Rick Braddy's Texas Holdem Poker Weblog

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:42:59 GMT

See how this one technique doubled our sales...

The Power of Story in Permission-based Marketing

A few months ago, I began using more stories in my communications with my subscribers and customers. As it turns out, stories are an incredibly powerful way to communicate - especially in today’s age of marketing communications saturation, where everyone is so fatigued by the constant bombardment of ads we’re exposed to daily.

Read the whole story... http://conxentric.com/blog/2008/08/05/the-power-of-story-in-your-marketing/

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:22:07 GMT

New WinningWare.com site underway and nearing launch. You'll find more details on the Online Business Gameplan and Executive Leadership Guide on the site.

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:26:37 GMT

Rick Braddy Launches New Online Marketing Firm

Well, I've been busy again... this time preparing for the launch of a new Community Leverage business focused on helping companies achieve rapid online success with their websites, products and businesses. Using state-of-the-art product launch technolgies, ConXentric provides companies with methodologies for organizing and developing online communities of customers.

For more details, check out www.ConXentric.com

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:04:41 GMT

New Poker School and Poker Club

Well, as you can see I didn't post anything since October - bascially, I transitioned my blogging activities to a different blog for the last 6 months - the New Poker Club blog. The purpose of that blog was to communicate directly with my our early adopter community for creating a new online poker club and poker school.

Mission accomplished! We launched the new poker school on February 15, 2008. We're off to a great start. We created two membership levels:

1) Standard Member level, and

2) The Poker Underground.

Here's what's included in each level:

1) Standard Membership - this is the base membership area, which is for new and existing poker players at the beginner to intermediate levels, playing in $10 and under buy-in SNG tournaments and lower-stakes cash games
($1/$2 and under).

2) Poker Underground - this is an advanced area of the site, for more advanced and expert players who already have a well-rounded game and are interested in higher-stakes MTT and SNG tournaments ($20 to $1,000 entry fees) and cash games ($2/4 and higher).

By the way, everything you see here is available to use and download now - so you don't have to wait for anything to be shipped to you... you can access it all immediately.

What's Included in the Standard Club Membership

You get all of this in our Standard Membership package:

NOTE: The product you receive is in the form of downloadable and viewable files of various formats. The physical packaging you see above is intended to illustrate what's included with your membership (there's no physical product shipped - everything is electronically delivered).

Skills Foundation - 8 Training Manuals
The Poker Minute - 10 Situational Training Videos
Sit and Go Secrets - 10 Sit and Go Videos
Cash Game Cha-Ching! - 6 Cash Game Videos
The Poker Library - Coaching & Tournament Sessions
Access to Personal Poker Mentoring & Tools
Member Forums (not shown)
Club Tournaments w/ Poker Pro monthly (not shown)

AND, we add new videos and content weekly, so there's always something new and fresh to learn.

As a Standard Member, you'll learn everything you need to:

Master all the fundamentals and grow from the beginner/intermediate player into an advanced player
Generate a consistent profit at low-stakes cash games (where you can make up to several hundred dollars an hour at times), and
Place in the money in Sit and Go tournaments 30% to 40% of the time

What's Included In The Poker Underground^TM

The Underground is for intermediate players who want to play at a more advanced level and become poker experts -- even Pros -- someday.

Here's what you get in the Poker Underground (IN ADDITION to all the Standard Member stuff):

Multi-table Masters^TM videos
Making Money, Advanced Cash Games
High-stakes SNG Tournaments
The Video Cellar^TM
The Poker Underground^TM Forum

You get access to our WSOP Champion pro, Brett "Gank" Jungblut, via his instructional videos, teleconferences and our Poker Underground Forum, where you can connect with Gank directly at times.

I'm not aware of any other place on the Net you can get direct access to a poker pro like this!

You can get all the details in our poker school information page, which goes into extreme detail on everything that's included.

Enjoy!

Rick

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 05:16:53 GMT

Check out the new poker club blog!

We'll be starting this new online poker club as part of Royal Flush Club soon.

Rick

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:19:11 GMT

Micon's Secrets - The Whole Truth Finally Comes Out

This past weekend I spent some time with Bryan Micon, helping out with his latest product launch.

There are two interviews with poker pros Brett "Gank" Jungblut and Bryan Micon - over 90 minutes of discussions and Q&A sessions with some of my Royal Flush Club subscribers:

www.MiconTalks.com

I have to say, I've seen a lot of poker training tools over the past several years, and nothing to-date can even come close to Micon's latest release. There's over 26 hours of audio and video lessons, including 2004 WSOP bracelet winning (Omaha Hi/Lo) Brett "Gank" Jungblut's 9 videos.

This is the most extensive poker training course available at the time of this writing (I'm sure other will try to copy it soon enough). Believe me, it really works, too.

After watching only 4 of Gank's 9 videos, I have won three (3) $30 sit and go tournaments in a row (better than I had been doing recently). After getting through the entire course, there's just no telling how well I'll be doing (I can't wait to find out).

The hardest thing is taking the time away from the poker tables to go through the course - it's VERY exciting! Check it out here: www.MiconTalks.com

Enjoy!

Rick

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 22:55:04 GMT

Draws, Odds and Poker Sensory Perception

I recently had an email exchange you might interesting… - Rick

Rick,

Thanks a lot for all of your tools to learn no limit hold em - they are very helpful!! What I have trouble with and would love to see in future tutorials are situations where you are on a draw and when to decide to continue drawing based on the size of the pot and the bet from your opponents. When does it make sense to call (mathematically as opposed to this gut feeling that you should just fold).

