In case you didn’t hear the announcement on the latest podcast, Nate and I have just released more than five hours of tournament strategy podcasts that are available for $19 at www.nitcast.com. Though similar to the strategy discussions we have on the weekly podcasts, the content in these premiums podcasts is a more comprehensive treatment of a single subject. Each episode addresses a different stage of tournament play both theoretically and with examples drawn from the 2013 WSOP Main Event. We aim to make the content entertaining and educational for those who play tournaments of any stakes, and really for anyone whose interested in poker strategy.
If these prove popular, we plan to release similar content in the future, so any feedback or suggestions for topics you’d like us to address in the future would be very much appreciated!
I’m loving these so far. I can do a better job of systematically dissecting a table like you guys do. The nuances of each table should determine your strategy more so than a standard “correct” strategy that has worked for you in the past.
Listening to these makes me feel like an athlete in film study learning how to exploit holes in the other teams defenses on game day.
Carlos, do athletes go on food tilt?
AB and NM, I am so excited for these. Already purchased and downloaded, but I’m waiting for free time, without any distractions to listen to them. Not even my normal commute is enough solitude for these.
Thanks!
I certainly hope they live up to your expectations.
I just finished my first listen-through to the premium podcasts, and I’m happy to report that to an exclusively cash PLO player such as myself, they were very thought-provoking and I expect them to be a substantial help to my game, especially on further listenings. I expected to enjoy them, and they have significantly exceeded my expectations.
The thing that I found most appealing about the podcasts is that a lot of time, maybe most of the time, is spent on questions of range construction. Range construction is maybe the one skill that is the crux of a good poker strategy. And, at the same, time, range construction is one of the issues that are least discussed in poker discussion boards, videos, and even books (although this seems to be changing recently), probably because it’s a superbly difficult and time-consuming task: it’s so much easier to guesstimate what should be done with our actual hand, than analyzing what we should do with all the various parts of our range. I am constantly working on range construction exercises, and a lot of my practice is actually methodological: what questions should I ask myself when facing a range construction task, etc. . The premium podcast spends a lot of the time in intelligent discussion of this type of question, and that’s what I find most useful about it.
Thanks, MD, it’s great to hear that they were interesting to you even if you aren’t a NLHE tournament player. Of course we agree about the importance of ranges – you really can’t make intelligent decisions about how to play a specific hand vs a good player without considering your entire range.
Oh, also, I have a quip about the last hand of the premium podcast: the one where Nate flats preflop with AA on the button 15BB deep because he has too much fold equity and he thinks his hand won’t be face-up to the amateurish villain.
Can I gather from the discussion of that hand that if I find myself with a 15BB stack and an image of a solid player, sitting with either of you in the WSOP, that I can auto-profit by flatting any two cards in position once in a while and then autobetting when you check to me? Andrew says that he’d check-fold top pair in this spot and that he got berated by Timex for not check/folding KK in this spot, so am I left to assume that I can make you fold 90% of your range by just flatting pre and then betting OTF.
You can certainly try! (FWIW the conversation with Timex was in like 2008) Part of the reason your hand needs to be strong here is that you aren’t playing solely against the opener. Flatting my raise with 92o for 15% of your stack could be a mistake even if I’m going to check-fold 90% of flops.
MD–
Thanks again for your excellent comments. (And I’m happy to see you praise the premium shows!)
The AA hand was a strange situation. I figured myself to have too much fold equity preflop because of physical information, which hopefully wouldn’t be available against me. Also, 15 BB stacks generally don’t worry about having too much fold equity against me before the flop when I have plenty of chips–or, at least, they shouldn’t.
But to answer your question–yes, with the right image, you would be able to auto-profit against me by flatting 3 of your 15 BB before the flop. But that image wouldn’t be that of a thoroughly solid player. You’d have to convince me you were some sort of weekend-warrior type, and you would have had to convince me that you’re a push-or-fold player when you have 15BB and are facing a MP opening raise from LP. (Note that I think it’s good to be a push-or-fold player in this spot!)
In this respect it’s a bit like river check-raising against Ed. If you can convince him that you’re Joe Public, then you can get him to fold too much in certain spots. As time goes by I’m a bit less eager to make these kinds of folds, but I’m even less eager to start playing unexploitably against Joe Public.
Thanks again!
Is there something wrong with the site at the moment, or am I just being an idiot?
I’m trying to purchase the premium podcasts, but when I get to the page saying “Step 2 of 2”, where I enter my payment details, there doesn’t seem to then be a “Submit” button, or any other way of progressing from there. I enter the info in the boxes, I tick the box asking for occasional email updates, and then I can’t see any way of continuing.
I thought it might be a browser thing, but I’ve tried it on both Chrome and Firefox.
Chris: Sorry for the trouble. I don’t know what’s causing it.
You can still buy the podcast by hitting “enter” once you’ve put in your payment information. That will submit the form.
I’ll fix the site ASAP.
Hi Nate,
Thanks for the swift response. I tried hitting enter to submit the form first time round, and I’ve just tried it again in as many different ways I can think of, but I can’t get it to work, try as I might.
My working day (ie podcast listening time) is almost done anyway, so I can happily wait and try again tomorrow or later in the week.
Sorry again! Again, I’ll look into it ASAP.
No problem at all! As I say, I appreciate the swift reponse!
It was a bug in the software we’re using. It appears that they’ve fixed it now. Please let me know if something’s still wrong. Sorry again.
Yup having the same issue with trying to order the premium this morning, will assume Nate will figure it out by the end of the day 🙂
Tilted I won’t have it for my crosstown commute this afternoon but looking forward to it!
See above; I think the bug has been fixed. Sorry!
Yep – I’ve just successfully completed the transaction. Thanks, Nate!
Got it, thanks!