Update Post: S4Y, Coaching, Products, and Online Poker

This post was originally published on March 21, 2021, on my personal website, Lukich.io. I have since consolidated all of my poker-related content by reposting it onto Solver School. Please note that the analysis spreadsheet discussed in this article has been retired and is no longer publicly available. If you are interested in discussing custom analysis or ways to replicate for your own work, reach out to me at [email protected].

I had planned to write an update for the past few weeks, but I just haven’t had the time to get a blog post together. In the 2nd half of 2020, I didn’t post as much because I struggled to manage life during COVID. Fortunately, I’m not in the same rut anymore these days. So, my lack of posting hasn’t been due to any mental challenges. Instead, I haven’t had the chance to post much in 2021 because I’ve been busy…which is good! I feel like I’m juggling a lot these days and have some timely announcements, so I wanted to share a brief update on some of the things I have in progress.

My most current announcement is that I’ll be joining Berkey on the Solve for Why subscription site tomorrow (March 13) for their Monthly Mastermind webinar series at 4 pm Eastern. I’ve been working with the guys at S4Y for almost two years. I attended both academies in 2019 and participated as a player in their Poker Out Loud series last year. I’ve shared previously how highly I think of those guys and their approach to teaching this game. So, when Berkey asked me to lead this month’s discussion, I was honored and extremely excited.

The topic of my Mastermind is Studying Poker Like a Data Analyst: Using Solvers & Data Methods to Build Practical Strategies. In this webinar, I will discuss the capabilities and limitations of solvers as tools for poker exploration. I’ll also walk through the specific methodology I utilize in my studies. I believe the framework I will detail can be used to tackle most poker problems you encounter at the table. If you can make it live, Berkey and I will facilitate an interactive discussion. If you’re unavailable tomorrow, no worries — the webinar will be available on-demand on the S4Y site afterward. Now is also a great time to sign up for S4Y as subscriptions increase from $10/mo to $50/mo on April 1. Sign up today and take advantage of their lower pandemic pricing while you can!

I have been thinking about creating content about this topic for a while now. It’s not controversial to say that most poker players have no idea how to use solvers to study effectively. I see so many similarities between this and my career in marketing measurement. So many technologies can package up every data point anyone can think of. Still, most organizations don’t know how to use the tools (and underlying information within them) well. Berkey and I had talked last summer about creating a webinar to tackle this topic, but I didn’t get the extra bandwidth to build it out until this year. I’m excited to share this with the community, as I think this topic can be really helpful for people to get better at using solvers to dive into their games.

My second announcement stems from that last point. I hope to use tomorrow’s webinar as a launching point to build this out as a coaching session. To do so, I am looking for volunteers to help me. I plan to create a few coaching session videos that I’ll post on my YouTube channel. Each video will model an actual coaching session, where I’ll work with a client to analyze a spot using solvers. If you’re interested in trading a free 60-90 minute coaching session in exchange for letting me use the content on my YouTube site, reach out to me. You’ll need a solver (GTO+ or PioSolver) and a general understanding of how to use them. You will also have to be okay with participating in a coaching session posted on YouTube.

Outside of those two projects, I’ve been focused on finding additional ways to expand the scope of this site. I want to spend more time creating content, but I also have other demands on my time (family, work, etc.). To be able to focus more energy here, I’ll need to find additional ways to drive revenue. I have two areas that I’m exploring more to build out my product catalog.

First, I’m looking to expand my Flop Analysis Workbook. I launched a comprehensive data analysis of equilibrium flop play in 2020. When I started selling the product, I thought a small handful of people might be interested in purchasing. While it hasn’t become mainstream, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the number of people who have shown interest and purchased. The feedback from those who have bought it has been very positive. I’m convinced that the initial product has been a pretty successful proof of concept, and there is demand for more data-focused products.

I’m currently working to transition the Excel workbook into a web-based solution. I plan to move it to a Tableau-like environment and host it on my website. This way, I can instantly push additional data, enhancements, bug fixes, and any other changes to all end users without sending them a new digital version of the workbook. There are a lot of questions I need to answer. Still, I will contact and involve anyone who has already purchased the Excel version, giving them preferential treatment to Beta versions as available.

I’m also planning to develop some additional products. I am scoping out one larger product, similar to my Flop Workbook, focused on turn play. I am in the early stages of this effort and still need to build a framework for organizing and visualizing this data. Still, I think it could be used with the Flop Workbook to give a great picture of equilibrium play across different turn-cards. I also want to create smaller data solutions in the $10-$50 price point that can help with various parts of people’s games.

My last update is that I’ve been busy playing poker lately. After COVID hit, my playing volume dropped significantly. I haven’t made it to a casino to play live in over a year. I did play a little online at ACR or Ignition, but I only played MTTs occasionally. As I mentioned last year, I moved to Michigan in August, and fortunately, the state recently went live with legal, regulated online poker. PokerStars MI launched in January, and the cash games have been outstanding. I’ve been trying to get plenty of volume in there and working with Brad Wilson at Chasing Poker Greatness on refining my online game. I’m excited for things to expand and hopefully get some multi-state pools soon.

A lot is going on these days, but all good things. I’m looking forward to sharing more about some of my work. I’ll also get around to putting up a pure content-heavy, data-driven post one of these days.

If you have any comments or thoughts, please feel free to leave any comments below. You can also contact me at [email protected] or on Twitter or YouTube through the links in the footer below.

-Lukich