Customer Reviews

Masters of Poker Presents: Annie Duke's Conquering Online Poker

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Annie Duke's Conquering Online Poker (Big Vision Studio, 2005)

Okay, so everyone knows that sex sells. Everyone also knows (everyone, at least, who watches the World Series of Poker) that Annie Duke is one fine-lookin' lady. Given those two facts, I cannot help but think that someone hit upon the bright idea for this DVD, which is... sixty minutes of Annie Duke (in, at least, a good outfit) talking while sitting in the dealer's chair at a Hold'em table. I can't swear to it, because I am extremely thick sometimes, but I'd also say that it counts as an extended infomercial for UltimateBet.

Now, as long as you're simply looking for some eye candy and don't mind infomercials-- Annie Duke is sure easier on the eyes than Billy Mays or Ron Popeil-- go for it. If you're looking for information on playing online poker, however, you've come to the wrong place. At least half the video is spent discussing tips, tricks, and techniques for setting up an account with an online poker site; I'm not entirely sure, but I'm guessing that the people who are going to be the target market for this video have already done so. This is not necessarily an uncommon problem; almost every book on Thoroughbred handicapping published, no matter how advanced, includes at least a couple of pages on how to read past performances. But there you're talking about two or three pages of a three-hundred-plus-page book; here; you're talking about fully 50% of the content. One's excusable if annoying. The other is hard to swallow, especially at MSRP. There's some interesting stuff to be found in the latter half, but nothing that really goes into depth, and a surprising lack of visual aids; no diagrams, charts, screencaps, etc.

Rent this one if you must, but it's not worth your hard-earned dollars, and it's not got much rewatch potential. **

Annie Duke's "Advanced Texas Hold'em Secrets" was a genuinely original and high caliber DVD, with a few presentation flaws. This new DVD has all the flaws and none of the virtues of her previous one.

To start, this shares the same "talking head" format as Advanced Texas Hold'em Secrets. There are no graphics, no diagrams, nothing but Annie Duke sitting behind a table and talking. The whole thing could have been put out as an audio CD at half price, and listeners would lose not one bit of valuable information.

Second, a lot of time is taken up with Annie's verbal descriptions of how to set up an online account. I'm not sure who the target audience is, but if they're already playing online poker for real money, they don't need this information,and if they aren't already playing for real money, Annie Duke isn't going to be able to "talk" them through signing up.

Finally, there's really not much new here that you can't get from her other DVD's. A short discussion of why you play faster in online sit-and-go tournaments, but that's all that comes to mind.

Summary: there's a great DVD waiting to be made about online poker, but this isn't it. Buy her other DVD's, but don't waste your money on this one.

This was a tough review to write; after her "Advanced Texas Hold'em Secrets" DVD I was amped up for another advanced course for "online" poker... It's very tough to be unbiased after watching her excellent advanced DVD; it delivered more than I had expected and I was hoping to hit another jackpot with this one.

Unfortunately it is not as good as the advanced DVD. That said, this is an acceptable DVD for playing online. It covers the expected basics like how to set up an account and play for "play" money until you become familiar with the software and the site. She goes through live cash play as well as several varieties of tournament play- multi table tournaments, satellites and the Sit and Go's or SNG's as well as online tells and betting patterns. What she covers is good but because I have been playing a long time I found very little in the way of "secrets" or "conquering" online play.

If you are somewhat new to online play it delivers an adequate overview and will help you to get started playing online. If you have purchased the "Advanced Holdem" DVD and are expecting similar "advanced" concepts here you will probably be disappointed. Most new players will find some value, just be sure not to compare the two. I gave it four stars because I think it delivers if you are somewhat new to online play; if you have been playing for a while online already it is probably a two or three and I would consider renting it first as you will probably not need to re-watch it numerous times as I did with her advanced DVD.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting when I ordered this DvD, perhaps some some expert info on the different strategy involved in on-line poker play vs. in a live game. Maybe some examples of what's recommended in this position, etc. Well if this is what you expected don't waste your time. In fact, if you EVER played in one of the hundreds of on-line poker sites you more than likely know everything that is going to be covered in this DvD. Basically, this DvD tells you how to set yourself up with an on-line poker room, what kinds games you'll find, and that all on-line games are looser. As I said, if you ever played on-line you know all of this. The only good advice Annie Duke gives on this DvD is to treat the money on-line with respect and try to avoid falling into the traps of playing to many hands to loose. That's the only thing to really pick up from this DvD. Ultimately this is an advertisement for the poker site she supports. Please don't waste your money.

