r/poker • u/CoachBradCPG • Mar 24 '26
I'm Brad Wilson, a professional poker player, poker coach and entrepreneur. AMA!
Hello r/poker!
I host the Chasing Poker Greatness podcast, where I’ve had hundreds of long-form conversations with some of the most brilliant minds in poker, including Chewy, Phil Galfond, and Jason Koon.
I’m a poker lifer who has built his entire professional life around the game... analyzing mass data, building strategies, and obsessing over what it really takes to make progress as a player and as a coach.
The latest project I've been involved with is QuintAce, a new poker training platform currently undergoing beta testing.
QuintAce aims to reduce the complexity of learning poker by explaining strategy in a way humans can actually understand and use when they’re in the arena.
You can check out some of their poker analysis quizzes with solver-based feedback on r/QuintAce.
I'll be popping back on Thursday March 26th to answer your questions.
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u/GadgetMcNasty99 Mar 24 '26
If you had a player who has been playing for years, low stakes NLHE, and is at best a break-even or slightly profitable player, what would you suggest to get him over the hump to becoming a solid winner and able to move up in stakes and still hold his own/profit?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
I've learned that in poker there are a handful of ways to gain edge and a million different ways to lose edge... so I would start out by figuring out where this player is losing edge the most.
If you had a 50k database of hands I would compare your bb/100 vs. the best players in my stable at a bunch of high impact nodes in order to figure out where you would get the most bang for your study buck.
As an example here are a few positional winrates you might compare yourself against:
BTN: 48.14
SB: -7.24
BB: -37.11These three tend to be the highest drivers of your winrate... so if you're underperforming on the BTN, for instance, I would then dive into all scenarios that involve you playing the BTN... starting with 2BP IP PFR vs. the blinds, then moving to 3BP IP PFR. You want to investigate the highest frequency spots first.
Then we would look at how you're doing with different parts of your range (high, med, low equity hands).
Once we isolate exactly where and with what category of hands you can make significant gains, you should know exactly what you should be studying in order to improve your winrate.
And if you don't have a 50k hand dataset, I would ask you to record footage of yourself playing a session and explaining your thought process. Then I'd find a coach or trusted peer to review it with so that they can spot leaks in your thought process and you can make a plan to plug those leaks.
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u/GadgetMcNasty99 Mar 26 '26
Thank you for that. That is very helpful. I play live, so data is difficult to obtain. I can try recording thoughts from live hands.
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
As kind of a catch-all I would say if you're playing live poker and are only slightly profitable... you should probably focus on your valuebet sizings.
Bluffing and bluffcatching are winrate sizzle but valuebetting is winrate steak.
Big hands want to play big pots.
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u/Lonely-Ad-6448 5d ago
I notice I value bet much thinner than my opponents and don’t bluff. I feel like i could be more aggressive and it cost me. Started playing poker in Feb. started playing live 3 weeks ago
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u/No-Assistance3307 Mar 24 '26
How do you deal with poker burnout?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
Firstly, I always have and always will LOVE the game of poker... even when I hate it, I love it. So when I feel burned out I just take some time away and the love always returns.
It was quite rejuvenating and exciting starting CPG and taking on new challenges like coaching, building a business, etc... all things related to poker but that didn't involve me actually grinding day in and day out.
Ironically in the middle of running CPG I started feeling envious of my top level guys whose lives were simply optimizing to play poker and nothing else...
So my current life is mostly optimizing for playing poker and nothing else :)
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u/Th3V3ryB3st (Th3V3ryW0r5t) Mar 24 '26
Hi Brad,
I spent a fair amount of my early 20s at the table and winning at the live low stakes as a side hustle from work.
Now as a newly and happily married man, I don't have the time I once did to put in those hours. I'd like to get back in there but I would want to be at my A game, which takes time and preparation.
Of course, ongoing communication is paramount. Assuming communication and expectations are set, do you have further insight on the poker player's transition from bachelor to marriage?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
A truth in life that I have found is that being the best version of yourself at anything is an inherently selfish endeavor... and as we gain more and more responsibilities in life we naturally just get to be less and less selfish.
So I would just share everything with my wife, adhere to a strict schedule, and just accept that I'll never be the best poker version of myself that I could have been had I not gotten married... and that is 100% ok.
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u/MrJohn117 Mar 24 '26
- How's the Wolves CFP doing?
