WSOP study?
Anyone have a recco on stuff to study that might help me last one more orbit longer at the WSOP?
I've seen Jonathan Little's stuff, and I generally like many of his individual videos, but his website is poorly organized, and stuff is scattered willy-nilly all over the place.
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FOCUS!
Anyone have a recco on stuff to study that might help me last one more orbit longer at the WSOP?
I've seen Jonathan Little's stuff, and I generally like many of his individual videos, but his website is poorly organized, and stuff is scattered willy-nilly all over the place.
Crush Live Poker, obviously.
Although more geared for cash games than tournaments, just learning all the concepts will make a huge difference for tourney play as well.
Interesting. I watch a lot of his youtubes but I didn't consider it for tournaments. Thanks
Yeah, it's not going to help you with 15 bb push ranges, but just for learning about hand reading, how to structure your betting, and recognizing typical live poker patterns, it's amazing. The material is also more theory based than what you would assume at first.
Anyone have a recco on stuff to study that might help me last one more orbit longer at the WSOP?
I've seen Jonathan Little's stuff, and I generally like many of his individual videos, but his website is poorly organized, and stuff is scattered willy-nilly all over the place.
I like to watch Winamax - Inside the mind of a Pro on Youtube.
The Mateos parts from 2024 is joy to watch and he's arguments for how much to size in certain spots and so on gives me a lot.
Books are out of fashion, but Endgame Poker Strategy: The ICM Book by Barry Carter is invaluable especially if you're not already extremely well versed in ICM strategies. That and drilling preflop spots is underrated.
I'm not going to sit here and say I know the best way to prep for the WSOP, but I will tell you what my path has been for the past year leading into WSOP 2025, especially since some of it aligns with what has already been mentioned in this thread.
I am a recreational player with a non-poker career who studies almost every night for an hour or two and plays a pretty small volume of actual tourneys. I played in WSOP 2019 and 2024. Prior to WSOP 2024 I joined Jonathan Little's web site of poker learning content and spent a ton of time studying on it. After WSOP 2024 I continued grinding on the Little web site. I then added GTO Wizard to my paid studying web sites. There's definitely a lot that can be gained by using these poker tools. But eventually you also have to play and see how what you have learned works for you. It's not like everything you learn from studying will immediately all work. You have to learn something, incorporate it in live play, have some successes, make some mistakes and then you study some more.
It has been mentioned that Inside the Mind of a Pro series is worth watching. I whole heartedly agree. Seeing the thought process of these pros throughout the long haul of a tournament is extremely helpful. I watched every video in this library of videos and I feel I gained a ton from it. Plus, I did so at a time when I was getting a bit bored utilizing the Little web site and GTO Wizard, which is not a criticism but merely what I was feeling. Grinding the charts and lessons of the Little web site and GTOWizard is a tough, tedious (but highly useful) grind, whereas Inside the Mind of a Pro is extremely entertaining yet enlightening.
Once I ran out of Inside the Mind of a Pro videos to watch, I then started watching Youtube videos of WSOP circuit and other non-Vegas WSOP events where multiple Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and final tables are shown where you see every hand of a specific table is shown with commentary by Ali Nejad, Jeff Platt and friends. Seeing what works and what doesn't work and then also hearing what the commentators have to say is a good learning tool that is both entertaining and not as tedious as just grinding charts and solvers.
What does it all add up to? There is no magic web site/study tool that immediately makes you a crusher. That only happens through study, actual play, more study. Rinse, lather, repeat. The best of the best have done a ton of study, have put in a ton of volume at the tables and are single-mindedly laser focused on getting better at their craft. You can't catch up to that quickly. But I get that you are asking what you can do next to improve your results. For my relatively short journey I would say that to start I tried to learn to play good, sound poker. That has resulted in me lasting fairly deep into tournaments in which I very frequently get knocked out close to the money (along with some in-the-money successes). I think to extend how long I last in tourneys I need to widen my ranges some and not play quite so tight. So play fundamentally sound poker but not so tight as to rarely get over the hump. Which seems like more art than science. Charts, position, solvers, etc. matter. Ultimately, this is a hobby for me and not a profession, so I don't know if this has been helpful or not since I don't know what level you are at (higher than me but I'm not sure exactly how much higher). I hope this helps some.
To add to my post above, I suspect that best way to improve by, as you put it, one more orbit is to have a group of poker friends who are slightly (or significantly) better than you in which you can discuss the spots that are most troubling to you. In other words, have a poker house at the WSOP. I don't have such a group of friends, so this is not an answer that I have experienced. But I strongly suspect that having a core group of poker friends who are obsessed with the game and want to talk about it nonstop is the answer to your question. In other words, you struggled with a spot in a tourney, and when you talk about it with such a group of hard-core poker friends it results in a 90-minute discussion of the different approaches that could have been taken.
