blonde poker forum

Hi All

Information on T.I.P.S and we are adding a £250 place to two of our £10 comps in February.

Learn Poker with the Pros - The International Poker School comes to DTD!


Saturday 20th February 2010, TIPS comes to DTD!

What is TIPS?

“TIPS (The International Poker School) launched in autumn 2009 and is operated by some of poker’s most respected names. TIPS enables you to improve your poker skills in a relaxed atmosphere where you can learn from, listen to, talk with and play against a collection of Europe’s most accomplished players.

Learn from established professionals who boast millions in poker winnings. They will show you how to start profiting from the game and how you can compete for poker’s biggest prizes by gaining entry to the world’s most prestigious tournaments.

TIPS will be travelling around the UK, but will land at Europe’s Premier Poker Venue on 20th February for a day of poker tuition, and some great prizes!


How Much does the day cost?

The course is usually £325 per person, but through the Cash Desk at Dusk Till Dawn, the entry price is £250

Or

You can win your place by playing either of the TWO tournaments at Dusk Till Dawn:

Tuesday Night beginners Comp 9th February - £500 GTD PLUS a TIPS Seat for the Winner worth £250!
Tuesday Night beginners Comp 16th February - £500 GTD PLUS a TIPS Seat for the Winner worth £250!


What happens on the day?

Here’s the days itinerary …

11.30 Arrival and Registration with the TIPS team
12.30 Introduction followed by Seminar 1 - “What to do when you sit at the poker table, Spotting strengths and weaknesses” (Paul Zimbler with others)
14.00 Lunch and STTs with the Pro’s
16.00 Seminar 2 - “Hand analysis and getting the maximum value” (Special Guest)
17.15 Break
17.30 Seminar 3 - Winning Live Tournaments and How to play the bubble” (Paul Jackson with others)
18.45 Break
19.00 MTT Shootout - Top 2 players will go through to the final table
20.00 Final Table

Non-alcoholic refreshments will be available throughout the day



What can I win on the day?

As well as a great day of poker tuition, the following prizes will be awarded
1st £336 Deepstack seat
2nd £112 20/20 seat
3rd £112 20/20 seat
4th £56 Super 50 seat
5th £56 Super 50 seat

Cheers

ACES

Wouldn't it be better to give the package to the first player out!!  The winner knows what he is doing!

I'm quite impressed by the list of Pros TIPS claim to have on board, according to this.....

http://www.theinternationalpokerschool.com/Our-Pros.html

That'll teach em.

Any of them Indian?

cant wait for flushy to see this post

Maybe, but that's not the point. 

I'm quite sure they can all teach the game well, & I don't have any issues with any of them whatsoever.

I happen to like nearly of them, a lot of genuinely decent people there.


However spread on number of OVERALL LIFETIME online winners in the list of 10

2.7-3.2

Paul Jackson must be ahead online lifetime, I would guess Tabatabai is as well. The rest i am not sure.

paul jackson is a huge online winner if i remember correctly

I didnt randomly pick the spread lol. I did have a look

But as i said, a nice bunch of people in the list, and sometimes it easier to learn how to paint from your Art teacher at school, rather than trying to emulate Picasso.

lol cold

Nah im only messing obv, its actually real hard to teach beginners and requires a lot of patience. I would be awful at it so im guessing nearly all in that list would be better at teaching basic fundamentals than me

my post should be read as written - there was no inference

i have no opinion on any of them as individuals (except James Browning) - i was just very much looking forward to flushys post!

I very much subscribe to a good player (or do-er of anything) doesnt always make a good teacher

JMO but would only listen to about 3 or 4 of those people.

Although would be quite happy to pay the fee to see Liv for a day :)

If they can confirm that she'll be there then it will double attendance

Why do they insist on putting 'The International Poker School' at the end of every bio on that page? Is it a form of not very subliminal advertising? The International Poker School.

Also obv its very early days yet, but this far the International Poker School seems only to have taken place in England, with all English instructors, very international. The International Poker School.

If Zimbler plays like he commentates you may as well light a match to your money

If he plays like he pulls birds you may as well by a Bentley now!!!  :D

If I can have a photo with the Greco I will pay for a place outright!

FYP.

Lol biting my tongue hard here, which is new for me.

Don't think I'll last much longer.

3 or 4 is being generous rotflmfao. Having seen Livs maxim shoot though am well up for going!