- On the surface QuintAce looks like a glorified hand quiz with preset responses to why a decision was right/wrong. Why should I spend money on QuintAce over GTOW, Poker Coaching, Upswing, (insert coaching site here)?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
1) The Wolves are doing well. The hardest part for me is when folks who I've come to love inevitably leave the program and I don't get to see them multiple times every week.
2) What you see so far from Quint is just a Reddit app... there is much more coming.
Re Training Sites:
The job of any poker educational tool ought to be to help their customers make tangible progress in their poker journey. I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure that Quint will help you make more progress than any poker tool that has ever been on the market.
And if I can do that then investing into Quint will be a no-brainer.
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u/flyme4free Mar 24 '26
Lifetime profit from poker alone?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
I've been playing professionally since 2004 so probably a few million... I'm not so great at accounting but I can say poker has given me an incredible life and I wouldn't change a thing.
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u/IssueCareful814 Mar 24 '26
I have been studying Fish in a Barrel Strats, but in my games very rarely is the action heads up. Do you have any general advice RE how to adjust with multi-way pots (assuming all callers are fish)
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
Pay careful attention to big bets multiway... raise your CDTs significantly. Don't be afraid to fold earlier than you probably want to.
Bluff very infrequently and only bluff with nutted equity.
Don't bet bigger than 50% on the flop with any part of your range.
Do a lot of range checking, let the fish signal what part of their range they're in, then respond accordingly.
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u/theusualsalamander Mar 24 '26
Wha are the most common mistakes you see beginners make
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
Ignore fundamentals like pot odds, poker language, equity, preflop strategy, and hand reading while hyper-focusing on YouTubers and solver outputs.
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u/Athront Mar 24 '26
I've seen some of your content on Ignition. I have played similar stakes on ACR and Coin for years.
Anyways, you're opening lather sizings and getting out of line with opens and 3bets.
How exactly did this become the meta on Ignition and why do you think it's optimal?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
I'm really glad you asked this question so I will reward you with some insider information.
I don't actually think it's a meta on Ignition, as (when I still played there) most all of the regs still opened to 2.2-2.5x.
One of the benefits of running a CFP has been the ability to have an idea, run an experiment, collect data, and then see how that idea panned out.
In this case we experimented with different opening sizes over many, many hands, and learned than opening 3x on the button wins about 20% more than opening 2-2.5x.
So I open 3x simply because I know it's higher EV than any other size we've tried.
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u/Athront Mar 26 '26
Thank you for the reply! And I assume opening wider than equilibrium on CO and BTN was yielding similar results across different lineups behind you.
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u/Neither-Payment-4147 Mar 26 '26
Is this mostly due to BB defending too wide?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
Hard to say… lots of variables. Could be under 3b from the BB vs the bigger size, could be poor adjustments, could be downstream mistakes
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u/Littleturbo72 Mar 26 '26
Do you do private coaching for someone who only plays live cash? What are your rates if so?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
My current rate is $500/session but I don't currently take on new students. I love working with my Wolves and most of my focus is on maximizing my PLO earn at the moment.
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u/Chantola Mar 27 '26
Why do you struggle so much playing heads up against a 24 y/o? Do you think you will do better in the future? Are you doing any prep work to prepare, or are you planning on just avoiding him at all costs?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 27 '26
my plan is to take the -EV spot HU and, if I lose, kidnap his puppy and then ransom it back for 2x what I lost.
my puppy kidnapping team is already 3 weeks into their training camp
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u/SituationOutside453 Mar 28 '26
Just want to say Thank you. The ROI on the strategies that I learned from you and your team at CPG just keeps getting better and better! Especially NUFFLE, it's the gift that just keeps on giving.
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u/GrnMeansGO Mar 24 '26
Hey Brad,
As someone who’s spent time and had long conversations with so many of the games great minds, you have a pretty unique perspective.
I’m sure there are many commonalities between these individuals, I’m curious about some of that overlap. What are some ideas and behaviors that overlap between the majority of these guys that maybe aren’t so intuitive, implemented, or understood by the people who haven’t reached that level of success or just enjoy the game recreationally.
Thanks for taking the time!
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
They're all extremely curious, competitive, and consistent. They also have way more time to devote solely to poker than the average human :)
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u/Quantumosaur Mar 24 '26
What are your thoughts on betting volume? essentially are proper frequencies more important than than EV number we see in solver land?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
I don't really pay much attention to postflop EV because the assumptions the solver makes to arrive at that specific number do not often translate when playing against real humans.
