hi, just signed up and while I liked primordial's vids so far. I was disapointed with Cog's one.Cog Dissonance Video 30 - Playing a Poor Tight Aggressive Opponenthttp://www.husng.com/category/videos/cog-dissonances-videos?page=6I don't want to go into too much detail about the actual plays for the most part, eventhough I wasn't impressed at all i'm not gonna say he isnt good based on one video against a weaktight reg. He did make mistakes imo, but who doesn't.Also I realise this is a tough video to make since not that many interesting spots come up against this kind of opponent.I guess a cliffnote of this post is the question..WHY? This video is half an hour of him playing, and telling us what buttons he's clicking. For a second I thought I had travelled back in time and was watching the very first cardrunner video's. This is probably the worst video/waste of time I've seen since then though. It's from februari which isn't that long ago, if he has improved as a vidmaker, good. But this vid should have been pulled and not released by someone that checks quality controll (anyone?)Made notes on the first 14mins, after that I couldn't be bothered but iirc the 2nd part had 0 content and was much worse than the 1st part.He doesnt explain why he limps, which is fine given that he had a bunch of previous videos. But I do wonder though, why the hell are you limping against this guy, other than that is your usual strat. This villain is supertight and fit/fold postflop. We limp our weak hands and strong hands, stab every flop and win it all the time. +ev? sure. But Ican't see an advantage over raising, he folds his trash instead of getting a free flop so vs his trash, raising is clearly better. against his big hands, limping is better bc he picks up less chips if he raises, and we can limp/call some hands. Against his medium hands that call a raise, we pick up so much with cbetting that raise+cbet >limp+stab. Looks like you have a set strategy and don't change it enough according to opponents. ************************Rest is notes on vid************************He starts off allrightish, even made a joke or two which is good to extend attentionspan as a viewer.And the only times he explains why he does something, is at 50sec in, 1.20 in(dont raise bc he might make a retaliationraise) and at 2.30 in the vid(I'm beat but I got odds+get reads=call) .(I'm being generous tho, since those are microstake concepts)2.05 we bet QT on AT9ss, good flop for us, I can represent the ace or the ten.. bet. Strange explanation obv.3.00 open 9c5d. flop KdTd3d. 'hits his range so give up'. so far so good. check 9s. 'now he checks again so I'mgonna take a little stab'. Might just be me, but stabbing is (bluff/semibluff) in my book, not a vbet with best hand. Nitpicking but just one of the many things I cringe at though that half an hour.5.30 villain 3bets, (we call 67o, pbb should fold but I call. turned out to be ok since we floptp..Cringe) then checks 347ss. He does say.. villain mightbe trapping.. on turn he underbets to 'see what he does'. I play this differently but not a big deal, Anothe cringe at 'see what he does' when we have this hand. If (big if) a good videomaker would have said, 'to see what he does' he would have followed up with 'and act like this or that vs a raise/call'6.12 I got the feeling he might be making a move here (A93ss vs c/r limped pot) why??. But I'm gonna reraise, not flatcall, just in case he has an ace here.. ugh. if you're playing against a weaktight boring guy, at least explain what you would expect him to do on the turn if you do flat with what parts of his range, and I wouldnt have minded more thoughts on what he does vs your reraise other than 'I reraise in case he has an ace'. but w/e, can let that one slip but still, you play a boring guy, use spots like this when he DOES C/R to explain things.6:50 he is tight so I suspect that he has a pretty big spade here.I suspect he will call with Ks and Qs if we make it 270. so I'm gonnamak it 285.. and he folds..So obviously Ishould have tried to bet a little bit lessSAME THING AT 8min in, he c/r A6 on AQ6ss. villain folds.. maybe 'I should have flatted'.. Ugh I guess I can stomach one of those but twice?The only realstrat advice for us viewers is at 8.20.: If you have the leak that you lose a lot of chips oop fold to every stab when oop, maybe you should play back a bit more by c/r sometimes, or by betting and sometimes 2nd barrel . 200$/hr advice right there.10.35 'Finally he ATTACKS' my limp here, so I fold my trash. Ehm he didn't attack, he just had a hand?And plz explain what we don't fold, my 3yo nephew knows that your 83s is a fold?Ok one last thing that bothers me just a little bit, but not a big deal, at 9:20 we 3bjam AK for 30bb. Villain calls 66. He doesnt like it and says 'he is obv flipping at best, or behind vs an overpair.'. Personally I hate that line, seems like such a noob thing to say.. I rather hear someone talk about equitys, like he needs around 45%equity but against my realistic range he never gets over 40%. Just the flip or behind reasoning makes sounds a bit fishy to me, dont need to see pokerstove for evey call or jam but just talk about equity instead of flip/behind. ok that was 14min in, but the rest is even more terrible imo, can't remember anything happening after that but seeing you clicking the buttons.
