I’ve been signed up for Real Poker Training for a little over a week, and so far I’m impressed.
I’ve watched two series of lessons, and figured now would be a good time to talk about them. The first was titled ’6 handed Sit-n-go Action,’ and was basically David Williams playing three different $36 6-handed Sit ‘N’ Gos. Many of the moves he made were at least familiar to me, but I did glean at least a couple of new concepts, which I think can advance my game. I made some random observations during his first of the three tournaments:
In the beginning of the first tourney, he raises UTG with Ace-rag offsuit, which I suppose is an okay hand 6-handed, but I wasn’t a big fan of playing it out-of-position. He got called, but connected on the flop, and bet out to take the pot down. The second thing that surprised me was that he showed the hand. He stated the show was intended to build credibility, but I worry that showing that I am willing to raise Ace-rag out-of-position might cause players to play back more often. That said, David is a pro who has won several million dollars, and owns a WSOP bracelet, while yours truly has not.
As expected, if David voluntarily entered a pot, he was usually coming in for a raise. If there was a limper in early position, he rarely raised the button, but occasionally called, so he could assess the hand after the flop, from the best position. I can only imagine what it must be like to be first to act in a pot, where a World Series of Poker bracelet winner has limped behind you, and has positional advantage over you for the entire hand, ready to capitalize on your mistakes. If it was checked to him on the button, he often took it down with a bet for a little more than half the pot. There was one instance, where an active player made a small raise out of position, and David floated all the way to the river with KQ suited. Even though the villain bet out on the flop, and turn, the bets weren’t strong enough to define a hand that had improved. When the villain checked the river, David bet about 70% of the pot, and took it down, with what was likely the second best hand. I did notice that if he was on a steal, he was never out-of-position when he did it.
One thing that David was vehement about is that he is not a fan of the min-raise. I’m not either, especially when the blinds are low. I see more and more players playing every hand for a min-raise, especially in heads-up tourneys. I figure it does two things if you min-raise—it changes the value of the blinds, as though your regular tourney is now more like a turbo, since the blinds are always going to be double, and it also gives your opponent a chance to act last before the flop, no matter what position he is in, if you are willing to min-raise every hand. I can’t figure out why anyone would want to play a raised pot out of position, but I digress, this isn’t about what I think, it is about what David thinks. I think he summed it up beautifully when he said the only two reasons to raise a pot are to get more money in while you think you have an advantage in the hand, or to drive your opponent out of the hand if you are the one who is behind. A min-raise does neither.
David was willing to make dangerous plays, to trap an opponent. There was one hand, where he was clearly ahead, and when the texture of the flop showed both a straight and flush draw, he smooth called his opponents bet on the flop. His reasoning was that it was okay, so long as you have positional advantage after you give your opponent the next card, and are willing to get away from an over pair if one of the draws connect and your opponent leads out.
Most players are already aware that it makes sense to put pressure on weak stacks if you are on a money bubble, but David covered that as well.
The last thing I gathered from the first tournament he played was that if you are going to continuation bet after having missed the flop, bet around half the pot, and it will likely appear scarier to your opponent than a pot-size bet. The smaller bet looks as though you are inviting a call, and has the added advantage of letting you escape cheaper if your opponent shoves on you.
As I already mentioned, so far I’m pretty impressed with the quality of the training at Real Poker Training, and David Williams is very good at walking you through his mindset. It’s obvious that you are listening to the pros playing live, and walking you through their thoughts as they make the decisions in real time. More to come about RPT, and soon I hope to resume my journey to the WSOP Main Event.
. This decision was mostly due to the fact that I can read a book at work during slow periods 
As I go through it, I thought I’d make some notes for each chapter, so I can remind myself of the fundamentals, and try to fix some of my leaks. I figured if the notes were good enough for me, maybe others would enjoy them, and they could make for some interesting discussion points. So as I read through, please enjoy my notes.