That's the most tilting site, after every line.... THE INTERNATIONAL POKER SCHOOL  :dontask:

Going to give it a go :)


Not that I need any help after beating Negreanu on cash table recently ;)

I can runner,runner flush the best of them :D

High stakes poker ;)

Total pot $3.50 | Rake $0.15
Board [3d Jc 8d 2d 7d]
Seat 2: GodLovesU89 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: benigna folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: john1226 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: CBat28 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Rotty66 (small blind) showed [Jd 4c] and won ($3.35) with a flush, Jack high
Seat 7: KidPoker (big blind) mucked [7s Jh]
Seat 8: wirgo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: oups54 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

It's the spelling and grammatical errors that offend me

Michael has commented that his skills as a trained actor have allowed him to give “false” tells that he learnt from Mike Caro's Book of Tells.


skillz

LoL....
Mickey Wernick

"TIPS, Michael (Mickey) D. Wernick is a retired English bookmaker and professional poker player from Birmingham. Whilst growing up, Mickey was a keen amateur boxer and won the Midlands Area Amateur title. He has also met Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali. The International Poker School."

He has met sugar ray and muhammed ali... WOWOWOWOWOWOW... pls teach me how to play a 5bb stack for 2 days, min cash then get it in with k6o and no FE..
OR
michael greco... WOWOWOWOWWOWOWOWOW He is definately the best player HE knows!

Pretty sure only john tabatatsbstaiaitiatataitbbi is the only decent winner here in online mtt's....

Groan......

You are missing the point completely guys......

You don't necessarily need to be able to play well to teach newbies & novices. It's just basics, & the ability to teach. We can agree I'm hopeless at poker - but I CAN teach newbies. Just basics.

And it's extremely easy to throw around smartarse remarks about those who TIPS claim to be "their" Pros. Really, "knocking copy" is the easiest thing on earth.

What appears to be slightly more difficult is reading Posts carefully.

I'm not here to defend TIPS - I'm bloody well not - but I would say Paul Jackson was a signigficant force in Online MTT's a while back, & he's a supremely good Mentor.

The info I had was that was this was definitely not for beginners but more for intermediate players

anyway I am more going along for a day out as much as anything

I hope it goes well, & you enjoy it.

Who will be there, from TIPS?

Surely all of the TIPS pros? Thewy, Greco, Liv, Tabatabai, Goodwin, all of them.

And the Dean hopefully ;)

I don't think it is definite at the moment

afaik Paul Zimbler and Paul Jackson are definites, the others depend on the EPT in copenhagen

A few folks I know went to an earlier one in London and said it was a great day

Gotcha.

Well Good Luck to Mickey & co in the Copenhagen EPT.

LOL, dry as a desert tikay.

lol Paul Zimbler plays every hand I've seen in a butchered manner.

Unless Liv Boeree's lecture is 'How to make being fit get you sponsored' then I'm pretty sure I don't wanna listen to anything she has to say. Wouldn't mind poppin next door with Evilpie too watch her tho.

Marc Goodwin is pretty bad too.

Weeeeeeeeeeee.

Just seen that Maria is viewing this thread....PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE share your views on Liv!  ;popcorn;

Amazing ass!!!!

Would you?

Thought that was Annette.....

If she asked i'd be firm but fair...

True True Tom, just different scales.

Bottled.

gimme a break dubs, i still got 20 yrs min to turn it round right?
x

even flushy was tearing up the online mtt's in 04 tony!

Don't knock the worm marc, he's a fkin ledge.

QFT.....truly amazing.

yeh dave, legend he may be, BUT, would i want to listen to ANY poker advice or 'TIPS' from him... no...
would you?

I'm in and hopefully so is Liv... Lol
should be a good day and something different from the norm..

I hear Bailey is doing a lecture

"how to put Leatherman on tilt"  :D

lol.. It's not hard...

Is anyone who's a part of TIPS on here to answer some questions I have?

No but I can forward them to them for you, and ask him to come on here

hmmm ok I've head something interesting

You can call or email me anytime you have a question.
PZ

FFS Paul, you forgot to say "The International Poker School"


I have a question for you, how much did you pay Barry Neville to wear a T.I.P.S. badge at DTD.
The International Poker School.

Lol, very good.

Other than yourself and Paul Jackson how often are the other TIPS instructors scheduled to attend?

Also, just wondering in what capacity, you or some of the other instructors deem yourselves able to charge for poker instruction?

????????????????????????

Are you even contemplating attending Cos?

If you were going to dance lessons Cos, would you expect your teacher to be a world champion or regarded as the best in the world - or just someone who's competent and able to teach you the basics, and a little bit on top, from which you can develop into John Sergeant.

Based on the list, no. I'd just heard that it's Mssrs Zimbler and Jackson instructing at basically every one. If Tabbatabbai and co decide to turn up to three or four then it could be worthwhile I guess.

How interesting. Someone with a brain has made a worthwhile statement.

What point are you trying to make Cos? Are you just trying to make people feel like they're ripping people off and shouldn't be charging for their time?

