Secret HQ Poker Forums

I'm starting a new thread here for our members to get things rolling along, and I'll be posting a short intro for myself.

Current members are:

Rootbeer2000
AdriennesRevenge
Isac
Nebulosity
Boomer
SteveDaRake (Not confirmed yet)

aldine07 is welcome to join as well.

Intro for me taken from answer rootbeer's questions in the original thread:

I think the first thing we need to do figure out the best day and time for meetings.

I'm on GMT and available most weekday nights on Skype. I'm usually offline when grinding hands but if I know in advance there's a sweat session on etc I'll come online. At weekends I can be all over the place but again I'll prioritize as best I can.

Another thing is writing something about our poker history:

what stakes you play?

0.5/1. Have played 1/2 and an extremely ill-advised small shot at 2/4. Current stakes due to cashouts more than anything else. Currently in fairly long break-even stretch which has included a 310BB downswing.

what are your strengths and weaknesses?

Strengths: Analytical Work and Situation Resolution. PF Hand Selection and Stealing. Range Adaptation based on opposition. Isolation plays. Game Selection.

Weaknesses: Don't grind enough. Never shut up once on a topic (See any vid I've been in). A little too prone to quit a session going bad (tilt?), SB play (need to get involved more w/ bad players). Can't play more than 2 tables.

how many hands you play?

Not Enough. Current aim to to average 10 hours a week 2-tabling which should seen me get in about 8k a month which is acceptable. Prior to 2009 I'd be lucky averaging 3.5k

what do you want out of this study group?

Buddies to talk poker with. An insight into other good players thoughts at the limits I'm playing.

And now a few questions of my own....

Specific Aims for January

1) Get 8k hands in.
2) Make at least 2 vids

Areas to work on

1) Post Flop value Betting
2) SB play in limped pots
3) Improving mental strength
4) Build confidence in game

Skype name

boomer2k7 (Please Introduce yourself before contacting me. I've had a couple of bots try to "contact" me so whoever doesn't contact me first now gets blocked and that's just inconvenient)

BTW just in case people don't know:

January Video 1

http://www.deucescracked.com/forums/22-Member-Videos/13960-First-Shots-at-50-1-00-6Max-LHE

Adrienne's Revenge takes on 0.5/1. Let's get to reviewing people. I'm currently encoding a WMV version of it which hopefully will be a little smaller

Something's screwing up the link code atm but the dev team are aware of it apparently.


EDIT: BTW I'm the "Me" mentioned in the OP

EDIT: BTW I'm the "Me" mentioned in the OP

Not anymore.

Not anymore.

Ty Entity for ninja modding(Now I just look crazy like I'm seeing things but that's cool )

K guys some ideas for what we can do this month.

1) Member Vids

I think we should aim to do 1-2 a week, that gives everyone a chance to get one in during a month. Any more and I think it gets over-crowded. AdreinnesRevenge has started us off so let's keep it going.

2) Skype Sweat Sessions

These take quite a bit of organizing , but can be very useful. It would be advantageous if someone recorded the sesion and turned it into a video. I've got all the stuff needed to do that (including recording the Skype Call)

3) Strategy Discussion

Pick a Topic. Any topic. Blind Defense, Blind Stealing, Turn C-Betting, Tilt, Playing vs Fish etc then we can get together either on Skype or on the forum and run through some example hands or simply discuss and adapt ranges. Once again, if on skype this can be recorded for everyone's benefit and maybe even dropped into a coaches' lap at some point for review.

4) Any Other business

On a Downsing? Destroying everyone you played against? Made a "sick" K-high calldown? We can help/offer support/ask you wtf you're doing with K-high it's all there. We're a team now.

So what do you guys thing?

I'm going to continue with the intro Boomer made, answering the same questions

I think the first thing we need to do figure out the best day and time for meetings.

I'm on CET and will be available most weekdays between 10.00 AM and 3.00 PM (GMT it's 9.00 AM - 2.00 PM) and again in the evenings from 20.00 PM till 1.00 AM (GMT 19.00 PM - 00.00 AM). In the weekends I will often need to have a scheduled meeting for being available, but check if I'm on Skype mostly in the late hours.

another thing is writing something about our poker history

What stakes you play
Atm I'm on 0.5/1. I have played 1/2 for the most of the time though and taken shots on 2/4. The current stake is due to cashouts and the fact that I wan't to have a big BR before moving up. I can get money scared.

what are your strengths and weaknesses)
Strengths:
Game selection. PF hand selecting, special with regard to ISO-plays depending on the opposition. Tilt-avoidance, quitting right. Only plays when I'm READY to play. Plays both FR and 6m.

