Poker School Online - Poker Pages

[Sarge85]

Poker Pages has something called Online Poker School. Has anyone done it? Is it worth the cost. I learn a lot here and I'm just wondering if it's worth the investment.

Sarge /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

[ChipWrecked]

Try playing freerolls for a month, see if you can win your way in.

[yocalif]

Don't you just love when you ask a direct question, and someone with absolutely no knowledge to answer your direct question, gives you a direct answers....

The online poker school is a tremendous value, especially if you have not much TH tournament experience. But further you can learn a lot about how to play in cash games too. The format doesn't lend itself well for cash games, but when you are in survival mode in tournaments there is a lot of similiarty to cash games requiring careful play and more.

I have been a member for 1.5 years. Almost from the beginning. Though I haven't played any events since, April, I still find value in asking the Pro Poker Players faculty questions: Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Barry Tanenbaugn...

HERE is a reply to a similiar post:

Your opinion of Pokerschool has merit, but I would like to add some thoughts both of my own and from a post off recpoker.

I like you have several years of experience playing poker, Texas Holdem, and some tournament play. I have several of the best books, softwarre, etc. Pokerschool is not a substitute for these learning resources, the best books you have to read several times, and then re-read again.
The primary value of the Pokerschool is to allow a person who wants to learn how to play and win in tournament poker.
The Pokerschool is a scrimmage game, that you can play every day for the small price of $15 per month. Many of the members of the school are very concerned about improving. The players rank plus the monthly sponsorship prize money forces most players to play just as they would in a real tournament. All school members can see each members daily performance, this form of peer pressure works to keep players trying to improve. In addition the monthly leagues stats for both satellite and multi-table tournament play, are reset and each month new monthly prize money is a carrot for all players. Although the monthly stats are reset, the accumalative stats for the year are not. Everyone knows who the better players are, and those better players win more consistently than others.

The value of this format can be seen, by results members are having in BM real world tournaments. Many of us are starting to make the money and some have won some very serious money. One in particular recently won $250k. Prior to the school I had yet to make it to the money in BM tournaments. Now I consistently win satallites and have made it to several final tables. My online real-money tournament results are not bad. An example, in the past 17 days I have played 19 tournaments, 3-3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 10th. In the money 20th or better x 4. Entry fees from $3 to $30, number of players from 51 to over 250.

Again I personlly believe these results are from scrimmaging the past year at Pokerschool.

post: from recpoker
I'm a big fan of PSO for several reasons:
1. Near real tournament poker competition for little or no money.
2. Peer pressure, the ranking system makes you want to do better.
3. Online resources that can help your play.
4. The PSO community has over 1000 active members and about 600 regulars.
5. Large prize money in the form of tournament entry fees, multiple
monthly prizes, and big tournament prizes, with multiple ways to qualify.

Ok so what does all the above mean to you?
First for $15 per month you are competing for a variety of prizes money
that will be paid in the form of BM tournament entry fees. You can check
the web site to see how much some people are earning. Thus there is a
real money incentive and because you are being ranked in your play, the
competition is very near (close but not exactly the same) playing for
real money. Trying to earn a high ranking is a great tool for
discipline. Day after day your play will affect your rank, maintaining a
high rank is difficult, your monthly rank if you are 1,2 or 3 in either
overall tournament play or overall satellite play will earn prize money.
Each month the stats are reset. BUT your performance ranking for the year
continues. All school members can see your performance. To me this is a
great tool, forcing you to concentrate and attempting to improve your play
thus your rank.

The PSO online community is pretty nice too, the forum is very active and
will have some lively discussions. Some members have a weekly online
radio show covering the main tournament on Fridays. PSO had their first
conference at WPO and over 100 members attended, traveling from all over
the USA. To me this turn out for the PSO conference shows the strength
and loyalty of the PSO membership.

As for online poker instructions, there are several resources at PSO, and
sections of popular poker books. Note, sections not the entire book.
Most of the Pro poker players maintain a forum section to ask questions
and discuss things. To be honest, for me the online poker instruction
hasn't been that big of a draw for me. I have about 6 of the top books
and find re-reading those books to help the most. Although the cost of
those books would set you back a few hundred dollars, PSO now offers the
main sections of several of those books online to members. Again the
school structure and ranking system will benefit your play the most.

PSO members are now showing up in some big tournaments and winning some
serious money. I believe playing in the PSO daily tournaments, improving
your skills and hopefully ranking, gives you the confidence to play in
real money tournaments. If you played 20 real money tournaments at $100
entry fee with 100 people per tournament in 3 months, your investment is
$2000, how many final tables will you actually make as a beginner? At
PSO you can play 20 tournaments a week or 240 in 3 months for a cost of
$45. You will have made many final tables at PSO and you will know how to
get to the final table. Your confidence and skill to play in real world
tourneys will be greatly improved for a very small investment.

Finally, its better than watching TV! Online the only thing you can do
better than play at PSO is play at one of the many online poker sites for
real money and win! I'm happy to say, I do both.

[ QUOTE ]
Poker Pages has something called Online Poker School. Has anyone done it? Is it worth the cost. I learn a lot here and I'm just wondering if it's worth the investment. Sarge /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Try playing freerolls for a month, see if you can win your way in.

