xy23 said

“Am I missing out on some sort of learning value from not listening to the podcasts?”

Well it depends at what level you are already thinking about poker. Personally, I gained and continue to gain a massive amount from the podcasts…but then I knew very little about serious poker strategizing when I joined TPE and before, when I would listen to the podcasts. 

Certainly there is huge value in listening to different serious players discuss hands. I have lost count of the number of hugely valuable pieces of strategy I have picked up from listening to these things. And who wouldn’t want to listen to people talk poker strategy hour after hour? Maybe that is just me though. I have listened to all the TPE podcasts, and I even used to take notes from the strategy podcasts!

So yes, IMO they are a hugely valuable resource for learning. Then again, if your name is Phil Ivey or Allen Cunningham maybe you won’t learn so much. But you’ll still have a blast listening to the guys shoot the shit for an hour or two.

Smallcat66 said:

“Ok I will say it , the podcasts are not as good without Bigdog. I use to love the podcasts with Mark and Bigdog arguing about a hand and Mark would have a different opinion from bigdog about how to play a hand but he would almost always come around to bigdog’s  way of thinking.”

Interesting analysis…I do enjoy listening to Bigdog and Mark also… Not so sure about Casey having a technically superior mind to Mark. I think Casey just has huge natural ability. As I understand things Mark claimed to have  learned a lot from Casey in the past, so it’s not surprising there’s a little deference there. I truly believe Casey is somebody who possesses a huge natural talent for the game, he claims himself to be some kind of savant…I know he is partly joking, but I actually believe it.

I got a lot from most of the podcast’s guests, but for sheer entertainment value I do agree the Bigdog/ Mark combo is the best.

I have no problem with the quality, just with the output frequency… I understand the podcasts are free, but I’m jonesing for one!

Is it Marc not Mark? Must be an Italian thing…is he Italian American? I don’t know!

You know, I enjoy Bigdog’s videos greatly, and I gain alot just getting a feel for how the man plays, but I am not even sure what he does can be taught.

That age old “Are you a math player or a feel player?” is such a non-sensical argument to me. Poker is a game of mathematics and probability. Sure, there are guys…most of us probably, for sure myself, who really have to work on their games, to whom none of this stuff comes naturally. So I study the maths, over and over, in order to build my intuition about the game in real time. Then there are the minority…the guys who never needed to study the math or read a poker book…or in Casey’s case use a HUD. The “feel” player.

But these guys simply have a natural and intuitive feel for the math of the game.

Any long term proven successful NLHE player is a math player, whether they had to study or not.

Bigdog, I expect, is the latter type of player. Pure, correct, mathematical intuition and “feel”.

And for 100% certain…as a marketing tool for TPE the podcasts are, I imagine, huge. They certainly got me into the whole TPE universe!