MTT Database Review
The most effective way to find your leaks
This is not your average coaching!
Have you ever thought about how cool would it be if someone could tell you all your biggest leaks in your game? Learn about all the stuff that costs you the most EV? Too bad something like that is impossible? Well I have good news for you! That is exactly what I do. Instead of slow and innefective browsing through a single tournament hand history or explaining a specific hand, I am able to quickly go through a large sample of your hands and find the biggest repetitive leaks in your game and give you examples and explanation on how to fix those leaks. I coach even regs who regularly play in online $530, $1k, $2k or even $5k and $10k tournaments.
I am also doing database reviews for Pocarr and for Three Amigos Staking.
FAQ
โWhy should I get a database review coaching?
It is by far the most effective form of 1on1 coaching and the fastest way to find your most costly leaks. To be honest there is not much of a reason to pay any coach huge amounts of money to go through the classic "tournament deeprun review" and tell you enlightening stuff like "uhhhm, yeah I would like bigger bet here...". There are so many tools avalaible in 2023 that you don't need a coach for figuring out single spots.
How does it work, is there a voicecall and screenshare?
None of that. I have found that this is not really so effective and puts unnecesary requirements on both of us having to find the right time, no breaks etc. Instead you will get a long written report (usually on Discord) with a lot of screenshots of your stats, GTO stats to compare, your ranges in various preflop or postflop spots and some explanation on why some things should be different. This way you can go back to all of it at any time. You can ask me any questions during that (if you are online at the time) or just after, I will answer them all.
How many hands do I need for a DB review?
I usually recommend around 100 000 hands or last 3-6 months of play. I've done a review with as few as 17 000 hands and the client was happy but obviously it was a lower stakes player with more basic leaks. I've also done reviews from up to 500 000 hands. It is not a problem for me, I will get the stats build pretty quickly. It depends mostly on you. Do you feel you have changed your game significantly 3 months ago? Then maybe better to not send outdated hands from 6 months ago. Do you not play online very often and you don't do much of a studying? Maybe you can just send whole last 12 months. Obviously more hands mean I can focus more on some advanced stats.
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What sites are supported?
Most sites that can save hand histories should work. Pokerstars, WPN, 888, Winamax are all ok. GG hands work but you need to send them to me converted through this: https://hand2noteguide.com/ggpoker-hh/
Ignition should also work. Converter is needed but I can do those quickly on my side.
Do you offer database review for cashgames or sit and goes?
I can do MTT SNGs, I've done some reviews on 18mans. It will however focus on the first few levels with deeper stacks. The endgame with a lot of pushfold and ICM is a job for something like HRC.
I have no plans to offer cash game database reviews as that is a completely different format.
Do you offer other forms of coaching?
I don't do stuff like reviews of tournaments, commenting a video from a session etc. because I don't find them very effective for the student. But I sometimes do some theory stuff for lower hourly rate and several hours at a time. Usually for lower/mid stakes players who already received database review so now we can focus more on some reasons behind different strategies and also comparing outputs of different preflop and postflop tools.
I run a poker stable and...
And you haven't contacted me yet to do reviews of your horses? Do you not like money? You should fix that ASAP.
But how can data analysis like this be good when there are so many PKO tournaments and ICM effects?
A lot of better regs were sceptical of my DB review at first and asking this specific question. And now you can read their happy testimonials if you scroll down a bit.
Don't worry, I am well aware which stats are susceptible to be skewed because of bounties or ICM and I do the db review in a way that it doesn't matter much. To be honest ICM and PKO are both effects very often just used as excuses for bad play - "yeah I did it because there was a big bounty". And what I actually see quite often are mistakes done because of ICM/PKO which are actually even worse in ICM/PKO situations than they would be in chip ev.
I am a twitch streamer, can we cooperate?
Sure, contact me. But all I offer is free/discounted high quality coaching for some good exposure. No paid shills or affiliate codes, just service for service.
Why are you better than other coaches who offer database review?