I know that when Stu and myself ran a pub poker tournament all of the players would ask us for advice. Most of them learnt a lot from us in the same way that I have learnt a lot from other players. The TIPS people aren't trying to teach players of an advanced level, they are aiming at beginners.

All of the TIPS players have more experience than myself and I know that I could teach a lot to beginners so why shouldn't they?

EDIT: Just had an interesting conversation. So how many of the TIPS pros are actually scheduled to attend?

lol ok whatever

Lol!!!!!!!!

More importantly as their is no skill element involved in unlimited holdem surely someone who attends this course increases their future poker winning expectation by nothing?

You're such a bellend.

I'd be annoyed if I saw a poster for a dance class with all the people from strcitly come dancing and all I got was a Bruce Forsyth.

The people from strictly would sure be giving you dance lessons at the local Greek Youth Singles Society clubhouse.

thought tips was for intermediates not beginners, beginners can watch sky for free innit. having said that for intermediates 2+2 and a DC/CR sub is a lot cheaper than tips so the question imo should be - how is u better than that tips guys?

The International Poker School

Some people dont like reading, some people simply are not very good at actively seeking out learning, others will enjoy the interactive class room element of it and finally some just want a day out.

Some people play live and are shit at computers.

Dont get me wrong, this would probably be on the bottom of my personal preference 'formats for learning' pokers list, but I understand why there is a (small) market out there.

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

From an academic point of view

Those who 'can': can't necessarily teach
Those who can teach: don't necessarily have as much subject knowledge

I've never understood why people take the piss out of guys that offer coaching. I you want to go then go, but it seems a bit unnecessary to take the piss out of them. If anyone thinks that they can't learn something from somebody else, they have a pretty blinkered view IMO.

I agree

At the end of the day if you dont think they are qualified to teach dont go. If you dont want to go, leave them to it.

They will soon find out if they are qualified as they will be unindated with customers if its good.

I can't decide if that's a post of ironsteinian epicness or the most brilliantly sarcastic deliberate spoonerism

FWIW I completely rate Paul Jackson as a poker mentor - I know I'm not the best player and he didn't have a lot to work with but his help really helped me. I would go to this even if it was only him. it's horses for courses imo - how do you know if it's any good unless you've heard what they have to say?

cos some of them are shit perhaps?




 Over the last few days, I have talked personally to several of the people making allegations against Jason Ho and to Jason Ho directly. We promised a direct and transparent report to the StoxPoker community on this and this post is our fulfillment of that pledge.

I think the best starting point is a broad timeline of events surrounding Jason Ho as a Stoxpoker coach.


May 2008 – Jason contacted Stoxpoker via email about the possibility of being a Stox coach. In all other situations that I recall, we have either contacted the prospective coaches directly or the coach has been referred to us by one of our other coaches. A few days later, I set-up a conference call with Jason. I don’t recall the exact conversation from that long ago but a decision was made to allow Jason to do a guest NL video at small stakes. This video was the first video in a small stakes series that he had proposed.


July 2008 Jason releases his first video on StoxPoker and it was met with very high praise by the StoxPoker community (as were most of his videos). This was not a substitute for our lack of adequate vetting, but the reality of it had a natural tendency to lower our antennas slightly.


August 2008 Based largely on the popularity of his videos, Jason became an official coach on StoxPoker. Below is how Jason was introduced:

    Jason "code 7654321" Ho

    Jason "code7654321" Ho takes a game-theory-based approach to no-limit hold'em. He is a 6-max specialist who has played everything from $.50-1 to $25-50. Recently, he has also started developing his PLO game at the $5-10 and $10-20 level, and has done so successfully.

    Jason's videos will focus on smaller-stakes 6-max games and will strongly emphasize using Hold'em Manager to develop your game. Jason plays poker full-time, and his excellent results largely derive from his strong work ethic, his previous experience in high-pressure working environments, and his background in professional gaming. His best skills include his keen hand-reading ability and his ability to manipulate his opponents psychologically.

Jason was never promoted by StoxPoker as a $1M winner. However, there were comments that he later made personally in forum posts, blogs and private email correspondence about his winnings in the past that referred to being a $1M winner, graphs of large winning days, and references to winning a large % of his sessions.

Through Aug of 2008 the following are obvious in hindsight and, more importantly, should have been obvious at the time:

    • An unsolicited request to coach should have generated a significant amount of due diligence on our part. The approach of limiting Jason to a guest video at a small limit and letting the members vote Jason up or down was not adequate. Since late 2008, new coaches have been part of a Quality Assurance (“QA”) process where a team of reviewers independently evaluate the first video submission and a formal QA report is submitted to the management team. These reports are reviewed and evaluated before the first video is posted. As mentioned, Jason is an exception to the fact that all other coaches we have recruited have been personally referred by other coaches or we have known of personally and actively recruited them.

