Actually it is incredible. That last line in the video… he says the course is something he thinks is “incredible” - it is. I took it is why I say that. There’s an old joke: How do you eat an entire elephant? One bite at a time. I like Blake. I call him my poker coach. Good coaches coach very little, they show a player some rudimentarys - some basic principles - and then watch for initiative and do what they can to encourage that initiative in the player. That’s my experience of this guy in this video. This is already too long, but I don’t care. It’s worth a story… I had a period of time in my life I didn’t know which hand beat which other in poker. Blake held my hand through that. Coached me for years. Upswings, downswings… I went from not knowing the ranks of hands to apologizing to people when I won tournaments. I had gotten that good working the path I found for myself in the course he teaches. The mental edge coursework I did, which I continue to use to this day, sustains the buoyancy which helps me stay afloat in the waters of the sea of poker. Again, good coaches watch for initiative, and then encourage it. Weird thing is? He’s a better coach than he knows. I don’t think he’ll ever understand how life changing his courses and personal coaching really are. And his mental edge course had the most significant impact on my poker game. And also in the game I play called life.
I’m coming late to the party, and I apologize. But… every now and again I stumble across a new Blake Edwards School of Cards - Beyond Tells video I haven’t seen. My own personal experience with this guy and his material is that he took me from being an absolute beginner, literally someone who didn’t even know which hand beat which other, to a forty time hall of fame poker player in one year. It took a lot of work, both testing Blake’s patience with my lack of experience, and me having to do off table practice. Personal bias, I suppose, but Blake hits me just right with his instructions. And, while charts, solvers, and percentages all have their places, so too does deductive reasoning. Even Phil Ivey relies on intuition. With poker it’s all about the gestalt, and for me anyway, the reason Blake does the hard sell on behavior (and subsequently his Beyond Tells Course) is because ignoring that edge, ignoring behavior, is like not knowing how many cards are in the deck, and ignoring something vital is like running down the street with my hands over my eyes complaining that I can’t see. No. Behavior isn’t the magic secret to winning poker and impressing people. And it is a vital component. Sherlock Homes and Dr. Watson are at Yosemite camping. Middle of the night, Homes wakes Watson… WATSON, wake up! Startled, Watson asks. What is it Holmes? Watson, what do you see? I see the Milky Way. I see clouds. I see… Watson, you fool! Someone has stolen the tent! We see, and we don’t. Beyond Tells is a way of seeing what we don’t see, and it really is an edge worth cultivating. Your mileage may vary… Thanks, Coach 👍
Old video but this is so true, after I learned the basics and played ok I started studying theory and charts to the point my gut would tell me ok Mike we should fold here against this guy he most likely has it then my brain would tell me but we need to stay balanced and raise 20% of the time here otherwise we won’t get paid when we do have it or they’ll think they can bluff us on this street every time or oh well we’re getting the right odds we have to call. It becomes this overthinking of everything you’ve read or watched to the point it becomes detrimental, now I just play whatever I think is the best way based on the table and what I’ve learned and far better so great advice
If your poker dream truly matters to you, find the strength to keep your head up and power through all of the inevitable tough times along the way. And there will be many, many tough times. But you got this, lets grind.
Your first question about the punching bag and “Tilt” ‘ …vastly inefficient way of dealing with emotions’ Heard Marshall Rosenberg talk about anger being… ‘ …an ineffective way of expressing a want’ Changed my perspective of anger. Permanently. Who wants to be ineffective at anything?
No. Learning to read behavior cannot be studied entirely through print. Absolutely. It would be like eating a menu. To reframe it a bit, I would take the books as sort of a map of places to maybe see along the broad highway that is poker. Tells. Specific actions Specific behaviors Seems fascinating. Have you ever considered - don’t laugh - interviewing poker “names” and asking them about their tells snd the ones they see in others? Something like that would be appropriate for a book. Cheers, Mr. Eastman
Piss Poor Planning Produces Piss Poor Performance. In other words, yes. Mindset has become an acknowledged aspect of a player’s overall strategy. It has to be. It’s like Sherlock Holmes said: The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. Sherlock Holmes
You can’t get to where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re going, and, wherever you are, Greg Wilson? I applaud you. I applaud you for having a goal and working toward that goal. I applaud you for keeping your agreement. On the other hand? You quit playing professionally, but… you are still professionally playing; after hard work, grinding and studying, and moving towards your goals. Congrats!
So, having taken your School of Cards training (and finding GREAT value in your school…) I’m noticing how much information is in your videos. Curiously, there was just as much information in your School of Cards videos. It wasn’t until I signed up for your coaching that I began to realize my full potential as a poker player. Your videos are like an accurate menu of what you offer. But… Just watching these videos without doing the work in your classes is like eating the menu. It’s only after I trusted enough to invest in myself and bought your courses, and doing the work you offer, that I was rocketed into a dimension of playing poker that I had not even dreamed. Thanks, Blake 👍
So, what I get from this is the difference between behavior and actions. And it’s why all the videos on RU-vid… “Play this hand correctly in this position” …don’t work. And I bet you a school of cards t-shirt that this is also part of the reason you named your company “Beyond Tells” Brilliant stuff. Thanks.
As someone who uses tells to print money in certain spots, I can't understand why Blake isn't playing on high stakes streams and making millions of dollars
Apropos of nothing, did you ever see the show Lie to Me? Assume it's not realistic given it's dramatized, but your videos always remind me of that show.
‘By knowing what to look for, and knowing when to look for it, we can prioritize certain players …and put them in the palm of our hands.’ In other words, we use maybe 10% of what’s observable to base 100% of our decisions. It’s like that old trope about only using 10% of our brain. The question becomes how much more profitable would my game become using even 1% more of what’s observable? 3%… 5%? It’s a valid question. Nice work.
On it. I keep track of mileage in my truck between fill ups. Reason being is that if I notice a wide variance I know something is off. Pretty simple principle, really. Thanks, Blake.
The main reason i follow you and your videos, you remind me of me playing poker its crazy you have way more $$$ from tourny I never played one been playing cash since 2007 in casinos etc. Btw please check out my poker song i did few years ago its called "card shark" from bulltide channel.
Nice. Subtle, but evident. And information in a circumstance where every bit of information provides another clue. It’s like that in poker. In example… I’m watching stacks. I’m sitting on a good hand. I’ve been watching the effective stack’s hands repeatedly put chips on their hole cards. If I’ve been paying attention, I might get a read on the strength of the value of their hand by the subtleties in their variation of a repetitive action. Knowing the strength of another’s hole cards gives one much more information on how to approach playing a hand. Valuable teaching lesson.
you gotta turn up the volume a bit, all of the other shorts i watch are 10x as loud as this so i can't just turn up my volume for your video. Love your content though.
Not trying to be a smart ass, but my game is RADICALLY different depending on the day I've had days where I'm playing 80% of hands and other days where I'm only playing 5% of hands