I have spent more than 1 000 hours developing my advanced stats and pop-ups in Hand2Note. This is what I specialize in. I've had students who had previous database reviews from some very well known players, coaches from prestigious stables and coaching sites, often even charging double what I do. I don't want to mention any specific names, but you know them. And even if some of them are really great players and might make very high quality coaching videos, their database review skills are very very basic. Just bunch of default stats with no regard for stack sizes, bet sizes etc. So yeah if you don't raise enough on BTN they will probably find that out, but that is about it.
Free tip: If your coach uses Holdem Manager or Poker Tracker for database review instead of Hand2Note, you are gonna get a shit database review.
At what stakes is this coaching targeted?
Pretty much unlimited. I've worked with micro $5 ABI players for whom investing $250 was pretty significant, but one review helped them to turbocharge through their stakes, finding out leaks they were absolutely unaware of and probably would remain unaware for years. And I also did a lot of regs who battle in online $1050, $2100, even some $5k and $10k. And every single one of them was happy with the review. The way this coaching works gives me an opportunity to coach even players who are going to be better than me on average, but I will still find some hidden leaks in their game that they are unaware of.
This all sounds nice, but how I can be sure your coaching is really that good? I don't even see any photo with you winning a WSOP bracelet to prove your skill.
My main selling point are my happy clients. To well known regulars I offer that payment can be done after the coaching and ONLY if they genuinely believe it was worth it. I am proud to say all these top regs always choose to pay and some of them were so happy they even added $100-250 as a tip.
How do you recommend to study poker?
Scroll all the way down for more on that.
Pricing
I charge $250 per hour.
Most reviews will take 1-2 hours to make (written report means we don't have to set up a specific time to call). I'd usually recommend the first one as at least 1,5h ($375). It depends on how many leaks you have and how much in depth you want to go. If you are not sure, you can send me your hands for free to quickly check and I can give you a suggestion based on that. (Or we can for example just start with preflop and extend it to postflop later).
In longer versions we will be able to also mention more population stats and compare your game not just with GTO, but also with your averaged opponents, see what mistakes they are doing and find where it is reasonable to play exploitably and how.
Following db reviews (lot of players choose once a month db review or roughly every 25-75k hands) are usually fine being charged as 1 hour, since hopefully there should not be that many leaks to talk about anymore.
Theory/Tools coaching and group coaching for stables on agreement.
Testimonials of happy clients
All these players from micro semi-regs to highstakes crushers received my database review (and many of them repeatedly) and were happy with it. There are no paid shills, no friends vouching for me just because we are friends, no outdated stuff from 2015 or any other bullshit. These are all real clients from the last year, most of them from last 6 months. Graphs (when avalaible) are added to give a little more idea about what they play, it's not supposed to show results before/after coaching.
Had some clips of streamers saying nice things about me, but it got deleted on Twitch. You can find my banner on several streamer's channels. For example Abarone68 or johnnyforpleasure
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I am MTT coach at Pocarr, probably the largest poker stable in the world. I do long database reviews for their higher stakes and higher volume players, even including some other coaches.
If you are a smart hard working player looking for a staking opportunity and maybe get a free DB review from me as part of the deal, check them out. And tell them I sent you :)
I am also MTT coach for Three Amigos Staking, (stable run by ChanceW, CrazyB15, and LBC.Boliver).
Last but not least I consult some MTT theory for GTO Wizard:
And close to a hundred other happy clients, I am just too lazy to ask everyone for testimonials and put screenshots on the website.
Unhappy clients
These are testimonals of clients who were not happy with my service:
Yeah it is a blank page. I never had a single unhappy client. :-)
Study tips
However effective my database reviews might be, you still need to put time into studying. So here are some honest tips:
DTO ๐
If I should recommend one simple and useful trainer for postflop tournament poker, especially for beginners, it will be DTO Postflop with it's SHR level subscription. Carefully set up simple strategies solved to much higher accuracy than most competitors, which are easy to learn and reproduce. Includes even some fancy stuff like postflop final table spots or non-equal chip ev stack play (30bb BTN open vs 10bb SB flat is some very fun chaotic gameplay :-) ). They also have very helpful discord server and you can try a limited postflop version for free users.