    • The self-promotional language in the introduction should have been reserved until proven in his videos and teaching. Our direct knowledge or 3rd party references within StoxPoker have allowed us evaluate such introductions in coaches before and after but in this case it simply should have been removed.

Jason Ho Allegations Become Public I was approached privately about 10 days ago about a potential situation involving Jason Ho and parties that wanted to remain anonymous. The general nature of the claims was asserted by a 3rd party but there were no details, and even the 3rd party initially wanted to remain anonymous.

Even though I was unable to substantiate the claims, Jason’s two most recent videos had received much lower than normal ratings, so I preemptively told Jason that we would not be requesting any more videos from him.

After a few days of continued rumors as to a major issue and still no person to step forward and publicly acknowledge the situation, I created a thread on StoxPoker and was forthright in saying that I have heard certain rumors about matters involving Jason and please come forward to post the allegations publicly if doing so privately is not going to happen. Over the next 2 days, none of the crew came forward and the thread turned into one where Jason Ho was the apparent victim. I eventually decided to lock the thread since it appeared that reliable information was not forthcoming.

A few hours after locking the thread, the members of the crew made their individual posts in a newly created thread. At that point I began the process of talking to some of the members of the crew directly, and I also talked to Jason Ho directly.

On the evening of Jan 27th, after he used the StoxPoker forums to threaten some of the people making allegations against him, I banned Jason permanently from StoxPoker and had his videos and blogs removed from the site.


Below is a summary of the findings from my interviews with some of the members that originally posted allegations against Jason and my interviews with Jason himself.

The “Investment Fund” in early 2009 In early 2009, Jason convinced a group of his students to form a “crew” and contribute 33% of their winnings into a “crew fund”. That fund grew to around $11K by mid-2009. The fund was to be eventually used as an investment pool.

The "Staking Fund" in mid-2009, Jason told the crew that the fund was not performing as he had hoped and that the current plan was not worth his time and effort. He offered that he might be interested in allowing the crew to stake him. After raising a little less than $100,000 from the crew, an Omaha staking fund document was distributed to the crew on October 11th.

At some point in early January 2010, the crew confronted Jason about the status of the staking fund and Jason informed them that the fund was down 60% and that he has borrowed the other 40% for living expenses. A dispute arose as to whether Jason was authorized to play on the staking fund at that time, and there are also disputes as to how much Jason was authorized to borrow from the fund for living expenses. With the possible exception of a few thousand dollars, no money invested in the staking fund has been returned to the members of the crew.

As to whether Jason was authorized to play on the fund, the following is excerpted from the fund document of Oct 11th:

    “(The fund currently has been passively started from Sept 2009 however the option to buy out Jason’s 50k of the fund will enable new shareholders to participate up until Jan 2010)

    Fund Official Start Date: Jan 2010
    Fund Maturity Date: Jan 2011”



Some of the crew members have acknowledged receipt of this email but have said they did not question the contents of the email at that time. Jason has taken the position that the words "passively started from Sept 2009" authorized him to play using fund money before Jan 1, 2010 and that he was not accountable to telling them when began playing. I would have personally interpreted matters just as the crew did but without regard to the internal settlement of this issue between Jason and the members of the crew, I have outlined in the Conclusion the reasons why StoxPoker is not responsible for the losses incurred by the crew in this staking arrangement.

It was also alleged that Jason at times made unauthorized transfers from the personal poker accounts of some crew members (he had access to these accounts). That total of claims that I am aware of for unreimbursed transfers out of a crew member’s poker account is approximately $7,500. Jason did not have access to the private poker accounts of all of the crew members.

The documentation provided to me by the crew members that I talked to was consistent with their discussions with me. I had the sense that each crew member that I talked to was very forthright and honest with me in their accounts of the evolution of events. Some of the crew members were interviewed by other representatives of StoxPoker and interviews are still ongoing.

Private coaching Jason had several private students from StoxPoker that were not part of the crew. They were charged in various ways and under various programs that Jason offered. This ranges from hourly coaching to charges for strategy charts and spreadsheets.

Some of the students expressed frustration with Jason’s private coaching, and others have recently written me privately or posted publicly that they were generally satisfied with the coaching. I am aware of more that were unsatisfied with the quality of the coaching and/or Jason’s commitment to them as a student than those that were satisfied.

The same can be stated about the training that some paid for in Macau. There was a combination of those that felt generally satisfied with the training and others that had requested that Jason refund the Macau training costs because they were not satisfied.

