This is a post I made in the SSS part of the forum when Berkey had Draftkings Casino sponsor his podcast. I found it went against what he was trying to “sell” with Solve 4 Why. My biggest criticism of Berkey is his price point. Other than this guy I played with one night in Vegas, I have no other stories of Vertucci-esqe type up-selling. But I would find it hard to believe that he is the only one they got for 5 figures.
Originally Posted by
JeffDime
I give Berkey credit for sure. It’s been a long slog for him to get to where he is at. I mean it in the best way, he’s not a natural like Polk was. He really had to grind at the content game hard. He can be a bit tedious to listen to at time. Even some of these podcasts, they would bore a nerd to tears. If I got to hear another conversation of GTO vs Exploit my head may explode. But he keeps putting them out and God bless. I did enjoy the back and forth with him and Christian Soto. I guess Soto lives out east now so he can’t be on the show as a regular.
Also, Above the Felt has certainly delivered. Not to say they didn’t earn the spots anyways but Jamie Kerstetter is high up with the WPT and MGM. Elias & Berkey have sponsorships with MGM. This Draftkings thing only lasted a week and I think it was basically just an affiliate link. I have just seen too many talented poker players lose it all in the pit. Maybe that is less of a concern nowadays with more of these GTO wizards coming into the game, as opposed to the boom where you saw a lot of people who just liked to gamble in general move over to poker.
The Academy is fucking expensive. Let’s be honest, in four days you can’t retain 4K of knowledge. But just being around their studio & out of your comfort zone gives these guys confidence. They certainly will have to study a lot on their own time to get their 4K worth.
Quick story….a few years ago I was playing 1/2 NL at Planet Hollywood. I sparked up a conversation with a guy probably in his mid 50s. Could tell he was successful. But a humble and nice guy. He said he just picked up poker in the last year. But I noticed he was super confident. Like almost winking at me that he was going to get all the money from this drunk guy. You know what… he did. He stacked the guy with top pair Jack kicker. 10 J….Jack high flop. Somehow got the guy to put in 300+ with god knows what.
He told me he was doing training at Solve 4 Why. I asked him if he didn’t mind telling me how much he was in for. He said…6K and he was about to go put another 4k. I was in fucking shock. But just said that’s awesome man. 10 g birds. God bless Berkey. He was the most confident 1/2 novice I ever played with. So I guess he did get what he paid for.
I have no idea if putting on headphones and talking though your through process is the best way to improve playing poker. But I doubt it. I think it’s mostly gimmicky. Unfortunately, I think tedious and long study is the most important component nowadays. At the same time if Berkey gets 25 guys an academy, that’s 100K. He already has the equipment and im sure everyone has to pay for their travel/food expense separately . So Berkey pays a couple of his guys probably a few grand. With little overhead he is clearing a pretty penny each of these academies.
Berkey was eventually going to be called out about his price point. I do think it’s over priced. I would be more concerned about the up-selling and if guys are being charged over and over again thousands of dollars.
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