You can get 20 % discount for any DTO products using my code "g6dto". Don't worry, it's not just a shill, I am a very happy user of ALL of their MTT products - Postflop SHR, Preflop Basic+Advanced+ICM and DTO 3way.
I believe the two most useful are the Postflop (SHR level) which I mentioned and DTO 3way. Let's face it, I suck in 3way spots, you suck in 3way spots, everyone sucks in 3way spots. But with a proper 3way trainer you have the chance to suck a little bit less than your opponents and thats what makes the profit.
Preflop Basic is fine, but not the highest priority, especially when GTO Wizard has free preflop ranges. Preflop ICM has some pretty cool unique final table spots. While most tools are pretty tame and solve final tables with stacks like 30 20 50 40 25 40 and then switch the stacks for 5 similar solves, DTO just goes to the extreme and does fun spots like 5 5 75 30. And no, the answer is not "jam 100%", this is not icmizer, there are hands you just want to raise as the chipleader. And last Preflop Advanced includes lot of chip ev mixed stacks. Pretty common ingame spots like defending short BB with 7/10/12/15bb vs an openraise when everyone else is deeper stacked. Very different from ranges with equal stacks. But right now Preflop Advanced is the least useful DTO product, especially because GTO Wizard and Preflop Academy have a lot of assymetric solutions now too.
GTO Wizard ๐
Somewhat of a competitor to DTO. Has more postflop sizings which is sometimes useful and sometimes less useful since a beginner can just get overloaded with too many options. Unlike DTO you can choose specific run outs and browse them. I think it's a great second tool to get after DTO, especially because of their very well done aggregate reports. Preflop ranges are actually avalaible even for free users (except ICM ranges) and you can go through 1 postflop spot + 10 hands in trainer for free. So it's pretty much a must to make at least free account.
https://app.gtowizard.com/p/g6 should give you 10 % discount, but only if you make a new account right after using this link.
They also have a huge library of ICM preflop solutions and mixed stack chip ev solutions.
Extra tip: If you use GTO Wizard, don't focus majority of your studying on just putting your biggest played pots into their analyzer (line-checking). Using the trainer, going through the aggregate reports or studying their ICM charts will be much more useful.
Preflop Academy ๐
It has probably the best range viewer, you can quickly go through different charts to easily compare how ranges change if you either change someone's position or stacksize. Also a lot of ICM charts and mixed chip ev charts and nice quick trainer which is great for a quick 10min warmup before session. Recently even some PKO charts. Largest negative compared to DTO/GTOW is that it's oviously Preflop only product. But for that purpose it works great.
Odin ๐
Basically worse GTO Wizard with stupidly huge numbers of flop sizings and questionable accuracy of solves. A lot of high profile players shill Odin but I don't see that many solid regs actually using it.
BBZ preflop charts ๐
Not as good charts viewer as other services, but 20 bucks a month is pretty affordable price and you also get a lot of ICM spots and some useful basic PKO charts.
Postflop+ and Preflop+ ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ
Absolute trash developed by guys with no experience in poker targeting beginners who won't recognize good sim from shit sim. Accuracy is low, sizings are randomly horrible. And I got banned on their discord after mentioning some of "their" preflop ranges are actually outdated RangeConverter charts with huge mistakes in them.
ICM X% field left preflop charts in general ๐คก
Stuff like preflop charts for when 50 % of field is left are pretty much a nonsense. These solves expect that the tournament is going to end after the hand finishes (like a happy multitable 80way deal) which is obviously a huge simplification that might be ok on final tables but not with a big number of tables left. The slower the blind structure is, the more nonsensical these ranges are. Perhaps a little more realistic in hyper turbos where you might be on the bubble in one or two orbits. You can go check some of these ranges if whatever tool you are using has them, but don't waste your money on specifically buying this.