I am not aware of any complaint that StoxPoker management received from one of Jason’s private students until this week. However, I believe that is mostly attributable to a sense that the failed results were their fault and/or they were embarrassed to come forward. There was at least one forum posts in the coaching forum where an ex-student was dissatisfied but that isn’t uncommon when you are dealing with something like private poker coaching. There were also students that posted about very favorable experiences. (Noted that with all else that has come to light, the alarm bells now go off about shill positive endorsements in the forums).


Conclusion

We believe that StoxPoker has a responsibility to reimburse coaching fees for those that were introduced to Jason through StoxPoker and had a bad experience using him as a private coach.

I have been forthright in saying that:

    • Jason was not vetted as other StoxPoker coaches have been. I let down the StoxPoker community and our other coaches in that regard. Coaches since Q4 of 2008 have all been subject to our formal QA process previously described before their first video is posted.

    • StoxPoker could have acted as a 3rd party escrow agent for all funds involving coaching arrangements. That is already being implemented.

For the reasons previously mentioned in this statement, members that were introduced to Jason through StoxPoker and had a bad experience with private coaching from him will be reimbursed. However, there is shared accountability for those that continued to make payments to Jason for coaching. Therefore, we have taken this into consideration in policy.

We will reimburse for 100% of the first two payments for any coaching services with Jason and 50% of a 3rd. We will not reimburse for any payments after the 3rd.

We realize the proposed restitution could be debated endlessly, but we feel that as a person continues to pay for more services, they share more, and ultimately all, of the responsibility for their actions.


We have also determined that the staking fund issue is a separate matter that cannot be resolved by Stoxpoker, the conclusion for this issue must be found separately between Jason Ho and the investors. The reasons are:

(i) The staking fund was something that was not disclosed to StoxPoker by either the investors or Jason (we were aware that Jason was privately arranging coaching services). There is no implied acceptance on the part of StoxPoker to such an arrangement that was ever given.

(ii) The “crew” had been working with Jason directly for several months on various private coaching and failed joint crew bankroll schemes before they ever invested in the staking fund. A reasonable person exercising some reasonable level of caution would have at least mentioned the staking fund to us in advance of investing or would have simply passed on the investment based on the cumulative experiences with Jason over the previous several months.

(iii) StoxPoker has NEVER promoted staking as something that should be entered into by the StoxPoker community. This is the reason there is not a staking forum. Staking is a very high risk activity in the best of circumstances.


Stoxpoker will not reimburse members for money transferred out of their personal accounts by a 3rd party. It is an egregious lack of personal responsibility to give anyone else access to your personal accounts and that is not something that we feel responsible for.


In closing, I am sorry for the pain this entire situation has caused for those directly involved and the course of action we are undertaking is a demonstration of StoxPoker’s willingness to address this head-on and take financial responsibility where appropriate. We estimate that the reimbursements to members on the private coaching could be as high as $100,000.

To the StoxPoker community and all of our coaches, the actions we are taking will hopefully serve as a statement to our commitment to be open, honest and accountable to you.

The policies that have been in place since Q4 of 2008 on the Quality Assurance team reviews for new coaches and the new process for 3rd party administration for all private coaching are in place to protect our member and coaches from anything even remotely like this ever happening again.

Regards,

Jim

Summary:

The overwhelming majority of Jason's students have had worse results after his coaching than beforehand. Many winning players have become losing or break-even players as a result of following his advice.

a) I was a consistent, high winning 2/4 NL 6 max player before coached by Jason Ho.
b) I first paid Jason $4500 ($1500 +$3000) in coaching fees based on his StoxPoker.com reputation.
c) After first 2 months went well, Jason had me pay $10,000 upfront for a “2-week Intensive” course followed by another $10,000 fee based on profits and to be his “protégé” to mentor through high stakes.
d) After losing month in the “Intensive” course, Jason didn’t fulfill the agreement and asks for additional payments despite no profits.
e) Jason convinces me to open and add funds to a Full-Tilt.com account, loses about $11,800 and stops providing regular coaching as I struggle at 2/4 following his new playing styles.
f) Jason convinces me to do another profit-sharing agreement, doesn’t fulfill it and currently owes me $1000.
g) Jason’s uninformed advice and unethical behavior has cost me estimated losses of about $150,000.

To: StoxPoker.com:

I am writing to complain about how my affiliation with one of the StoxPoker.com coaches and lead instructors, Jason Ho (Code 7654321), has caused serious damage to my bankroll and confidence. I believe Stoxpoker.com bears some responsibility for not conducting an adequate background check on him.

