O
ddly, as much thought as I’ve put into the more than 100 instructional poker videos I’ve made and the many more I plan to make, I’ve never actually asked my audience what they like to see in a poker video.
So… I’m doing that now. In your opinion, what makes for a good poker video? Do you learn more from hand examples, power points, theory discussions, watching a full session, etc.? What do you want to see more of? What feels like a waste of time? What makes you turn off a video without finishing it? I’m interested in any and all comments, criticism, and advice. Thanks!
Multi table real time session. I learn the most from watching as many hands as possible even if the commentary is not as in depth. If a video is a session video and there are frequent pauses to discuss a single hand for like 5 or 10 minutes I get frustrated. Move on…more hands.
Interesting. I’d actually stopped doing these because I felt they were among my weakest. It was really draining to play and talk at the same time, and I felt like both my play and my commentary suffered as a result. If other people like this format as well, though, I’ll be glad to give it another shot.
All of the things you listed above were/are useful to me, although hand examples and power points were more useful to me when I was just starting out, and now, theory discussion and full session vids are the most useful. Contrary to jeff, I think I gain the most from session vids where there are pauses to discuss important hands relative to your overall strategy and how it relates to theory. But anyway, I just want to say that I think you’re an excellent poker teacher, Foucault (on the the level of Galfond imo), I’ve learned tons from your vids/articles/blog posts, and I wanted to thank you. As for what felt like a waste of time: For me personally, the only vid series of yours that I didn’t finish watching was the Story Time series. I liked the idea of the series in abstract, but the ultimate result I felt was too abstract (which I know was kind of the point). As for what I want to see more of: More headsup vids! and more full ring vids!
That’s great, ambi, thanks! Since you mention Galfond, who are some other instructors you particularly like, not necessarily PSP folk but just in general? I agree that his are great (what I’ve seen of them), and I do watch videos from other sites from time to time just to get new ideas and what not.
As far as quality of poker teaching goes, the only other guy on your guys’ level at clearly articulating high-level thought process imo is DOGISHEAD. I’ve also learned quite a bit from watching Cole South’s and theAshman’s vids, but that wasn’t from them articulating their thought processes so much as me pausing and rewinding their videos, slowly going over in my mind what they’re kind of vaguely saying during hands that they play differently than I would, and deconstructing for myself how their style works and what I can maybe incorporate into my own play. With the vids that you, Galfond, and DOGISHEAD produce, I generally don’t have to put in as much legwork of my own in order to have an aha moment because you guys explain why you do what you do so well. While it’s vastly important that I AM able to deconstruct and analyze high-level play on my own, watching vids is less time-consuming and more “fun” when the instructor does it for me. And not to go all meta and shit, but I feel like I only learned how to deconstruct and analyze as well as I do (in my mind, at least) because I learned how to learn from y’alls’ deconstruction and analysis.
I like the kind of videos where we freeze at a decision making point and allow ourselves to surmise possible choices or outcomes. Going in real time never seems to help me much.
i think the best videos are HH reviews in the replayer, where you analyze all streets in-depth with all possible options. i like to see the tough spots, and a lot of times the live 4 tabling session doesn’t have enough time or enough tough spots to review.
You have very good reviews, and I like some of your early ones like reading the river and tackling the turn. But in addition to you, Vanessa Selbst does great HH reviews with DC members. I get a lot out of those, because the hands are relevant to the stakes i play, and they aren’t played optimally.
Cool, thanks. I’ve never seen any of Vanessa’s videos, but I have heard good things.
I don’t think there’s a single format that’s better than the rest. I like the in depth discussion of hands in the replayer that you did for example in the flop, turn and river series. I think those help me most when it comes to about what I should be thinking in a hand and on what factors I should base my decisions. On the other hand I also like “live” play because there might be some interesting spots that would never make the cut for an in depth analysis, but that might still have a huge impact on the winrate. It also allows the viewer to follow the table dynamic.
Last but not least I also like watching something different like the story time series that gives me a different view.
I pretty much agree with the other responses. Some of your best videos, imo, were the ones focused on a specific topic or subject. I think you’re far better at articulating and teaching specific concepts than other video instructors, so I’d love to see more powerpoint/theory videos.
On the other hand I do find certain live play videos informative and entertaining. Though I usually only watch tournament related ones. It is always good to watch a talented player wrestle with tough decisions as they occur, and to pick up on the small little details of their play that you might not see otherwise. I imagine not everyone is good at explaining those tough decisions in the heat of the moment, and if it distracts from your play than I’d say don’t worry about focusing on them. I also think its easier for some people to throw up camtasia during a session than it would be to sit down and explain a tough concept for an hour.
In other words more theory videos would be great!
I don’t care for session videos, either raw or edited. They just bore me, and the resolution in most of the ones I’ve seen is so crappy that I can’t follow the action anyway.