[/ QUOTE ]

[AceHigh]

I tried it and didn't like it. If you can beat low limit games you would probably prefer them. I know I did.

[Sarge85]

Thanks for your very thorough response.

What I really need is a "class" on how to interpret TOP. I'm guessing this forum is probably best for that. Where I really seem to struggle is the portions of the book that deals with odds (pot, implied, reverse implied, effective, etc, odds to drawing your hand) I know the "basics", such as if the pot is laying 8:1 and your 7:1 to drawing your hand, you should call. Where i get fuzzy is when the books start assesing "You figure you are about a 4:1 dog to when the hand", or when they make comments such as 33% of the time you will make your hand, but of that time 20% of the time you do, you'll lose." (Those aren't word for word, but those that have read the book probably get my gist).

THATS where I need help - Does PSO help with that? If not, who does???

Sarge /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

[ChipWrecked]

My point was, if Sarge isn't sure it is worth the investment, there is a way to check it out for a month without investing anything.

But certainly your lengthy advert is more informational.

[Robk]

Sarge I'm not positive but in some of the situations you are referring to Sklansky is probably just using hypothetical numbers to make a point, ie the actual numbers aren't what's important. Post a passage you are having trouble with here (or in the appropriate forum for the example) and I'm sure you'll get plenty of help.

[Inthacup]

I personally think you're better off just sticking to 2+2 and reading books. There are quite a few knowledgable players here who will give you the same information for free. Fire off a couple of questions here and see what kind of response you get before investing in poker school.

[DesertEagle]

If you need help with odds, keep in mind that there is a "Probability" forum on here... try posting your odds related questions there...

I'm an actuarial science student (4th year), so if you want to PM me and ask me any odds related questions I'm sure I'm qualified enough (as are most of the seasoned posters on here) to crank out an answer for you...


Jeff

[yocalif]

Ok, I risk sounding like a shill for PSO. I'm not!
I dropped my membership starting this month. Why,
I just don't play any events and I only read the forum and the advice from the Pro's.. Again I will say that being able to shoot questions to Pros has value TOO.
I'm using the $15 now to start yet another poker website.....

But, as I have yet to see a reply from another PSO member, and the other replies, are advice to play freeroles, read the forums, and read books. While that advice is ok, I want to take one more shot at giving a reason to pay the $15 for PSO.

If you play freerolls and get a little money, or you make a deposit at an online poker site and play the mini or micro limits, you are totally hidden. No one can see your results or know if you are improving or not. While it isn't important that others know that you are improving, it is extremely important that you know if you are improving.

That is were PSO comes in. Your play is tracked, and the results are public. You can see every day how well you do against a field of about 1000 active members. Some may say that it's only a play game, yes and there are certain members who careless about ranking, and will play some goofy poker. BUT the majority take the rankings seriously and also want to win the money that ranking and monthly satelite play can get.
On my computer desk are the following books:
Holdem Excellence "krieger"
Winning Low Limit Holdem "jones"
Holdem Poker, "sklansky"
Advanced Holdem Poker, "sklansky"
Super System, "Brunson"
Theory of Poker "sklansky"
Championship NL & PL Holdem, "Cloutier"
More poker books in my closet.....

I have been a winning player in BM since the early 1980's.
But 2 years ago I went through a serious bad streak. I even quit playing poker for 6 or 7 months. PSO helped me get my confidence back. I could compete daily in tourney after tourney, satelite after satelite, my only outlay was $15.
The PSO competition, the community, the advice from Pro's all have made PSO a great value for $15 a month.
Today I play 5 to 9 hrs a day online, hardly any BM, I don't have time for PSO. Why play for pennies when I can win $$$dollars a day online.

The books certainly help give you the "play book", forums such as this one give you limited coaching. But where can you get some serious scrimmaging for a few cents a day?

You will learn more out of books, you will learn how to apply it at PSO without losing several thousand in the process.

[Wake up CALL]

I have a question for yocalif. Suppose I join Poker School, play there for a year and discover I am the best play money tournament player on earth. Just how does that benefit me if I go to a real casino and lose or play online tourneys, go busted and need to get a 2nd job to get out of hock?

What benefit is there to knowing I am a super duper play money tourney player? (If I am unable to win in a real money environment)

[ChipWrecked]

Ah! OK, I'm hip. You jumped right in to PSO, maybe you aren't aware of this. PokerPages, the free section, also has daily (freeroll, maybe I misuse the term since there's no cash involved) tournaments. Players are ranked just as in PSO. Every month, the top three ranked players from that month's tourneys are awarded free tuition to PSO.

I tried and came close, I have I suppose a couple hundred of these freerolls played. Now I don't bother, I play for money online... and holy moly, ever since the WPT these things take at least an hour longer to play than they used to.

As I recall, the 'Newbie Chronicles' dude had a good PokerPages ranking listed as one of his goals.

[Hung]

[ QUOTE ]
Try playing freerolls for a month, see if you can win your way in.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't understand why people have to go to a school when they can win so many tournaments. I used to play at pokerpages. And I did pretty well. But it's hard to get final all the time. And to be top 2 you've to be really good. no need to go to school if you're ranked top 2. You're up against a lot of players. You should be the one teaching others.