Weaknesses:
Handreading - handranges for opponents. Playing OOP special from the blinds. HU against tricky opponents. Not confident playing more than 2 tables of 6m - while I'm playing 6-8 tables of FR. Lack of confident if I see good moves from other players. Analytical work, I doesn't use enough time on session reviews, DC vids reviews (e.g. often just watch the vids and that's it), posting and discussing hands. I don't feel I got enough time to do all the poker related stuff I want to do.

how many hands you play
It varies a lot, some months it's +10K others around 5K. Doesn't want to set a played-hands goal, but realistically it will be around the 10K mark.

what do you want out of this study group
Poker player network, being more inclined to talk poker with the team mates. Getting more quality from the time I spend studying poker. Discovering how other good players at the micro stakes, think, feels, plays and studies poker.

Specific Aims for January
Publish at least 1 vid, hopefully more.
Analyze the vids posted from team mates.
View, analyze, and take notes of random DC vids (again).
Only play when I'm ready for playing.

Areas to work on, specific for January
River value betting
When to peel, when to not peel
General analytical stuff (like posted above)

Skype name
kentlodberg - please attach an introduction to yourself.

K guys some ideas for what we can do this month.
1) Member Vids

I think we should aim to do 1-2 a week, that gives everyone a chance to get one in during a month. Any more and I think it gets over-crowded. AdreinnesRevenge has started us off so let's keep it going.

Agree on this. But I think we need to decide whether or not the vid should be with audio commentary. IMO theres pros and cons for both.
Pros: Indept insight to the players thought process. Live reads, explaining of stats, history with opponents etc. Will be something like a coaching vid where we all analyze the thought process and plays and then discuss it in a forum thread.
Cons: Some members might be talking much in the beginning of the vid and then less at the end, I've done this my self for the practise vids I've made. Some might not focus enough on the play and table conditions becaus they are too busy talking. Some might feel their language isn't good enough for commenting on the play (however, not that likely) and there may also bee issues with bad microphone and other technical stuff.
Not including commentary also gives opp. to a vid like Boomers RLMG #8 with Pygmy and Entity.

Also we need have a plan for which week we are analyzing whom.

2) Skype Sweat Sessions

These take quite a bit of organizing , but can be very useful. It would be advantageous if someone recorded the sesion and turned it into a video. I've got all the stuff needed to do that (including recording the Skype Call)

This would be great and should be very useful.

3) Strategy Discussion

Pick a Topic. Any topic. Blind Defense, Blind Stealing, Turn C-Betting, Tilt, Playing vs Fish etc then we can get together either on Skype or on the forum and run through some example hands or simply discuss and adapt ranges. Once again, if on skype this can be recorded for everyone's benefit and maybe even dropped into a coaches' lap at some point for review.

Also very good idea, maybe something like a new theme for every one or second week. To record it just increases the value

4) Any Other business

On a Downsing? Destroying everyone you played against? Made a "sick" K-high calldown? We can help/offer support/ask you wtf you're doing with K-high it's all there. We're a team now.

Def. a very important thing of being a team. We need to be able to speak free and give and receive well formulated critic. And we also need to allow ourself to pick that ugly played T3 hand, or that bluff that just wasn't justified by the circumstances, and show it.

Don't be afraid of saying or writing ugly things and questions, we are all here to learn...

Current stakes due to cashouts more than anything else...

Wat u mean u can take cash OUT of poker sites??? o.0 I only deposit ^.^

What do you want out of this study group?
I think we can spur each other on to new heights of greatness and help keep each other motivated and on track. Plus I'm competitive so if u guys are ahead of me I'll become possessed to be better

+1 for this

BTW Adrienne, I can't find you on Skype...

Will also review you vid later.

Regarding Audio on videos I'd say record it anyway and then decide becasue what makes commentay good is that we get the player's thought process at the time.

You can always delete it later using VirtualDub or Camtasia itself. (If anyone doesn't know how to do this I'll be happy to show them)

Here's just some tips to what I'd recommend if you're not sure about recording a vid and may help with file size / encoding.