Learn to fold non nutted premium hands...
I like to watch Winamax - Inside the mind of a Pro on Youtube.
The Mateos parts from 2024 is joy to watch and he's arguments for how much to size in certain spots and so on gives me a lot.
Never heard of it, but I'll give it a watch.
Books are out of fashion, but Endgame Poker Strategy: The ICM Book by Barry Carter is invaluable especially if you're not already extremely well versed in ICM strategies. That and drilling preflop spots is underrated.
Ha, the endgame is not my issue because I seldom get there, but thanks anyway.
I'm not going to sit here and say I know the best way to prep for the WSOP, but I will tell you what my path has been for the past year leading into WSOP 2025, especially since some of it aligns with what has already been mentioned in this thread.I am a recreational player with a non-poker career who studies almost every night for an hour or two and plays a pretty small volume
I don't have time for GTO. I still work fulltime and trying to keep up with the market consumes most of my time, but thanks.
To add to my post above, I suspect that best way to improve by, as you put it, one more orbit is to have a group of poker friends who are slightly (or significantly) better than you in which you can discuss the spots that are most troubling to you. In other words, have a poker house at the WSOP. I don't have such a group of friends, so this is not an answer that I have experien
I'm WAY too old for a poker house, and will be lucky to get one week off work.
All my hands are non-nutted.
Obvious bragpost, but as someone who has like 6 weeks vacation + an extra day every time I work on a Public Holiday (so easily another two weeks more), your statement sounds a bit sad.
There must be more to living than nine to five, to quote a Richard Marx hit from 1989.
Books are out of fashion, but Endgame Poker Strategy: The ICM Book by Barry Carter is invaluable especially if you're not already extremely well versed in ICM strategies. That and drilling preflop spots is underrated.
You mean I shouldn't bone up on Harrington on Hold'em in preparation for the 2025 WSOP?!?
You mean I shouldn't bone up on Harrington on Hold'em in preparation for the 2025 WSOP?!?
Haha! That was coincidentally the first poker book I ever read. You would get ran over so hard playing those strategies in today's games. My main takeaway from that book was if they're betting aggressively just fold. Not bad advice in 2007 but likely won't work out for you in 2025.
To the OP, if you just want some casual content free YouTube videos are the way to go. Lots of good stuff, you just have to find the content creators that resonate with you.
I know you’re talking about mostly hold’em here, but if anyone wants to brush up on their mixed games I highly recommend poker go’s super high roller bowl $100,000 mixed games, available on YouTube.
There’s more than 20 hours of coverage over the 3 days with really top notch commentary and analysis from Alex Livingston and Chris Vitch.
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Just an avalanche of content from the Inside the Mind of a Pro series.
Obvious bragpost, but as someone who has like 6 weeks vacation + an extra day every time I work on a Public Holiday (so easily another two weeks more), your statement sounds a bit sad.
I used to get 5 weeks a year of vacation, even with a U.S. company, because I've been there 20 years. But we were taken over by a Brit company, who was billed as a very employee-friendly company. We've since learned they are extreme cheapskates. They don't give us a fixed amount of vacation, they just say "request whatever you need". You know what that means, instead of having vacation time we're entitled to, our vacation usage will be highly scrutinized.
There must be more to living than nine to five, to quote a Richard Marx hit from 1989.
Never heard of him.
I like to watch Winamax - Inside the mind of a Pro on Youtube.
The Mateos parts from 2024 is joy to watch and he's arguments for how much to size in certain spots and so on gives me a lot.
Just an avalanche of content from the Inside the Mind of a Pro series.
Thank you both. These are new to me and it was a fascinating watch and enlightening into the players thought process. I've only watched 2023 Wynn WPT EP01 (Romain Lewis) if this is any indication of the content value I will be burning a lot of time between now and June.
I'm a +1 on Inside the Mind of a Pro as well. So well done and a really enjoyable way to learn and get an insight into top thought processes
Inside the mind of a pro is definitely top notch. It's so well-produced and they get some real insight from top players that rarely speak publicly about their thought process (especially Mateos).
I definitely view it as more on the entertaining than educational end of the spectrum though. Still it's tough to beat if you want something entertaining that you can also potentially learn something from.
https://youtu.be/A3n5-v4mfKA?si=PoeQ4nMM...
JL’s top 10 list before WSOP!
runitonce? or a different training site?