I have been a paid member (through affiliates) of StoxPoker.com since around mid 2005.
Around November 2008, I decided to seek a coach to help me move up to play 3/6 NL 6max (“3/6”) and above and saw that Jason Ho “Code7654321” was advertising his services under the members-only “coaching forum” on your site. He also received good reviews from other lead instructors on your site, such as “mental coach,” Jared Tendler, which impressed me. Your site had also advertised that Jason won over $1 million in the past year playing online poker playing a “game-theory,” heavy mathematically-based style.

At that point, I had been a dominant winner at 2/4 NL 6 max (“2/4”). My poker career had begun with me grinding small limits at NL as well as limit hold’em, not having a losing month for about 24 months up until February, 2009. From 01/01/08 to 12/03/08, I won about $80,470 at 2/4. This would be a 4.36BB/100 win rate over 230,509 hands, which is considered to be very good. I had also won an additional $20,000 in other limits. I initially paid Jason $1500 for 5 lessons then $3000 for 10 more lessons. Part of the reason I paid for the additional lessons was because he told me he would only give a custom HUD (Heads up Display for Holdem Manager) only to students who paid for 10 lessons. In our first coaching session, Jason told me that he would have me playing 25/50 NL 6 max within a year. I was skeptical but based on his reputation, I was pleased to hear that.

The coaching initially went well in December and January, 2009. Under his guidance, I played 3/6, some 5/10 NL full-ring and won the same amount I had won in previous months although I sometimes doubted his advice. In January 2009, he told me that because I was a very strong player and he wanted to accelerate my progress, he would undertake a “profit-sharing” agreement starting in February 2009 with me. The agreement would be that he would give me free coaching for at least 2 weeks at 5/10 NL 6-max (“5/10”) and would take his coaching fees out of half my winnings. That seemed to be a great deal and I agreed to it.

Around January 20, 2009, Jason told me that his girlfriend didn’t think the deal would be fair to him. Instead he proposed a complicated agreement whereby I would undertake his “2 Week Intensive, 40 hour” coaching course whereby I would pay him $10,000 upfront, and another $10,000 from profits for a total fee of $20,000.

The agreement was also that he would provide me unlimited coaching to ensure that I would feel comfortable playing 5/10 above and beyond the 40 hours of the course. One kicker would be that he agreed to play 15-20 hours/week on my account. The final kicker was that after the course. I would be his “protégé,” meaning I would have unlimited access to his coaching, specialized documents he would produce, and that he would eventually have me be a winner in 25/50 NL 6 max in return for a monthly fee of $5000. I asked for a traditional staking agreement instead whereby he could take some of my profits in exchange for covering my losses but instead he sold his agreement to me as a “no-lose” proposition.

We also talked about how a player at StoxPoker.com, known as Matt “Mbolt1” Bolt had recently moved from micro-limits to winning over $100,000/month at medium to high stakes with the help of Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt, another well-regarded high stakes StoxPoker.com coach and lead instructor. Jason led me to believe that I would be a similar success story. Relying on his reputation as a well-regarded StoxPoker.com coach who had also won over $1 million, I agreed to this deal.

The 2 week-Intensive sessions did not go well. Throughout the course, I felt uncomfortable during the coaching sessions as he would have me playing differently than he had coached me at 3/6. He explained that good play at 5/10 was much different than the lower limits so I accepted the unorthodox lines he had me play. For instance, at 2/4 and 3/6, I had been continuation-betting the Turn with about 25% frequency, but Jason emphasized that such low frequency was too passive and exploitable. He recommended instead that I continuation-bet the Turn with about 50% frequency.

He also forwarded me some emails between him and Kyle “Cottonseed” Hendon, another well-regarded, high-stakes StoxPoker.com coach where Cottonseed praised his analytical abilities after Jason provided him with a customized “leak-analysis” report. He also told me Cottonseed was paying him $1000/hr for his coaching and had sent him his entire database. He also told me that Leatherass was also seeking his coaching and had also sent Jason his entire database. He told me that Leatherass’s database indicated he was a “brute-force” player who did not play optimally.

In fact, Jason told me he had made more than Leatherass did in 2008 while playing substantially fewer hours. He also told me that he was in the process of preparing a document that would “virtually solve” NL 6 max by being “game-theory optimal” and this strategy would be “unexploitable.” He expected to be able to sell this document to high stakes players for over $100,000 each. He would work on this document during coaching sessions and appeared distracted many times.

During the course, I lost about $15,000 combined during our coaching sessions and playing on my own. On the last day of the sessions, he had me look up the PLO tables, said that he saw a “big fish” at 10/20 PLO 6 max and had me play him at a 6 max table. I had never played PLO at that point so he directed every single move (During the sessions, he had mentioned that he had made more lifetime earnings in PLO than NL and that eventually, he would teach me PLO since he thought it was more geared towards my tight, playing style). I merely followed his instructions at the PLO table. The session ended with about $6000 in PLO losses.