I prefer strategy videos that cover specific topics. It helps if the teacher knows what s/he’s talking about and offers a lucid, well-organized, jargon-free explanation. If your content is crap and you can’t make yourself understand, it really doesn’t matter whether you use PowerPoint or draw pictures with your finger in wet sand.
Examples are good and, I think, necessary. It’s hard for most people to apply abstract ideas to real-world problems.
A format that I think is fantastic but which I have never personally seen in a video is that used in Reuben’s How Good is Your Pot Limit Omaha? and similar books. Maybe someone has done this, and I just haven’t seen it.
Thanks, Lin. I’ve had similar problems trying to watch videos where people are on 6+ screens. I actually just saw one on Cardrunners where Jungleman was playing 5 tables but in post-production they highlighted and zoomed in on whichever table he was talking about at the time. It was very effective, but I think that we don’t have the editing/production staff for that kind of fancy pants stuff at PSP.
I’m afraid I’m not familiar with Reuben’s book. Is his technique something you can explain easily?
Must-read book if you play PLO. And I don’t recommend very many books.
Basically he describes how a hand was played the same way you or anyone else would, except that each time it’s his turn, he gives you a multiple choice question of what to do, e.g. “Do you (a) call, (b) raise to 200, (c) raise to 500, (d) fold?”. Sometimes the questions are hypothetical (i.e., “What would you do if Bambi had raised to 2500?”). After walking through the hand, he assigns a score to each answer and offers some analysis.
He doesn’t always assign the highest score to the play he made. In fact, the great majority of hands are ones he messed up somewhere along the way.
I don’t much to add on the poker aspect, but here is my two cents on presentation.
Any good presentation has a solid structure. Beginning, middle, end. Introduction, core, summary. Tell ’em what you’ll tell ’em, Tell ’em, then tell ’em what you told ’em.
Since you don’t always know your audience (their skill level, or whether they learn visually or by listening) i suggest videos that include strong commentary as well video examples of the concepts.
Thanks, pie. That slogan is something I’ve heard from quite a few professional educators as well, and I do try to be conscious of it when producing videos.
I like live sessions and full tourneys on the replayer. I like seeing hands you fold as much as the ones you play. Doing the live vids has to be tough, but the sweat when you go on a deep run adds interest.
Great stuff overall. I enjoy your videos, writing, and perspective on the game.
Thanks very much outlier. I think you’re absolutely right about seeing hands that are folded, or as someone else said little things that are important but wouldn’t make it onto a hand review video.
foxwoodfiend’s “headhunter” series at deucesC, dogishead on CR and deucesC and cts’ video series against a crazy russian on CR are probably the definitive videos for a HU cash player, i saw some of your HU cash vidoes and didnt like them too much ..
if i had to put a finger on what i liked it would be the style of play in these videos (FWF being v.aggressive and continuing to be aggressive in most/every situations, dogishead smart/slightly conservative style and prefering to call a lot than raise in certain situations, while cts struggling to get something going/play good against the russian who seemed to be making every hand),
all these series brought out each particular style very very nicely, most videos fail to do that
Thanks. I think the CTS videos are the only ones of these I’ve seen, but I do remember liking those a lot. I agree that my heads up videos are not among my strongest. Sadly I think this has more to do with my heads up game than with my video-making prowess đ
I agree that showing folded hands in tourney vids make them more informative. Any new tourney vids in the works?
Maybe soon you will âgo deepâ again and take down three tourneys with 1000+ entrants simultaneously. Youâll probably only do âall rightâ though: youâll only win one for a six figure score and cash in the rest. Grinding gets like that sometimes, DH.
Sorry again that I’m not bragging enough for you.
I think all of your vids have merit, and I wouldn’t stop doing any specfic type. One suggestion I do have for your live play vids: It can be difficult to follow the action, but I think that if you were to always sit in one place on each table it would be much easier. This way I’m not looking for you on the table and by then you’ve made your decision and moved on to the next one. Keep up the good work, I love your stuff
Good suggestion! I know they can be tough to follow, and this seems like an easy way to adjust for that.
I’m not a big fan of multi-tabling session videos…as someone mentioned, they just get boring. No depth. But still the live aspect is valuable. So some of the best videos I’ve seen are live action videos where the commentary is put in after the fact, so the live action can be paused when needed.
Good planning seems to make for the best videos, i.e. a presentation, or hands grouped around a theme. My favorite are in depth replayer reviews of very complex hands. Deep analysis of a few hands, as opposed to a video where the coach says things like “Well, We’ve got AQ here…do we shove?…yeah I’m gonna shove. weeee!” Yep, some coaches are about that deep. The best coaches provide alternatives. You see how they play when someone checks, for example, but you also hear about what they would have done if the opponent had done something differently.
I like 2-4 table live sessions videos the most. Andrew – you’re very good teacher, i like your videos, very instructional, keep em coming, thanks!
Awesome, thanks! I just recorded a 4-tabling live session the other night, so keep an eye out!