Behavioral Objectives for T-School

At the USPT T-School, your tuition of only $950 includes 4 days of instruction with professional instructors teaching a wide variety of poker topics.

T-School also includes a number of instructor-assisted sit-n-gos, where a pro playing at your table can stop the action at any point to explain important poker concepts in the context of a real tournament.

Tuition also includes a $100 buy-in to the T-School Tournament, where you can put into practice all you’ve learned.

You’re probably wondering what, specifically, you’ll learn from T-School instructors.

That’s a good question, and one you should ask before plunking down your hard-earned money. So here’s the nitty-gritty. When you complete four days at T-School, here’s what you’ll learn:

Special Extra Class For New Players Only

If you’re brand new to poker, or have only been playing for a short time, we’ll give you a special course aimed at beginning players only. You’ll learn the basics of cash game and tournament poker, and you’ll understand the differences between fixed-limit and no-limit poker, and why the differences in betting structure require entirely different strategies to succeed.

You’ll receive guidance on which hands to play in which positions for fixed- and no-limit games, and you’ll learn how the kinds of opponents at your table can lead you to throw away some hands you might play if the table mixture differed, and vice-versa.

Lou Krieger, author of 11 top-selling poker books, including the best-selling Poker For Dummies, will discuss such topics as preparation, discipline, how and why poker can be beaten, why play before and on the flop is so crucial to playing winning hold’em, which hands can be profitably played from early position, which hands play best against few opponents and which require a large number of opponents to be played profitably.

You’ll learn which decisions are important and which aren’t, and the kinds of errors you and your opponents typically make on each betting round. As a new player, you’ll be receive a solid foundation for winning poker, and learn to make investment decisions so that the hands you play give you the most bang for your buck. You’ll learn why selective and aggressive play is the hallmark of winning poker. With this foundation, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a life-long winning player.

For All Players:

Because you are the most likely person to defeat yourself—don’t fret; we all are—you’ll learn how to:

• Manage your physical and emotional state over a long day
• Know the best play to make and know how to make it
• Have a routine and follow it
• Identify your leaks and plugging them
• Track your results

Because you must not allow your opponents to box you in, you will learn to vary your play and change gears. You’ll learn:

• The importance of varying your play
• How much should you vary your play
• How to vary your play and change gears
• Why you MUST bluff … but not as often as you think

Because tournament poker and cash games are so different, you’ll learn:

• The diminishing role of implied odds in tournament play, but why no-limit cash games are all about implied odds
• The importance of real odds in tournament play
• How hand values change drastically as you go through the tournament
• Attacking raggedy flops

Not all tournaments are created equally, and a tournament’s structure often determines the best strategy to use. We’ll show you how to understand tournament structures and alter your playing plan accordingly

• Turbo sit-n-go
• Regular sit-n-go
• Small buy-in daily
• Medium buy-in weekly
• Large buy-in
• $10K events

Play tightens up considerably when just a few players remain to be eliminated before the rest of the field reaches the pay ladder. Strategy and tactics differ then, as many players tighten up considerably, not wanting to risk elimination without a payday. We’ll teach you all about:

• The run up to the bubble
• Why there is more than one bubble in a tournament
• Who to take advantage of

Tells are the romantic heart of poker—that mystical ability to look into an opponent’s soul and know the cards he holds. While reading body language and betting patterns is as much an art as a science, we’ll improve your skills by explaining how to find, decipher, and exploit:

• Timing tells
• Adrenaline tells
• What happens when a player double checks that ace (three flush tell)
• Why and how every bet tells a story, and what happens when the tale you’re being told is inconsistent
• How you know when your opponent is saying, “I am getting ready to call you.”

Poker, especially no-limit poker, has been described as hours of routine play spiced up with moments of sheer terror. That’s when you face very difficult decisions. We’ll help you through these terror-ridden moments. You’ll learn:

• How often do you encounter world class decisions
• When to make tough lay downs
• When NOT to make tough day downs
• When to make a great call
• When not to make a great call
• Force your opponents to make the hard decision—run the table your way
• The importance of making the correct decision
• How and when to change gears at the poker table
• Manage the information you give out to others
• What is your opponent’s table image, and how real is it
• What to do when you’re short-stacked in a tournament
• How to play a big stack

You’ll learn how to put your opponent on a hand, or range of hands, and how to use that information to guide your decisions. In addition to learning how to look for tells, you’ll learn

• How to deduce the range of hands an opponent might have by his betting patterns
• His history as a player
• What you think he has
• What you assume HE thinks YOU have
• How your opponent’s playing skill factors into this

Tactics—Specific plays that you can (and should) make. These are all tactics that belong in your poker toolbox. You’ll learn how to use these tactics and how to spot when your opponent is using one of these ploys on you.

• The basic steal
• The limp steal
• The re-steal
• Shooting foxes in the dark
• The float
• The turn semi-bluff
• Inducing bluffs—the betting reflex
• Checking on the turn and calling on the river
• Setting and avoiding traps
• Strategy when getting close to the money
• Early stage tips
• Later stage tips
• Making big laydowns
• Evaluating opponent's moves based on position, chip counts and betting history

This is a ton of information, which is why USPT T-School is five days. You will not find a more comprehensive poker school than this one and all of the others are twice the price, or more. We look forward to meeting you at USPT T-School.