>> Debbie, draws can be quite troublesome, can’t they? Most

draws don’t have great odds; for example:

* Odds of making a set on the flop: only 1 in 8 attempts

* Odds of making a gut-shot straight: only 1 in 11

* Odds of making flush on turn (w/ one card needed): 1 in 2 (not bad)

* Odds of making flush on river (when turn missed): 1 in 5

I could go on. First, you need to really know these odds *COLD* - off the top of your head. You shouldn’t need a poker odds calculator for these basic odd estimates (you’ll never have one when playing offline, so just memorize them).

>> Second, it’s important to look at the odds the pot is offering you - your “pot odds”. For example, the pot holds 1,000 chips and the bet is 200. You’re getting 5 to 1 pot odds. Now, if you need to make a set (1 in 8), you have what’s known as ”negative expectation” - if you make this play enough times, you’ll generally be losing money (e.g., playing for several hours or more). On the other hand, if you have the opportunity to make a flush draw on the turn, you’re getting a good (positive) return. You have a 50/50 chance to pick up your flush card on either the Turn or the River. If you miss the turn, it’s 1 in 5 on the river, which would be about even money.

The second thing is the opposite of what I wrote above - if you know your opponent is on a draw - how do you know what the perfect bet is so that it doesn’t make sense for that other person to continue his draw (unless he’s a fish and just calls with anything)? Some beginner players make the mistake of going all in at the wrong time or when it’s not necessary and lose all their chips because they get drawn out.

>> If you’re up against a fish or inexperienced player, then logic may not apply… If you’re up against a good player, then one of THEIR factors for deciding on whether to stay on their draw will be their pot odds vs. hand odds (expectation). So, it’s typically advised to bet 2/3 to 3/4 the size of the pot to make the pot odds highly unattractive, which will take most players out of a draw; however, it’s better if you have some kind of read (or at least an “inkling”) of what kind of draw they’re on. For example, if there’s clearly a flush draw on the board and it’s the turn, you can surmise they have a 1 in 2 chance of making that draw - right? In the similar case above (1,000 chips in pot) and it’s your turn to bet, you’d have to bet at least the size of the pot (1,000 chips) to make it even odds for them - 2,000 chips with 1,000 to bet, which would make it ‘even money’ for them. If you want to chase them out, betting more than 1,000 is even more likley to achieve that result… assuming that’s the only dynamic involved.

It’s actually a bit more complex than what I’ve just described, as you also need to consider YOUR POSITION and who else can and is likely to act after you bet (aside from your opponent on the draw). This involves what are called “implied odds”, where you must estimate what multiple additional players may do, which will affect the pot odds after your bet. For example, you bet 1,000 making it 2,000 in the pot, a 2nd player calls, and so now your opponent on the flush draw is getting 3 to 1 (3,000 in the pot, only 1,000 to stay in the pot), due to the 2nd opponent also calling.

Third (if i am not asking too much already) is how do pros like you sense a bluff - when I play online and live, sometimes it is very easy to realize that I have the best hand and sometimes it is quite difficult.

>> Well, I wish I were a pro, but I don’t make a living full-time at poker… before you can sense a bluff, you need to gain some insight into how a player plays “normally”. If they’re a “tight” player and suddenly start raising, betting big or going all-in, odds are they have hit a big hand. On the other hand, if the player’s style is an aggressive or maniac who plays a lot of hands, then it’s more difficult to put them on a specific hand, since they could be holding most anything. Reading the pros is even harder… there are some common “tells”, a topic entire books have been written on.

>> One thing I look for when trying to detect a bluff is watching a player’s betting patterns. If I see them stealing regularly and then I’m in the big blind and they fire a big bet out, it’s more likely than not they’re trying to steal my blinds. Why? Because in general, All Players get relatively Few Good Hands. So, sometimes you have to take your chances against these types, preferably when you have a hand with multiple outs available.

>> Playing online, you’ll also sometimes get a sense for a player’s “timing”. You develop a sense for when they’re strong or weak. I don’t quite know how to describe it… I’ve heard it said “you’ve either got that sense, or you don’t”. I think it’s a complex sensory response that comes from having played many thousands of hands against lots of players - some call it “gut feel”. My own personal belief is it’s more than that…

The human brain is like a powerful organic computer, accepting multiple inputs from our sensors (eyes and ears on the computer), compiling a large “experience database”, then creating a large “neural network” of weights - information about various input scenarios and outcomes… which then informs the decision-making process. It’s a complex process that takes place, which is why it’s often called “gut feel”. Like I said, that’s my own theory, based on my understanding of neural networks and basic brain operation.

Sorry for the obscure answer, but that’s my best theory on how poker gut feel works - it comes from “experience” … lots of learnings and reinforcement. I find the more often I play, the sharper these networks become. The less often I play, the “rustier” and less accurate they are - even though my experience level has not changed, recency and frequency of play makes a really big difference in this additional “sensory perception” factor.

Thanks for your time,

>> My pleasure. Hope that was helpful. - Rick

Debbie

From: Draws, Odds and Poker Sensory Perception on sitngovideo.wordpress.com

Rick Braddy's Texas Holdem Poker Weblog

The Power of Story in Permission-based Marketing

New Poker School and Poker Club

What's Included in the Standard Club Membership

What's Included In The Poker UndergroundTM

Draws, Odds and Poker Sensory Perception

What's Included In The Poker Underground^TM