Wow what a weird coincidence – a poker DVD with the same name as mine. To be fair this product was always going to find it’s way on here wasn’t it. You can rest assured I’ll be asking myself some pretty searching questions on it during the review. When I started to write these DVDs the challenge was what could we do that was different to what was already out there. My view is that despite the wealth of information on playing tournaments there wasn’t anything like enough on how to accumulate chips quickly in tournaments and win the things, so that is the focus of the series.

What’s in them?
There are 3 disks.

Disk 1 looks at the fundamentals of tournament play. It covers some basic concepts, such as pre flop play, playing short stacks, playing big stacks, semi-bluffing and targeting weak players.

Disk 2 contains 10 plays and bluffs to make you chips in tournaments. This is one of the few resources in poker that gives you some specific plays you can make to gain chips and bully tighter players.

Disk 3 is all about getting paid. It looks at the tournament from the bubble, through the final table and to winning the whole thing. There’s also a decent length section on heads up play and some of the techniques you should be using to take 1st place.

What’s good about them?
The DVDs do a good job of getting you into the right mindset for tournament play. The central idea is that people fold too much in tournaments to preserve their ‘tournament life’ and you should be taking advantage of that. They focus on looking for opportunities to accumulate chips and win more than your fair share of pots. There’s also a vaguely amusing joke about Carol Vorderman on disk 2.

What would I change about the DVDs?
One of my shirts is a bit dodgy to be fair. It’s tough because you can always add more and there’s so much ground to cover. I think there should more in the DVDs about preflop aggression. Re-raising preflop with or without a hand has become very common in tournaments these days – especially when you get to the medium buy in levels and above. How to do this and combat it isn’t covered as much as I’d like in the DVDs. However this is related to aggression in tournaments which is the theme of the discs so hopefully viewers will get the mindset you need to win tournaments.

In summary then…
It’s hard to give a verdict on your own product apart from ‘ruddy brilliant’ obviously! Joking aside I think the DVDs do give you a slightly different message to a lot of other sources of tournament information. They give you concrete ways to be aggressive and bluff which are hard to find elsewhere. If you’re looking to get an edge in tournaments – especially up to $100 buy ins – they’ll be plenty here to help you out. Though feel free to fast forward through my many dodgy gags.

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This 2 disc set goes straight to where the money is in poker these days – where we’d all like to be by focussing on, short-handed cash games. They’re written and hosted by Jay Rosenkrantz – who is known as Krantz and plays as ‘pr1nnyraid’ online. He’s one of the most successful cash players in the game today including being winning-est online NL player in 2007. It’s clear that Krantz has the credentials to give us all the knowledge we could ever need – but is it on these DVDS? It’s also clear he already has 2 really cool nick names and I don’t even have one…I’ll try and have one by the end of the review.

What’s on the discs?
The two disc set starts with an introduction to 6 max holdem which looks at the key differences between this and a full ring game and how your mindset should change when you play the short handed version of the game. The second half of the first disc and the entirety of the second cover the concepts of hand reading – the key skill for succeeding in short handed poker.
Krantz does this by using mainly hands he’s actually played and guiding you through the decisions he made and why – and how the decisions could have been different with different holdings. The material covers 6 handed play as well as heads up play. It goes through a large amount of hands – most of which Krantz wins; I like to watch it on my computer and pretend I’m playing the hands and the money is heading to my account – its sad how happy this makes me.

What’s good about it?
I think the DVDs are very good at getting you to think in the right mindset for playing short handed poker. Especially at showing you how to think through situations in hands rather than just panicking and going into a defensive mode or going with your ‘gut’ (we’ve all done it). Krantz advocates a loose style which means he gets into some very tricky situations – most teaching materials focus on more straight forward spots so this is a pretty unique feature of the information here. Often when looking at a hand our host will also consider how the decision would have changed with a different hand in the same spot which is really useful.
The discs also do a good job of showing you how good players put opponents on a range of hands and use that to make their decisions. I know a lot of people playing poker these days know what hand ranges are but struggle to use them in their play – hearing how a top player does it should help. They also look closely at how to take the money of different kinds of players from the best (the DVDs include some hands against online legend Durrr) to the fish and everything in between.

Any problems with it?
The assumption of general poker knowledge will exclude some of you who are inexperienced at the game – however for most of you looking to beat No Limit cash games the terms used will be second nature and will find the content fascinating. Also the section on general 6 max play is good but could definitely be expanded as it’s a whistle stop tour through the key ideas.
The bigger problem with these DVDs are the lack of structure to them and the information given. There isn’t a contents screen and the hands come one at a time without them being grouped or introduced under a specific heading. This makes it tricky to go back to the discs and just get one chunk of info you were looking for. Having said that I think learning by listening to a top player’s thoughts on actual hands as opposed to dry theory makes up for this slight weakness.

In summary then…
If you’re playing 6 max of heads up cash you’re game will definitely benefit from checking out these DVDs. How much will depend on how well you respond to the way the information is presented here but there’s no doubt these discs have some great stuff on them that will sharpen you’re hand reading skills – I dare you to watch them and not to be tempted to make hero calls with Jack high…just like Krantz.

Oh and I still don’t have a cool nickname – Nick ‘the relentless badger’ Wealthall is where we’re currently at….not good.

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