I can't see where's the point here...If you don't like his play you can ask why and that's it, no need to make a thread of it imho. You are just attacking him, while a discussion on the various plays should be more interesting
The point is, it's the worst vid I've ever seen and this forum is meant for video feedback?+this site is expensive comparedto the competition and his coaching is 200$/hr so expecting quality is not too much to ask?And it's not like I just posted a one liner, I know he's respected so I took the time to clarify my points. If you want discussion on plays, why is limping> raising?
I guess a cliffnote of why it's no good are these 2 spots.It's obvious we fold 83s vs a raise, but what hands do we continue? etc. it's against a boring guy, at least talk about hypothetical spots wrt ranges then.
A few things to say about this:1 - Cog being good or bad as a player is a question that can be objectively solved by using sharkscope, and the answer (I'll hint it in case you don't want to look at it) is good.2 - Cog does not defend that limping > raising. It is a very unique style he has, and you can hear his explanation about it watching some of his first vids. He does it to determine what kind of trouble his opponent is capable of giving him, and plan how he's going to play the guy based on that. If limping doesn't work against a specific player he adjusts to raising.3 - As you say, this site is fairly expensive, and it does have some of the top players in the world, most of which play a more classic style. I have gotten my best value out of this site from some other pros so far but, precisely, having someone who does something very unorthodox and is very succesful at it is something that adds a lot of value to the site in my opinion. You don't have to play like him, but you can learn a lot from it.4 - You should probably watch some other vids / learn a little more about the place before you launch a full out attack like that. And what was the purpose of it? If you want to discuss some plays, leave some comments on the comments section of the video and he'll be happy to answer them fo you. If you're unhappy with the money you payed, make a formal complaint in a less public space and ask for it back. If you just want to attack him for no reason, which is certainly what it seems, then that's a pretty lame purpose imo.
meh I dont see it as a personal attack, I never heard of the guy before I signed up here and don't mean anything bad on a personal level. criticising on a professional level is not out of line imo since I do believe my reasoning is solid.I should probably pm him so he can defend himself,not that there's much need for dialogue here imo,I made my points, either he hasimproved by now, or he won't care, or he will think about making better videos. I dont think there is much left to say for me.A good sharkscope doesn't make someone a good videomaker. Whether or not his other video's are good or bad, isnot relevant to the quality of this specific video.Limping can certainly be good, but not against this guy imo. Having only one strategy against all players is not great poker.This quote is exactly my point, it is fine to start with, but he didnt use the info he got (weaktight + very fit/fold) to adjust to a raising strat.
Hi Guiness,Thank you for your feedback, we do appreciate any and all feedback.The only thing I really disagree with here is the stab comment. The rest of your feedback makes sense given your timeline of the events and words used.I think some of the wording is a bit extreme and personal, but I'll set that aside because you have valid points and it would be inefficient and immature to be distracted here.To first address the $200/hr that Cog charges: It is for super turbo coaching. Cog previously coached a four hour class for $200 where he taught mostly newer players how to adapt to various opponents at the low and mid stakes and taught them a lower variance winning strategy (a lot more limping and conservative play early on). As you can see for example from his 2p2 thread here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/164/poker-coach-listings/hu-superturbo... his feedback was very very good. And it's not just "oh well they are noobs so they like him" there are results from his students to back up his coaching value. He's been doing very well in the super turbo games on Full Tilt, and as a result he had taken a break from coaching. However, throughout his playing in the $100 and $200 super turbos, many players were asking him to coach those games, including fellow regulars and respected players. He did not want to A) Take time away from beating those games as well as he was and B) Teach players that might play him in the future how to beat these games, thus the higher hourly was placed upon this coaching. He is by no means trying to "sell" students on ST coaching, it's just a reflection of market demand and the value he would like for his time coaching super turbos. Regardless, I think we can both at least agree that Cog has demonstrated an ability to vastly improve student's games over time.Now, there may have been some issues with that video. Judging by your feedback it wasn't one of Cog's best ones. However, if you're a premium member and require the higher level content (remember, almost every Cog video is available in the standard membership, along with fydor and rypac, for $25 a month, a lot cheaper than our competitors that don't offer much, if any heads up sng content) take a look at some of our higher level instructor videos. Skates, Mersenneary, HokieGreg, Primo whom you've enojoyed, xSCWx, ITRIED2WARNU... we have a great deal of premium level content that I expect you to enjoy (particularly if you've enjoyed Primo's videos thus far).I've come across players that think Cog's strategy is so good that nothing else should be taught. I come across others that can't get passed limping preflop. I