A while back I wrote a few blog posts on the Poker Training Industry[1]. Most of you could probably feel the unrest in the tone of my voice. In a post Black Friday poker world, the status quo for Leggo (and similarly modeled poker training) wasn’t practical—beyond that, it wasn’t feasible.

I’ve owned Leggo for over three years now and been part of the project since day one over five years ago. Over this time there were some ups and downs, but I’m very confident in the quality we put out. I try hard to be objective, and I believe there were stretches when we were the best. Whenever I see someone give props to myself or Leggo on 2+2 or Twitter or Facebook, I'm thrilled they appreciate the content.

I’m often asked (or I was, back when I played a bit more poker) if I’m glad that I started to make training videos. The truth is that I have no idea if it was +EV for my poker career. Attempting to quantify such a thing would be feeble—I’m sure revealing as much as I did hurt my winrate at times, I’m sure making poker videos has gained me some amount of moderate fame that I wouldn't have otherwise, I’m sure I stayed a bit sharper with the responsibility to explain the plays I was making. I’m also sure I had a lot of fun.

[2]What some of you may be able to tell from watching my videos is that I’m a natural. This may sound a little like bragging, this may even technically be bragging, but it is also fact: oftentimes I will be rambling at a thousand words a minute about a topic in a poker video, deep in a debate with myself about the merits of checking back the flop and how my opponent will react to various turn and river combinations, and I’ll also be asking myself Hmm... What do I want for dinner? [3] I’d like to think my videos informed, incited, and entertained (not necessarily in that order), so I supposed the Utilitarian way to look at things would be that they were +EV for the poker community as a whole. Sounds like a win to me, and it’s more fun when you win! [4]

Most of all I want to thank a bunch of people: Matt and Vitas [5], for working hard when everyone else was hardly working; everyone who I became friends with or enhanced my relationship through Leggo (Ashton, Chewy, Dan, Ben most notably); everyone who ever made a video, even those with very short stays who made revealing videos for much less than their hourly (Jimmie, Rich, Ashton, Ben[6]); especially those who turned in videos early and often and made my job so much easier; and of course, any coaches whose wife made me dinner—the best way to get into my “thank you paragraph” is through my stomach, of course.

If this sounds like the end of an era it might be, but it’s the beginning of something better. I no longer own Leggo, I sold it to Phil Ivey. In the summer we will launch Ivey League[7], a training site that is more comprehensive than Leggo was ever able to be. I want to keep the same mission Leggo has always had at the core, but expand our ability to educate on Live Tournaments, PLO, and even Mixed Games. The additional resources Ivey Poker offers will make this all possible.

This probably sounds far fetched to all of you. After spending time with Phil recently, I can assure you that his level of excitement for this project is very high [8]. He sees an opportunity to make a comprehensive poker network with his name attached and he personally prioritized training [9]. What I’m trying to say is: today, a social poker game; tomorrow, the world!

Over the coming months I will keep a blog about the development of Ivey League. It’s imperative that we get as much input as possible from you, our members (current and future), about what you want from the site. To wrap things up, I’ll do a quick Q and A with myself about the future of Leggo and what’ll happen going forward. Congratulations for reading this far, you sir [10] are a gentlemen and a scholar.

Q: Is Phil Ivey really going to make poker training videos?
A: He already has.

Q: What happens now?
A: Leggo will exist until Ivey League is operational (a few months, best guess). We will begin to infuse some pros from Ivey League into our monthly lineup.

Q: Will Leggo pros continue to make videos for Ivey League?
A: Likely. We’re hoping to move some of our most popular producers over to Ivey League, but it’s likely the roster will get trimmed. Your voice will be heard on this one, speak up if there are producers you feel strongly about, especially low and mid stakes guys.

Q: What kind of training videos will we expect to see?
A: A wide variety. For now you’ll mostly see hand history review, theory, math, and conversational videos (dual videos or interview style). I expect there will be a few kinks to iron out, but we’ve got a lot of awesome options.

Q: Will you continue to make training videos?
A: Thanks for asking, I’m flattered. I will, but I’d like to cut back my production a bit since I’ve been making 2+ a month for years (also since I’m playing less poker). I think I might be good in some dual videos interviewing players better than myself (although admittedly my interviewing skills are marginal at the moment, I’m sure I can get better).

Q: What will happen to our current Leggo subscriptions?
A: All Leggo subscription obligations will be filled appropriately (which may include even better value from Ivey League).

Q: Will Ivey League be $30 a month?
A: Definitely not. We’ll continue to take your input on our business model but ultimately you can expect to see tiered pricing and possibly even a la carte videos.

[1] Part 1, Part 2
[2] This paragraph is going to be incredibly masturbatory. I’ve become a lot more humble over the years (but I guess at various points there was no way to become less humble), but this is my good-bye to Leggo, let me have my fun, damnit.
[3] The answer is always Chipotle.
[4] Trademark: Ivey Poker.
[5] Those two names listed alphabetically, God forbid one of them think I was showing a little favoritism toward the other.
[6] That includes boywonder (bet you haven’t heard that name in a while!), 86 (yes, there are so many Bens in poker we’ve shortened this one to just 86, especially with a last name that is dicey to pronounce), and Sauce (who I am perhaps most thankful to, for being there until the end, for wanting to give back for the sake of giving back—I’d be shocked if a better poker mind exists).
[7] It took Chewy weeks to figure out the cleverness of this name. In other news, it may or may not be 500,000 miles from Las Vegas to Florida.
[8] As excited as Phil gets anyway. I think I saw him smirk, once.
[9] My theory is that he just wants to make a bunch of people good enough to play with him—but he knows that no amount of training would make them good enough to beat him, of course.
[10] Or ma’am.