Annie Duke is the best femail poker player today, so I thougt I might get some nice ideas from this DVD about Online poker and maybe I could learn something new. I was very disapointed about it, it is very basic, and all this DVD is about seem to be advertisment for the poker site Ultimate Bet, did I learn something useful? No.
so what did I learn?
1.I learned how to download the Ultimate Bet software.
2.I learned how I should do to deposit money to Ultimate Bet.
3.I learned that there is s&g's and tournaments on Ultimate Bet.
3.I learned that I should be a tight player online,
nothing about how to play and what to play, and thats about it.
this is a scam DVD, don't buy it.

What is the return policy again? Seriously this has nothing to do with conquering anything. It is a beginners (or a crossover from live to online) DVD which begs the question what does she discuss on the beginner's version... how to turn on your computer? She discusses the very basic concepts of how to play online and spends most of the DVD comparing online with brick and mortar casinos. What was the runtime? I didn't bother to watch the first chapter but I yawned through chapter 2 in 3 in what seemed like less than 30 minutes. I was expecting a DVD (which she annoyingly calls a tape) to help me polish my game not tell me to play tight when others are playing loose... duh. She spent about 2 minutes discussing starting hands and position. It made all kinds of sense that she sat at a real poker table wearing her granny shirt explaining online poker.

Also not all of her assertions are correct. I am not sure how much time she spends playing online but she just assumes that all cash ring games are loose play. In reality at different times of day you often get different table mixtures from mostly tight to mostly loose. She says in a tournament you have to play loose but she never bothers to explain what she considers loose play. In reality it is almost always better to pay off a few rounds of blinds unless you get a monster hand so you can size up your opponents and develop your strategy for that table. How do you know when it is safe to call, raise, or fold a preflop raise until you have a little history? Does this player raise with almost any 2 cards or is it the first time the player has raised at all? Knowing their habits will be the difference in suspecting a player is raising with a Jack thru Ace card and any any kicker (which some do) or is holding A-K or better.

So all in all if you have played for more than 2 weeks online you aren't going to learn much.

I am very embarrassed for Annie who is cashing in on the poker craze by releasing this "instructional" DVD which was more an infomercial for the ultimatebet site. Good thing I am a quick learner... she bluffed me out of money this time but I know to stay clear of her products from now on. It also makes me wonder if I should avoid the "professors" instructional material as well.

Unlike her 5 star video called "how to beat the big boys" in which she gives detailed, extremely detailed information on poker tells and bluffs and playing of certain hands.....this video is very lame.
She spends a whole chapter on how to set up an account and how to deposit online, what a waste!
Not very much infomation at all on how to play or what to expect from players online.
Im sure its much harder to tell folks how to in on a computer poker game (the interent) so I cut some slack there, but she doesnt give much of anything, she couda discussed mutli-tabling and how bes to play that as compared to a single cash table and how people play, blah blah.
For internet video DVD, Hellmuths is better, but there is not a definetaive DVD I know of for online play.
In a utshell I will tell you, it plays like a live game but they call alot more and alot of people on the weekends are drunk and will just play trash! This applies to .25/.50 cash tables and LOWER.

This is a very good video, the only problem I see with it is that all of Annie's videos seem to use the same material. Not just covering the same subjects but using the same footage.

This is a 60 minute program where Annie Duke tells you how to play online poker, and if you never have played online poker, this is a great introduction, but if you've been playing online for more than a week or so, there's way too much filler. She will literally tell you how to download the poker software. She also talks too much about hand history, about how you can see what cards people mucked. I'm not even sure that is true on most poker sites; perhaps it is on [...], the site she endorses.

The good part is when she tells you how to adjust your playing style according to the ante/pot size of the table. But this is a pretty short part of the total running time and doesn't justify spending[..]to hear. Overall, there's not really anything to justify this being a DVD at all. She's just sitting at a poker table talking, but she doesn't show any cards or anything, so this program would have been just as good as an audio lecture. Then, perhaps it would have been worth a couple of bucks to download.

It never hurts to review the basics, especially as presented by Annie Duke!