lessons from david and mason

I just found out about the online tutorial at truepoker. You pay 25 bucks and play an hour at the 3-6. After your play has been evaluated, you are send some feedback on your play from 2 of the best minds in poker. I hope it does well.

Truepoker does offer one hour, ten player, online tutorials by with David and Mason, poker experts who need no introduction to 2 + 2 viewers.


As described, you pay "tuition" and play in a real money tutorial holdem game for an hour with nine other players.


A sample tutorial analysis by David and Mason can be viewed at www.truepoker.com (http://www.truepoker.com). Click on Sklansky-Malmuth Hand Review under "What's New". A sample emailed analysis will appear, with a link to sample commentary about every player's play of hands during the tutorial. (Player identities are hidden and aliases A through J are used.)


Holdem play during the tutorial is real, you win or lose money. So the tutorial advice and comments are authentic and based upon players' true poker actions during actual play.


These Sklansky & Malmuth tutorials are held upon 10 player request and also held at regularly scheduled times.

"These Sklansky & Malmuth tutorials are held upon 10 player request and also held at regularly scheduled times."


I played on true for a while but ultimately quit because there were not enough games. I just looked and there are 3 HE games. 1 10-20, 1 5-10, and 1 2-4. Only the 2-4 is full. Note no 3-6. The other night when I checked there were not any games (I was playing in two full games at the time at Paradise so it wasn't a big deal).


Your website says that to have S&M do a hand review:


"Here's how it works:

Tell the True Poker host that you wish to participate

Once there are ten interested players, registration will begin

Register and pay the $25 fee

The tutorial session begins once all ten players are registered and seated

Real money play will begin and last one hour"


At the time I read it that sounded to me like you had to hang around online waiting for 10 other players to show up and have interest. Given the traffic on your site this doesn't seem very likely. Are you saying that you are willing to take signups ahead of time and then arrange a time for everybody (with hopefully at least one alternate) to show up and participate? Otherwise this seems like a very large hook with very little bait.


Where are the "regularaly scheduled" times listed?

I was one of the players at truepoker that got the opportunity to beta test the earlier versions of the Sklansky/Malmuth hand review sessions.


I had made my recommendations (in a detailed email to truepoker) that they should hide the ID of each player via a blank handle like AcesFull becomes Player A, JacksFull becomes Player B, etc. so that we can see all the other players card and ALSO see S&M's review of ALL players's plays.


It seems that truepoker did use my suggestion to hide the ID via generic label and also to show all players holecards. However, I am disappointed that it seems they did use my idea to supply all of the participants the COMPLETE WRITESUPS for ALL PLAYERS provide from S&M. That would make the learning experience far more profitable to see not only your own mistakes but the mistakes of others as reviewed by S&M.


Since, we have already protected the identification of each player (via generic player labels),nobody can object to others reading their detailed analysis. And all of the players that choose to do this thing are in for the learning experience.

I think there's a typo in the sample hand review, which IMO is clearly wrong.


Hand no: 4913635 Player 7 folds 98s after 3 limpers, and S&M comments are :" should fold". That should clearly be :" should call" IMO (and even raising might be debatable)


Regards

I hope that type-o didn't come from us.

There are regular times posted up when you login.


Mark

David,


I really like Truepoker, great job.


I have made a suggestion a few times: You guys should change the random giveaway of $5000 per week to a bad beat jackpot, I think it would get more players.


Also, I like the S&M tutorial idea a lot, but I did see something which leads me to believe that Heisenberg is at work:


I was playing at a 2-4 or 3-6 when an S&M tutorial was about to start (I did not realize what it was at the time). The table was over 40% preflop. When most of them left for 3-6 tutorial, and I looked over there a few minutes later. The game was at 21% (!!!!) preflop. I rolled off my chair laughing. David, you should tell these boys to play their B game during the tutorial too!


Mark

What's Heisenberg?

Truepoker posts Regular Registration times onsite and on the website at www.truepoker.com (http://www.truepoker.com). Yopu can also ask the onduty Hosts 24/7.


Registration for Sklansky Malmuth Tutorials will open for regularly scheduled tutorials on


Sunday Afternoon at 2:00 pm Eastern Time,


11:00 am Pacific Time


Thursday Evening at 9:00 pm Eastern Time,


6:00 pm Pacific Time.


As soon thereafter as ten people sign up a tutorial session will start.


Other tutorials can also be started by request another ten people sign up, either during the regular registration period or at any other time.

Thanks for your insights.


With respect to the Heisenberg Principle (?), instead of drawing the conclusion you did, perhaps these same players you saw playing "B" level game in action before the Sklansky Malmuth Tutorial may have felt an immediate benefit, improving their games to the "A" level you perceived from the drop in the number of flop callers.


Alternatively, maybe they went to that tutorial to brush up and evaluate their A game.


(Actually, I tend to think that people play tighter when facing a critique from respected experts than they do in general.)


Thanks again for the constructive criticism.


David Gzesh, CEO

Well, it has been corrected ... and affected participants are being notified of the errata.


David G.

Hi David Gzesch;


Please respond to my original question above regarding providing all 10 writeups to each participants since the ID'S of each player is hidden.


We can learn ten times with "seeing" mistakes made by the other players and learning what they did correctly via S&M's writeups that are already done for them.


Overall, I'm very excited about this online hand review tutorial by David and Mason.

One erratum; two errata.

Same as poppadum, poppada.

Heisenberg postulated (more or less) that the act of testing something would change what you are testing. Famous physics principle.


Mark

David,


Again, you have a great site, keep up the good work. Please do consider the bad beat or high hand instead of random drawings.


About the S&M critique: I do think you have it right on your last comment--->


People will try their very very very best when being tested by the masters. But it is a great idea nonetheless.


Mark

Well, technically, the heisenburg (did I spell that right?) uncertainty principal is that OBSERVING something changes the observed. I don't think physics professors would agree that the principal applies here, but I really liked your analogy.


-MD

Oh Oh Oh! Can I be the drunken maniac in this game! Evaluate my senseless raises..evaluate how much tilt I can induce with the chat window and my making my player say stuff over and over and over! Wheeee! NICEHANDNICEHANDNICEHANDNICEHAND! Will you guys chip in for the $25 + Bankroll + case of beer??! It would be worth it!