1) Video frame rate at no more than 15fps. This is Poker we're watching, not the Matrix.

2) If you're using Camtasia, download Windows Media Encoder 9 from the link below

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

This will allow Camtasia's "Best Quality and File Size" encode for a wmv to get it to about 1MB/minute for 2-tabling with audio.

3) Try and explain your current thought process as clearly as possible, don't worry if it takes a little longer, for your first few vids either don't commentate live or don't play turbo tables.

4) If you're using Camstudio (the free one) download Virtual Dub which should allow you to at least do some compressing on it, and again set it to 15fps when recording otherwise the raw avi size goes out of control (it could be over a gig for 45 mins).

I like the idea of setting a topic for the week/fortnight. Once everyone has posted here it may be an idea to see where we should start (My favourite topics are stealing, Iso-ing and Blind play atm but I'd like to get on to a few complex post-flop spots too)

FWIW I'm feeling pretty badly under the weather tonight so not gonna do anything but I'll try and get a Member Vid done this weekend for you guys and we can get this party started

BTW Adrienne, I can't find you on Skype...

I added u as a contact a couple days ago... err well I got someone named Kent from Denmark! Hopefully it's u

I'll change my name to same as on here so it's less confusing

lol I think Bi Gro Land Lubbers is reppin at least 4 countries !

UK
Canada
US
Denmark

A brief history

I joined DC in Sept, ’08 after being involved in 2 other training sites. The first one focused on all forms of poker and I credit it for teaching me how to bonus whore and learn FR LHE, which was my first love. It was easy bouncing around in the Neteller days and racking up the cash for a serious BR.

The other site dealt only in 6-max NL and I focused all my energies on that game until I got really frustrated by the beats and, quite honestly, my poor post-flop decisions. I made a commitment to myself that I only wanted to play 6-max LHE and really improve all aspects of the game but didn’t really know which site would be a good fit until I did a 2+2 session review and was paired up with Hypnotic. He suggested I take a look at the site and use the 7-day free trial, as he felt it would improve my game.

I kicked it around in my head (read lethargy into this) and finally signed up and since I’ve joined my bb/100 has increased to 3/100, albeit over a really small sample of hands. I still consider myself a beginner in the game.


What stakes do you play?

Currently I play .25/.50 on FTP and Bodog and.10/.20 at Stars. I’m a BR nit and try to use the 400-500 BB rule for the stakes I play. If I consolidated all my $ onto one site I’d be rolled for 1 / 2 but feel I’m nowhere near capable of playing that game. Yet.

Strengths

BR Management
I have a pretty good grasp of what I want to do pre-flop but don’t really have any opening ranges down for myself, so I have a lot of work to do. I play a bit more by feel and love iso-raising limpers! I also think I do well against the loose passives, am learnig how to attack the LAGS (still need work here) but the tricky TAGS give me fits at times.


Weaknesses

Not playing enough hands.
I don’t review my own sessions regularly.
Post-flop and Hand Reading needs improvement.
I suffer from finger tilt and don’t stop to think about a player’s range when I have a good hand and they’re fighting back.

How many hands do you play?

Not nearly enough, IMO. I play 2 tables at the most and sporadically at that so my progress feels slow.

What do you want out of this group?
I want to be a well rounded player and be better at recognizing spots to attack my opponents’ weaknesses.

Poker buddies to talk to about the game we all love. I don’t have many friends that play, and if they do they all gravitate towards NL.

FYI, I sent PMs to SteveDaRake and aldine07 and asked them to join.

I added u as a contact a couple days ago... err well I got someone named Kent from Denmark! Hopefully it's u

I'll change my name to same as on here so it's less confusing

lol I think Bi Gro Land Lubbers is reppin at least 4 countries !

UK
Canada
US
Denmark

Maybe we should call ourselves the UN? Nah, we'd discuss a lot but never accomplish anything

Ahoy there Land Lubbers!

Have you got room for one more?

I like the look of your thread and am seriously up for some major improvement in 2009.

Please let me know a good next step.

I'm OK with initiation ceremonies as long as no animals are harmed.

Greg


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Update

A quick look at AdriennesRevenge vid shows me you play LHE and I am a NL Player

I feel a bit of a dick!

GL for 2009 anyway