Following that day, Jason made about $13,000 that weekend on my account in about 5 hours of play. He then immediately asked for the remainder of the coaching fees of $10,000 even though our agreement had specified that the remainder of the fee was to be from profits. I told him so but he was very insistent so I agreed to immediately pay $5000, expecting he would continue to have similar success playing on my account.

However, that would be all the play he would do on my account except for a few isolated 2/4 and 3/6 sessions in the upcoming months. For the remainder of February, I was left to play on my own and finished the month losing about $5000 plus the additional $15, 000 I paid Jason for a total loss of about $20,000. This loss affected my confidence and bankroll and I moved back down to playing 2/4, feeling an enormous amount of disappointment and feeling let down by this coach was supposedly going to mentor me to being a high stakes winner.

Consequently, I struggled when I went back to playing 2/4 trying to incorporate the new strategies Jason had taught me. Around mid-April 2009, Jason advised to open up a Full-TiltPoker.com (“Full-Tilt) account under his affiliate and I would receive a favorable rakeback deal. He also said he felt bad for my struggles and he said if I put money in the account, he would play 2/4 there to boost back my bankroll. I deposited $12,000 in that account and asked him if that was enough since it was 30 buy-ins. He said it was. A few days later, he told me he lost it all, except for about $150. I was shocked since Jason had told me that most of his students played at Full-Tilt and I assumed he knew how those games played. He even declined my offer to provide data-mined hand histories beforehand. He also told me afterwards that 30 buy-ins was not enough for his mass-multi tabling!

Because of this hit to my bankroll and confidence, my game suffered and I consequently have had numerous breakeven and slightly losing months after not having a losing month in about the past 24 months before the February Intensive coaching. Frequently, I also lost some motivation to play, since it seemed that I was constantly either losing or at best, breaking even. I felt at times that despite, my best efforts, I was constantly regressing. I did not play the amount of hours I was accustomed to playing. When I told Jason about my struggles, he told me that I had simply not experienced regular “variance” in my game and that my previous success may have been that I was running over expectation and that I merely had to keep “plugging away.” He would regularly advise me to play different styles as I continued to struggle.

Since then, Jason has advised me to play PLO and coached me for a few sessions in return for potential profits from playing PLO. He bragged that he had multiple students who were 4BB/100 winners at PLO. I have lost about $7000 in PLO and have stopped playing it since. Despite Jason’s coaching, I did not feel comfortable playing PLO and frequently did not know what the “correct” play was in many situations. Finally, around October, 2009, he told me he had extensively studied the game of “nanonoko,” a dominant 2/4 NL 6 max player on PokerStars.com.

He said he felt bad about losing my $12,000 on Full-Tilt in April and wanted to make it up to me. This time, we would contribute $5000 each to my account and he would play 2/4. He promptly lost that as well but told me that he had taken shots at 5/10 PLO to build up the $10,000 and he would pay me back. I have received about $4000 back and he has owed me $1000 for about a month. On 12/24/09, Jason transferred $1000 from my account to his account, “zenconcept” and told me about it afterwards. He paid back $1000 about 2 weeks later and currently, still owes me $1000.

In short, I won approximately $110,000 in 2008, with only $10,000 of it coming after Jason coached me. I was still improving and highly confident of doing better in 2009. Instead, in 2009, overall my results are that I have lost about $15,000. Needless to say, Jason’s flawed advice has cost me much in terms of coaching fees and lost potential earnings. I estimate my true losses to be at least $150,000. Before coaching with Jason, I was a dominant 2/4 player. Because of my results in 2009, I am currently playing 1/2 NL 6 max.

Having now spoken to some of Jason’s students and reanalyzed the coaching advice he gave me, I believe that Jason only knows enough about poker to appear to be an expert player. I believe that StoxPoker.com has advertised and given credence to someone who, at best, gave me dangerous, uninformed and untested advice, and at worst, purposely and knowingly gave me wrong advice for unknown reasons.

Couldn't be arsed reading any of that I'll just take your word for it lol...........

Cliff notes

Which words would yo use to descirbe Jason Ho

[X] Theif
[X] Fraud
[X] Degen
[  ] Good at PLO

Shit me! If thats all true then I would not attend anything endorsing the guy as anything.

The International Poker School

I remember one of the 1st finals i ever made at a vic festival  a couple and years ago, and this guy Jason Ho had no clue what he was doing..he somehow managed the bust the 1st 4 people and had 80% of the chips with 4 people left and finshing 4th.

The people who say that this sort of thing is not worth criticising are only saying that because aren't the sort of people this targets.