don't personally limp all that much, but it's a reflection of how I believe my opponents are playing. If my opponents exhibited some specific characteristics more frequently I believe it could absolutely be my best option to limp. I also don't mind variance, I don't mind getting it in with 3rd pair on the first hand on a certain board texture if I see bluffs in a spot enough. That's not necessarily right for a beginner, however, they tend to spew more often than not when you put them in tough spots without reads. So you can see how limping can absolutely make sense (against the tight weak player that's probably the best example arguing AGAINST limping though, but that means you literally found the one video that his strategy is least effective against out of 45 videos or so) for newer players that take a bit longer to identify and adjust to opponents, as well as players that just play better in smaller pots/tend to make more mistakes in larger pots.In the end, if you had talked to me privately I'd just suggest checking out a different video maker's videos. I've always felt Cog's value was more in how he adjusts to specific opponents than anything else. I think you probably just watched one of his weaker videos overall, but I also don't think he is the instructor you are personally going to enjoy the most. Take a look at the other instructors that I mentioned, PM me if you want specific video recommendations or want to talk about other videos or your personal playing/improvement, I'm glad to talk.We haven't had a demand or clear need for a quality control person. If this were to ever happen, it would likely have to cost $40hr or so to hire the right person, meaning around 1k a month and it would probably cause a few video posting delays. Thus far, your post here is easily the harshest criticism we've seen with thousands of subscribers in 18 months of being open (usually we get yelled at for not playing enough big winning players, a few people want most videos to be against winners, rather than 40-50% or so). Regardless, it's something we'll continue to evaluate.But this is a unique issue, no doubt some people don't like certain videos, but with over 200 videos from 10 instructors on the site there's a lot of variety to choose from.But just to be clear, this site is absolutely not expensive compared to anything if you're watching Cog's videos. They can be had for $25, along with over 100 other videos (again, more husng videos than every other site combined I would imagine). $120 reflects the highest quality of husng instructors you can find online, consistently making top level videos. But we're not charging $120 because of my videos, Fydor's videos and Cog's videos. Most of our videos are available for $25 (as well as some videos more geared towards lower and mid stakes play from other instructors).I really do appreciate the feedback, if you want some advice/suggestions please PM me, I want to make sure you find the right videos for you and that you're clearly satisfied with their content. I'm sorry this hasn't been the case so far.
The tone is a little harsh, but I actually found the feedback to be really descriptive and clear. I wouldn't mind getting feedback like this on my videos.
thanks for the extensive reply. I didnt realise this was availlable in the basic section, the 'premium video' tag confused me.You might be right that I used wording that was a bit personal at times, was uncalled for and I admit I was a bit frustrated watching half the vid 3 times just to add timelines etc. It was meant as constructive criticism when I started writing."Waste of time' I should maybe clarify to.. waste of time compared to the training methods/videos out there. Obv people become better even bywatching this video but since there are only 24hrs in a day, it's a waste compared to spending it on other pokerstudy vids etc "" I've come across players that think Cog's strategy is so good that nothing else should be taught. I come across others that can't get passed limping preflop. I don't personally limp all that much, but it's a reflection of how I believe my opponents are playing. ""Just fwiw, I did not mean that limping is a bad strategy.. but once you get a read on someone, you should be adjusting to raising if thats the better play (like in this vid, limping worked, but raising would have been more optimal). I agree that Iprobably stumbled upon the one time he had to adjust :) but if he reads this, it might help to keep him focussed to not just fall back on his normal strategy all the time (not saying he does, just in case ;) ) -You might be right about stabbing, I always use it as a bluff/semibluff but Im not sure aboutthat.-I generally don't have problems with coachingrates,I've payed 300$/hr for a long time for cashgame coaching and feel like people should charge depending on the demand that is out there. It was merely a reply to someone because I do feel like a topic like this should be out in the open for coaches, I might have pm'ed my criticism to a new videomaker that doesnt coach.(edit, I did make a comment I just noticed about the 200/hr in the original post, that was a bit uncalled for. I do hold him to a higher standard than others bc of it, but shouldn't have put that in)I understand that quality control is expensive, if it's not realistic, I can live with that. Just like I don't mind/expect that the site doesn't have the layout DC has.-heh didn't realise I was so harsh, I guess I was. I did pay for husng.com because I'm sure I'll get my moneys worth and I still believe that won't be an issue. All you can do is offer a good player a chance to make video's, it's just that sometimes the best player doesn't guarantee a better video (but obv the best player has the most potential for vid making if he works at it and improves) Thank you for the professional reply, I'm going to give some other video's a shot and check out which ones are premium.
