Coming Soon: Course descriptions and outline, preview video, schedule, registration, pricing. All information presented below is tentative, preliminary, and subject to change.

"Notes from the Van" is slated to meet twice a week for 4 weeks. Lectures will run approximately 1 hour with an additional 15-30 minutes for questions. Pricing will be somewhere between $300 and $500 for the entire course. Seating will be limited to about 12 participants. Below is a preliminary outline of the course. Content is subject to change.

WEEK ONE

The Big Payback: Understanding ICM and SNG Pay Structures

Picking up where his DeucesCracked video, "ICM from Scratch," left off, vandweller shows how the payout structure of the standard 50/30/20 SNGs makes necessary the strategic adjustments unique to this game. vandweller indentifies the source of "equity leakage" and shows how subtleties in stack configurations shape our equity in any given hand.

WEEK TWO

Dancing on the Ceiling: Equity Ceilings and Your Implicit Risk/Reward Context

It's one thing to be able to figure out what you should have done in a given hand, after the fact. It's quite another to know what to do NOW, in the heat of battle. vandweller introduces the concepts of "equity ceilings" and "implicit risk/reward context" as key elements in making quick, accurate push/call/fold decisions.

WEEK THREE

The Big Payback, Applied: Double or Nothings, 6-handed, Steps, and all the rest...

vandweller applies the concepts from the previous two lectures to come to an understanding of how to analyze alternative SNG structures, as well as MTT final tables. He shows how the concept of equity ceilings is crucial to assessing the overall strategic adjustments one must make when playing a new or unfamiliar SNG structure, or once one has reached the prize phase of a SNG or MTT.

WEEK FOUR

Jambalaya, Part One

The first of two multi-topic lectures. Here, vandweller discuss the value of thinking in equity vs. thinking in dollars or chips; wonders whether or not there really is any such thing as 'the bubble'; and analyzes in detail the mistake (that even some very good SNG players make) of "playing for first" in a percentage payback tournament.

WEEK FIVE

Long and Short: High-Blinds Far from the Money

Thanks to vandweller's "Flying Blinds" video, you might know how to shove from the small blind. You might have figured out the button and maybe even the cut-off, but one of the most vexing situations in a SNG is when the stacks are shoveable, but few players, if any, have been eliminated from the tournament. What do you shove from which position? And how can you figure that out in the heat of battle? vandweller outlines his unique method of doing so, by tweaking one of David Sklansky's under-appreciated ideas.

WEEK SIX

There is No Spoon: Hand Values and Tournament Equity

Every savvy player knows that, say, AA is an 88% favorite over KK. Not so fast, says vandweller, at least as far as tournaments go. In tournaments hand values are fluid, not fixed. By distinguishing a hand's showdown percentage from its ROI, vandweller explains why there really is no such thing as pocket Aces in a tournament, and that the best you can hope for is probably pocket Jacks. Sorry guys.

WEEK SEVEN

Jambalaya, Part Two

The second of two multi-topic lectures. Here, vandweller discusses whether we really ought to be calling "any two" getting 2-to-1; how understanding the distinction between big and small mistakes can offer one reassurance that one is actually beating the game; and discusses just how much merit there is in taking -EV risks to "build a stack" in a SNG.

WEEK EIGHT

Taking It To The Streets: Equity Decisions After the Flop

Equity, ICM, risk/reward analysis...all late-game, high-blind, pre-flop concepts obviously, right? Nuh uh. Here, vandweller discusses the implications of the preceding learning on post-flop decision-making in SNGs.