Current and Future Ops

Greetings. Making a direct communication post on the content plans here.

What is the structure of the Out of Position learning model?

The heart of my teaching is 1) privates and 2) group courses, which ideally lead into each other.

Both private students and group study participants join The Back Room, a private, participant-driven forum. It is not like other forums. There is no charge but the expectation of participation. Lurkers and sponges are released. Work shared within must be respected – TBR is a community, not just about you. There simply aren’t any garbage posts, as it is a record of shared poker thought from a group striving toward the same goal – excellence and understanding.

One of the reasons TBR is more serious is that chatter is routed to Skype groups. Private students and a select number of serious players comprise the main chat, sometimes the Zoo. This group runs 24 hours a day with poker and other conversation. Conversation is both heavy and light, but overall helps me guide the ship. Key dialogues are copied and pasted into TBR for all to review, and especially interesting topics get expanded upon there as well. To be in the this group, I need you to have passed the fundamental theory home works that compose my private teaching.

Other chats on special topics run simultaneously.

We get busy after the series.

I will offer up several classes this summer and fall, depending on interest. One of my staples is the Easy Game Study Group, which is a most thorough, three-month examination of Andrew Seidman’s unique strategy work. This group starts whenever the numbers fill. So far I have led five groups through the book. I take 4-5 students per section and can run more than one section at once. If you are not already on the waiting list, simply contact me through the usual channels or the contact form below. As you can imagine, it may not run unless i fill those spots, and that is fine – there is no rush.

The second will be the consistently in-demand Construction. Construction is a course which abstractly removes concerns of bet sizing in order to see how the deck works, and how combos are moved from street to street. This is currently being re divided up into three sections, C1, C2 & C3, each taking one month with weekly classes and homework. While I’m sorry for the wait, I’ve improved the course considerably in my downtime. Again, contact form below, and here is the schedule:

August C1: The Principle

The movement of combos over streets, logically and in solves, can be explained through one very powerful principle. We investigate the basics of poker, its central paradigm, and look at strategies for different ranges and positions that work with the central principle. C1 and C2 abstract construction from bet sizing in order to clarify how the deck works.

September C2: Beyond the Basics

We explore the deployment of the entire range across multiple scenarios.

October C3: Bet Sizing

We use theory and the solver to examine and improve our baseline ideas. This section reincorporates sizing back into construction and provides a total view of actionable strategy. Because so many have waited too long for this and have already taken C1 and C2, I may run it separately as well at an earlier date.

Overall, I’ve synthesized feedback from several courses in arriving at this curriculum. The absurd density of all the courses, the main critique I heard, has been addressed by parceling them out more humanely. The second critique, a request for more examples, has been taken seriously. Ever more examples, long live examples, I live for examples. The cost of coaching, private or group, remains the same – $500 per month.

Playing together

Yes, the Out of Position PPPoker club is running. Frankly, it’s been great. We play a 200 bb minimum buy-in at small stakes and try to destroy each other.

The reason for this club is twofold – to ensure game integrity and to provide a place for fun games with people you recognize.

Because this is the mission, you must be known to me in order to join, and must use a screen name we can recognize, even if it just a forum handle. I’m putting my name on the line and will only be accepting fair actors.

So join us at club 505400, Out of Position. Remember – i need to know who you are, so contact me or be sure to use a familiar handle.

On the other hand, group games on Nitrogen , for those of you with BTC to burn, are ready to go any time you are. The issue has been, for all the community goes on about blockchain, not so many actually have it!

Also, we’ve been invited to play with Alvin Lau’s student group and will take that up once everyone is back from the series.

Seminars

I am organizing a series of connected but stand-alone seminars, each of which will feature a partnering poker coach to support and/or augment or counter my presentation. The reason for this type of offering is that I find that my long form courses are not only that – long and hard-work for both teacher and student – they take a lot of time to create and plan for.

Meanwhile, students linger and demand more content. I don’t use the word demand lightly. I send many students off to other coaches, which is how it should be, I think, but that’s not always the answer, either, especially when many come back and simply ask what’s next. I’m looking into bigger changes, and the seminars are a bridge to a grander scheme.

Joining The Back Room

The Back Room is not just composed of my students, and that is a great thing. We have top-notch and individual thinkers who want a place to call their study home, and they don’t necessarily need my individual attention. I receive several requests to join The Back Room, the private forum of record for my coaching and its community, each week.

To make this simple, there are two paths to join, but only one to stay.

As I explained above, all my students, privates and groups, gain immediate and indefinite access to the forum. However, I also allow in “free agents” who I think will both serve and be served nicely by our work in TBR. These spots are limited.

For both kinds of members, participation is mandatory. It’s a community of players working together at all levels to digest and create strategy. Part of this is not simply being a lurker or sponge with no skin in the game.

So, I let people go from time to time.

Two common objections I get about this policy, and their answers:

Q. I’m not big on posting and working with others but want to read.

A. Tough

Q. I’m intimidated by the level of thought and don’t want to say idiotic things.

A. Then ask questions! Make the geniuses work a little.

What pays for all the free stuff?

For TBR? The podcast? All this content? And why are there no ads or fees or affiliate codes?

The overhead of web costs and labor is managed in three ways: by my in-the-streets poker income, through my coaching fees, and by the non-financial support I get from the community. Production and editing work by people like Dean Martin and Greg Porter makes a big difference. My central poker chat group – whatever its silly name is this week – is always helping me with something. Thanks to Julie and Jason and Andrew and anyone else bearing a burden of a little work for the cause.

However, it goes even further: the membership of TBR helps my students and helps themselves, especially when I can’t answer – or even want to answer – every question. So for the most part, we really do run on participation, literally, not figuratively.

I don’t like ads and affiliate codes. They compromise the integrity of what I do and say, and hurt my vision of what my website and its real heart, the blog, look like. If I get a business manager, I know I will be a handful.

Now, will a day come when I charge for some of this? Will I need to monetize some elements here? Should I get a Patreon page or something?

Of course! For now, however, this is how things go.

Good luck to everyone in our little circle. Here is my coaching thread on RCP for references and more info.

To introduce yourself and ask about courses, TBR, or anything else, here’s a contact form: