10 Poker MED’s and Poker Training Sites | Q&A | #24

I answer two questions in this Q&A podcast, one about poker MED’s and another about recommended poker training sites.

In case you missed it, in episode 23 I showed you how to learn from Skill #2 in Ed Miller’s book ‘The Course.’

10 Poker MED’s and Poker Training Sites | Q&A | Podcast #24

One question today, from two different peeps: Greg & Ben

Hey Sky,

First off thanks for creating such a frequent and informative podcast. It has really shown growth from the first info episode to what it is now 🙂

Just a little about me. I’m returning to poker after a long break (10-15 years) now juggling a full time job wife and child along with a very fluctuating bankroll! I play some double or nothing, as many cheap MTT’s as I can and some standard SNG 9 seater games.

So I figured I could ask a specific question and get a good answer to help one point of my game, but as per the saying give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach him to fish and he will never be hungry. I would like to ask if you had a development plan, as in an order of what to learn and to what level, I’m currently at the conscious incompetence stage of learning (but I’m sure there are lots of concepts I’m not aware of) . I also would also like your opinion on which of the numerous training websites are the best investment of my chips. (I understand that the second question may not be able to be answered in the podcast).

May your bad beats be cheap,

And your pots be massive.

– Greg

Another listener named Ben sent me an email shortly after Greg’s that asked about the same thing.  He called them MED’s, or minimum effective doses.  These are the concepts that give you the biggest bang for your buck, they’re the concepts that if understood fully, will yield greater improvement than others.

Here’s my list of 10 MED’s:

1. Opening theory and ranges

2. Stealing and the math associated

3. 3bet theory

4. Blind Play

5. Player types and their tendencies

6. Cbet theory (both making and defending)

7. Check Raise and Donk betting – how to defend OOP vs a pfr

8. Ranging opponent’s

9. Board textures and how different ranges react/hit different boards

10. Double-barreling and going for two streets of value (flop & turn play)

Alrighty, so that’s my list of poker MED’s.  Be on the lookout in March/April for more podcasts on each of them in a humongo series.

About training sites, I can recommend both Tournament Poker Edge and Cardrunners.  What I would do if you’re trying to decide is hit each training site you’re considering and devour all of their free content.  Pick the one that you enjoyed studying from the most and subscribe for 3 months.  Don’t lock yourself in for a year unless you know you like that site.  It might not be the best fit, but no biggy.  Just move on at the end of your term to another site.  Don’t consider it like some momentous decision.

Podcast Challenge

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode: Look at my list of MED’s and see what you need to study next, and devote an entire week to it.  Watch videos, read articles, journal your thoughts, play FOCUS sessions devoted to understanding that concept and do HH reviews with that concept in mind.  Take your knowledge of that concept from whatever level you’re at now, and 10x it, baby.  If you know 2 things about cbetting, get that knowledge up to 20 things.