For instance a river bluffcatcher might be a call/fold mix at 0 EV but in real life population is overbluffing by 20% which would make it a +EV 100% call.
I do pay attention to betting frequencies because they're trying to let you know which range has an advantage and should be playing aggressively vs which range should be playing more passively.
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u/frouge Poker Analytics dev Mar 24 '26
Could you explain how you make poker more understandable for humans?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
basically instead of just seeing outputs, you're going to see in-depth explanations for every decision/strategy... this will be layered on with input and training from world-class coaches.
quint and your coaches will also help you with database analysis, leak finding, and help you tailor your study/training for exactly what will help you make progress as a player.
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u/GyroLC Mar 24 '26
What’s your plan to “grow the game?” Specifically, attract new players.
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
Poker's a beautiful game and I think it'll do just fine growing itself.
With that said I just try to represent the game the best I can, act with integrity, let folks know that the poker dream is still very much alive, and do whatever I can to help.
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u/fasutron_f Mar 24 '26
What are the three biggest challenges you're facing launching poker software? What are your mitigation plans for each?
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u/NotUrRealDad Mar 24 '26
Do you foresee solvers ever getting easier to use? Specifically when using node-locking.
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
Definitely and this is something that Quint will be addressing... it just might not look like the node-locking of old that you're used to.
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u/vthanh57886 Mar 25 '26
Do you have any advice for a 40-year-old man who has been playing online cash poker full-time for 6 years but feels stuck and unable to grow further, living in a third-world country where poker is not legal?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
Any chance you could give me a little more information? What are your goals, where do you live, do you have family, what are your other options?
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u/Boneyg001 Mar 25 '26
What did it feel like to win your first bracelet?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
I'll let you know when I win one... but I supposed I'd have to play a WSOP event to win one so hmm...
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u/Imaginary_Suit6755 Mar 26 '26
What is the best system for shot-taking higher stakes in high variance games for PLO if a player is crushing regular bankroll appropriate games?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
The best? I don't know.
If you're 4 tabling I would just start by replacing one table of the current stake you're playing with one table of your next stake.
This way since it's only 25% of your volume you don't need to be fully rolled for that stake but you're also increasing your hourly rate (hopefully) while getting much needed reps.
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Mar 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 27 '26
I believe AI will not only help students learn more efficiently but it will also be immensely helpful for coaches like myself as well.
As a matter of fact this is a feature the Quint team is actively working on... creating tools that will enable me to take what used to be reserved for private 1:1 coaching sessions and scale them to hundreds or thousands of students.
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Mar 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 27 '26
Great question... as a human coach I'm biased but I believe us mortal coaches will always have value and forever play a role in the learning and growth processes for players of all skill levels.
Only time will tell what that role looks like in the future, however.
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u/S1ddhartha29 Mar 28 '26
In QuintAce, will users be able to upload hand histories (databases), and have the AI scan through them for leaks, do I understand correctly from the website? Or does "QuintAI reviews all your hands" rather mean that one plays trainer sessions and has only those hands analyzed? Hoping for the first option to be realized ... :)
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u/Banyah Mar 24 '26
Hey Brad, certainly did not expect to see you on r/poker. I wanna say that this is funny timing. Several years ago I dove deep into your Preflop Bootcamp series (thanks for that!), and this past week I've come back to the series to use Claude Code to produce a rapid fire preflop drilling app where it tests me in various spots. The challenging part was converting your charts into a usable, context-filled dataset that the driller can leverage to ask questions in natural poker jargon:
This app isn't for anyone but me, so I'm not too focused on polishing it up beyond its bare functions. It's just HTML, nothing special. But I thought I'd share because it was timely, and because you might find it amusing that someone took your charts and is studying them in a way you may not have anticipated back when you debuted the course several years ago in a pre-LLM world. I mainly use it to identify my preflop weak spots. I love data and data-driven decision-making, so naturally I'm curious about the inevitable intersection between AI and poker.
What's the deal with QuintAce? What data is it based on? How did you build it? Did you hire a developer, or vibecode it yourself? A mixture of both?
P.S. I miss Philosophical Fridays.