The people this targets are unlikely to know that some of these instructors are terrible. I've been biting my lip hard because I like people like Mickey Wernick (and I've not met Zimbler & co but he seems a v nice upbeat bloke) but it's not hard to see if you've watched him on telly that he's not great at poker.

The only reason this whole thing holds any water is because Paul Jackson's name is with it.

I'd be pretty peeved if a friend of mine came and said to me I've just paid £xxx for a day's coaching and I was taught by (*insert name that's not Tabbatabai or Jackson*).

There still haven't been any answers to the questions I posted on here a few days ago either as to which instructors are scheduled and when. I think people are missing a thing or two here.

^^^ Mate, I don't know why you even care, I sometimes wonder if you get out of bed  just to have a ruck with somebody hahaha :P

The last few months I've definitely been less aggro than I used to be in the nature of my posts. I just can't be arsed anymore but I haven't said anything out of line or 'asking for a ruck' on here have i?

I've just stated an opinion.

I'm just pulling your leg mate ;D

+1, & + another.

But it effects your life in zero ways?

The in an Igloo Pranks Society

Here's my two penneth, as someone that well within the range that this type of thing is aimed at. Firstly, before shelling out any dosh, I'd want to know for definite who was going to be present on the day, and what the mentor to attendee ratio was going to be etc. I'd then go into it with an open mind and see what I could learn - it may well be that I'd learn less through 'tuition' but through general discussions between the group but I can't imagne for a minute I'd come out of the event having learned nothing at all.  For me, something like this would be preferable over reading a book or joining a training site, but it's horses for courses. If it bombs, then people will say it wasn't much use and it won't happen again. If people get a lot from it, they'll sing it's praises and it will go on to grow and develop as a venture. I don't really understand people knocking it before it's even happened tbh.  I can't afford to go along atm, but I do hope it's a great success because I'd definitely be interested in something similar if I'm in a position to attend in the future.

Most people have their minds already made up on the 'cant do, teach' debate, but the real issue is transparancy. Tikay is very open and accurate in assessing his own ability and what he can offer his target audience, but then you get the Jason Ho thing which is the polar opposite.

The Jason Ho thing does juistify, imo, the stick the Dean got a while back because he made some big claims yet was barely able to even prove he owned a computer. I think with TIPS Cos is right to question some creditionals here because it would appear that the only person on the list who instructs is Paul Jackson(Who imo is a fantastic teacher btw) - I am sure that Zimbler et al can enlighten us and prove us wrong very soon.

Incidently my new book 'Cage Fighting for Norwegian Diabetics' is out in the shops very soon.

The International Poker School

I could make a pretty shrewd guess for you if you like?

You sneaked that one through nicely!

He sure did.

Credit where credit's due.......

That sure is here ;)

that would depend on your definition of 'sneaked'

Anyone going tomorrow?

If so I would be interested in feedback please

Running alongside the 20;20?

I may sneak in for 5 mins on the break and see what its like.

Michael Greco, Marc Goodwin, Liv Boeree, Mickey Wernick, Julian Thew and John Tabatabai surely?

Maybe Pauls Zimbler and Jackson

Julian is no longer listed as a TIPS Pro, & his picture has been removed from their website.

How good does Julian run ?? ?? ? !!!!!!!!!!

'julian thew team pokerstars pro the international poker school' was probably too long to fit on ept chip updates so he had to drop one of them

rotflmfao

Would be good if Julian could tell us a little bit about his experience with TIPS.

Did he have to attend a special photo shoot for the photo on their website?

Nosey pants  :D

(http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq167/Andr4w/MRDS156lg.jpg)

Its ok ....

ZOMG how has this not had more love!

The international poker school are here. The international poker school.

rotflmfao



Awesome Kev. :)up

just for those interested todays Pros were, Paul Zimbler, Paul Jackson, Marc Goodwin and James Browning

Certainly interesting and very interactive

Paul Jackson's input is fascinating for an amateur like me, I did learn that my snap decisions certainly merit much more thought

Maybe it won't suit some of the better players on here but I found it a fun day and anything I gain from it is a bonus

Oh and I won a seat to the next one in the tournament they play at the end

How many attended and was it worth £250 ???. The International School of Poker.

Rival Brand? T.I.S.P.s

Tell us more...

Opps. The International Poker School.

So was the event success and when are they going international ?

International!? How many places do you want Paul Jackson and Paul Zimbler to be at once?!

Ask the International Poker School. The International Poker School.

was sold out, I think there were about 35-40 folks there

It was worth it as an enjoyable way to spend a day, will be more than worth it if my game improves :)

Cost ya alot more than £250 to improve your game... lol
But agree was a good day and something different from the norm. Was a shame Liv never made it, so we had to settle with the Ledge Goodwin..
Some intetesting stuff said and i hope i can put it to good use in next deepstack..