"-You might be right about stabbing, I always use it as a bluff/semibluff but Im not sure aboutthat."Generally people use the term most often when they are satisfied with their opponent folding (and usually in limped pots as the initial bet). So in this case, with 3rd pair on a 3 flush board and no kicker, it's really similar to semi bluff spots, being called isn't bad (for semi bluffs you can still draw out, for this hand you can still get good value from draws) but you're absolutely satisfied (and often prefer, particularly in the semi bluff case) with a fold.It might even be technically correct to use the word stab with TPTK on a dry board, as stabbing really just means taking a stab or making a bet in the pot. But the way people use it TPTK isn't really a hand that people talk about "stabbing" with, so that would be more borderline.The premium/standard button confusion: If it has a standard button it'll be a standard video, if not it's a premium. I can see how there could be some confusion, since every video will have a premium tag (all videos are available to premium members).I really like what DC does. However, they are much different than us. They have an extremely crowded marketplace, with sites such as DTB, savvy, BFP, CR, grinders, FTT and a host of others I don't remember off the top of my head all competing with them in many forms of poker. They stand out by having well produced videos as well as a very low entry level cost (free for a week and I believe $30 a month). I really like that setup, but "poker training site" is about all they do have in common with us (and not in a bad way either, we just don't really compete for members).However, considering the sites I just named probably have less than 50 husng videos combined (many of which are made by players that don't even play the game) we tend to focus most of our time on making sure the people that come here get what they are looking for and give them the opportunity to take their game to the next level. I don't think any other training site can do that for heads up sng. I much prefer this to a crowded and competitive marketplace, where marketing and a host of other aspects of business will really come into play and risk losing touch more often with the thing people should care about most: Quality of the content.I also agree completely about stats versus instruction. We review videos from each prospective coach prior to their joining the team. We then evaluate coaches primarily by user feedback.
Hey Guiness,Welcome to the site anyways man. Check out mersenneary's vids, and Hokie's, they rock. If you want to watch one that you'll inmediately feel happy about go for "advanced SB end game play" by mersenneary, (theory vid) one of the best in the site imo.Gl with everything.
Hey Guinness,Thank you for your feedback."Limping can certainly be good, but not against this guy imo. Having only one strategy against all players is not great poker."I think you need to have different strategies against TAG players. I alternate between min raising nearly every button and limping depending on his aggression level. I also alternate my 3 betting aggression depending on the opponent. Can I suggest you have a look at this video?http://www.husng.com/content/cog-dissonance-video-35-vs-pokerbot102 "Might just be me, but stabbing is (bluff/semibluff) in my book, not a vbet with best hand."I like to limp-stab a lot. I do this because opponents have a hard time dealing with it. I think to only say you do it as a bluff/semi-bluff is making your stabbing range pretty transparent. I think doing both with and without showdown value makes you a lot more difficult to deal with."see what he does' when we have this hand. If (big if) a good videomaker would have said, 'to see what he does' he would have followed up with 'and act like this or that vs a raise/call"I agree, while I didn't realize it at the time this is actually me being lazy. I should complete the thought and give better information. There are a couple of other cases where you mention this and again I'd agree, I need to not just give a half-thought but continue and say what I'd do in various scenarios.If you get a chance look at other videos against TAG players I've made, I'd be interested in your feedback.I haven't mentioned every point, but hopefully addressed your main concerns.CheersPaul
Skype/AIM- cogdissonance1
cool that youdidnt take offence, appreciate the response cog,I will check some other vids of yours out after the weekend.