" are bad and that you would never have advised had you been analyzing the hand in a poker forum.

HH reviews and theory videos train your understanding of theory (which is also good), but they don't allow you to condition your poker play. When a coach is playing/commenting live, you can experience the hands more vicariously and experientially, more like the way you'd experience the hands if you were actually playing. This way you can test your poker intuitions/instincts/habits/routines (whatever you want to call it) against the instructors, and your poker intuitions/instincts/habits/routines are what you use for like 90% of your decisions when you are actually at the table playing. The interaction with the instructor in the comments thread can then be used to clear up some things that were missed/have some things expanded upon with poker theory.

Commentary over a recorded video is sort of a bit of each (both play and theory), but it's still a lot different than what it's like when you are actually playing.

I used to love theory videos (still do), but I've recently come to learn why live play videos are often a much better way to improve.

Commentary over a recorded video is sort of a bit of each (both play and theory), but it's still a lot different than what it's like when you are actually playing.

I used to love theory videos (still do), but I've recently come to learn why live play videos are often a much better way to improve.

I used to avoid them, but you've made the sale

Could you recommend a top 3-5 series?