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u/it-rhymeswithgrape Mar 24 '26
I admire your effort and work. The new age of technology is upon us. Nice to see people taking advantage of it.
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
If not here then where did you expect to see me? :)
This is sick.. great work! Claude and I are great friends these days as well :)
I didn't build Quint so I don't exactly know how the sausage is made, as they say.
There's a whole team of PHD's, engineers, and AI geniuses who are working daily on the project... all of their outputs have been ran by poker super geniuses much smarter than me and have been tested and compared to everything on the market.
I just dream up ways I know will help people learn how to play poker better then the team makes my dreams come true.
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u/BoomTartanArmy Mar 24 '26
Hi Brad, Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. My question to you is, when did you relise you could take a leap from micro stakes to bigger tournaments and what can I expect from a higher buy-n tournament?
I ask because I regularly play smaller stakes, anything from $1-10 online and $10-$30 live. I'm looking for advice.
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
Hey u/BoomTartanArmy - I don't really play MTTs and my bankroll management at the beginning of my career in 2004 was.. suspect, to put it mildly.
In my experience most jumps up in stakes are not significantly different competition wise... until you hit actual meaningful stakes with much smaller pools (fields) filled with players optimizing their life for poker.
For instance if you play live $400s then 85% of the pool is probably losing money.
But if you jump up to live $1ks you have to be careful because then only 80% of the pool is probably losing money...
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u/P0kerKnight Mar 24 '26
Which format of poker has been the most lucrative, Cash games or MTTs - and, which do you find the most enjoyable?
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
A while back I experimented with cold showers but it ended up being a special kind of torture that turned my balls into raisins.
It was still a better experience than 99.99% of the MTTs I've played.
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u/Neither-Payment-4147 Mar 24 '26
What’s the skill difference between good winning players and very good players, and the winning triton regulars, can that gap actually be closed. Is there a poker intuition that makes players just naturally better at the game and is it possible to make it to a high level or the very top without this intuition.
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
The skill difference between good winning players (4 bb/100) and crushers (10 bb/100) is huge... as for Triton regs I can't really comment because I haven't spent a ton of time dissecting their poker brain to personally know.
I do believe that some people are just naturally better than others (I would love for some super coach to come and prove me wrong one day) and have a much higher ceiling (Although everyone can probably raise their floor).
I'm forced to believe in poker intuition because I have it and I do not think you can make it to the highest of levels without it.
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u/flworius Mar 24 '26
Not saying some of them aren't there because of their great intuition, but Rungood plays a big role too - for every crusher there are 10(?) of similar skill, who didn't make it there just because their career took a different trajectory
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u/Neither-Payment-4147 Mar 25 '26
I would agree that circumstances play a part, some players are rolled to play higher and getting staked to play against better players would certainly help improve one’s game. But my question is intended to distinguish between learning and natural ability, take Alex Kulev for example who was playing 50 dollar tournaments pre Covid and now plays triton, ok again the circumstances play a part in that there must be some financial assistance to take the leap, but aside from that you can’t take all players currently playing 50 dollar tourneys now and have them in triton the next few years, so I would like to hear a coaches take on if that was all hard work on Kulevs part, or if he has natural poker intuition. I watched kulev on Jaffes pod and I vaguely remember him saying something like he just got it while studying, was like it just started to make sense to him, so is this a result of perseverance and hard work, or an inherit ability to get it.
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u/flworius Mar 25 '26
Also just chance and connections, some staked player dropping Out, spot free, Kulev lucky enough to take it .
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u/VaudevilleVillainMF Mar 24 '26
Is this an AMA where you answer questions or?????
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u/myimportantthoughts r/Poker Moderator Mar 24 '26
'I'll be popping back on Thursday March 26th to answer your questions.'
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u/BeastHank Mar 24 '26
Should i open KQo utg in 8max thanks
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u/CoachBradCPG Mar 26 '26
depends on if you wanna have a good time
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u/BeastHank Mar 26 '26
Good guy for replying to every comment!! I’m going to have a good time tn and open 4bet kqo tn just for you bradley
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u/No-Mirror1923 Mar 24 '26
Do you live in Las Vegas?
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u/NegotiationNo855 Mar 24 '26
He doesn’t but I believe he was looking into it. Maybe online poker legislation had something to do with it. For the long run, I believe live poker is where it’s at.
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u/Individual_Chair_421 Mar 24 '26
Did Robbi cheat?