Videos ๐คจ
I don't really see paid video subscriptions and 500+ usd masterclasses as the best way to study poker in 2022. This was the way before solvers and all the new tools, when your only option was to find someone who wins at the game a lot, hear what they have to say and hope that it's mostly correct. But why do you want to pay a monthly subscription to watch videos of someone going through hand histories or PIO sims, when you can get something like DTO Postflop for similar price and play unlimited numbers of hands YOURSELF, you making all those decisions and then comparing them to correct ranges, which will be much more precise that an opinion of any human coach. And if you don't understand something, just discuss it with your friends, some discord poker group etc. and you will always figure it out.
Sure some videos which explain theory concepts very well might be useful, I also imagine for example some BBZpoker bundles could be fine for just 100 bucks (I haven't seen any of it, but I've seen some examples and talked with people who are subscribers. And they do have some good coaches), but I would still prefer just investing in some of the other tools I mentioned. Maybe the most useful videos are those, which show you how to properly use some tool, so if you are beginning with DTO, definitely watch their Youtube channel, seeing highstakes crusher like BowieEffect playing DTO will give you more value than 95 % of paid poker videos. GTO Wizard also has some free videos on how to use all the features and if you get HRC then definitely watch the tutorial by Gareth James on Youtube.
GTObase ๐
This tool with preflop charts and solved postflop spots is from the people behind Simple Poker products, so you know it can't be bad. It is a little more limited than for example GTO Wizard and I do have issues with some of the settings, but it has one huge advantage - all the MTT spots are completely free! I am not even sure why. I guess they just want to get more popular and start charging money later? Definitely try it out.
HRC ๐คฉ
Hold'em Resources Calculator is a very useful tool to help you solve your own preflop spots, especially ICM on final tables. The new HRC Beta is a very solid competitor even to Simple Preflop, while having much lower requirements to run, so you can do some basic preflop solving even without a dedicated server. Great investment for like 100 eur yearly. (You have to download the HRC Beta version!)
ICMIZER ๐คจ
Used it for many years in the past, but I don't really see much reason to use it now when HRC can do so much more.
PioSOLVER, Simple Postflop, GTO+...
If you are serious with poker, you should eventually get one of these, but it is not the priority in the beginning. Especially if you are not experienced, it is pretty much guaranteed that you will use bad inputs in your sims, therefore creating bad solutions. So training in premade spots in DTO or GTO Wizard will be easier way to study.
Summary
As you can see by my profesionally set up emoji system, my holy trinity of recommendations is DTO, GTO Wizard and HRC. If you can, it is always nice to have several tools, even just to compare different preflop charts. For example GTObase uses minraises all the way until 50bb, which is not very standard, but a lot of players do just minraise, so it is interesting to compare how it changes things vs a more traditional 2,2-2,3x raise. BBZ charts do like some pretty big SB openraises, which is also interesting to compare. All kinds of izo, 3bet or 4bet sizings slightly vary across different tools and studying these differences can help you understand poker better.
There are bunch of other tools and I am sure at least some of them are fine, but I do have enough material for myself right now, so no reason to pay for 5 other similar products. If you are a developer of something that you think I would like, you can hook me up with a free subscription, and I can mention it here also. But only if I actually like it, otherwise no promo :)
Bonus mention: Hand2Note ๐
Not so much a study tool, but trackers are a very useful thing, not just for hud on the table but also keeping track of your game. I've used both Poker Tracker and Holdem Manager for a long time, even made a lot of custom stats via Notecaddy. And I just can't recommend H2N enough! So many times my PT or HM has frozen, crashed, worked slowly... Sure, H2N costs more (30 day free trial) but it's just so much nicer and less stressful to use. Making new stats is easier, everything is so tidy, customer support is actually very helpful and fast. And quite honestly, my database reviews could never be this high quality without H2N. It still took me over 1 000 hours to set up everything for these advanced database reviews, but it would not even be possible in other trackers (hence why I say you should stay away from any coach not using H2N for database reviews).
If you want to make me happy and save 10 %, go through this link:
https://www.hand2note.com/?aid=19e2
or use this code at checkout: H2N10QMJ