Play Like Llinus Review – Are You Ready To Learn From The Best?
As far as the poker strategy content goes, the Upswing course Play like LLinus produced by Alex “Kanu7” Millar is rather unique. It attempts to break down the play of one of the most successful online cash game players of today, Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger, and it does a pretty good job at it.
This course makes much more sense if you’ve already seen Millar’s main Upswing course named Advanced Cash Game Strategy as it kind of ties into it a lot.
Still, even on its own, Play like LLinus has a lot to offer.
The course is clearly aimed more at advanced players looking to really shape up certain areas of their play, but everyone can get some value out of it.
It is structured in a way that offers insights into LLinus’ play in different crucial spots, figuring out his flop c-bet frequency and ranges, how he plays the turns after betting the flop, or checking bet, etc. In total, there are four sections and eight video lessons, each covering one of these important areas.
Before you go any further, it’s really important to mention that this is a math-heavy course. Millar uses his own poker software and Excel spreadsheets to analyze Loeliger’s play in these different spots, comparing it to solver’s suggestions and strategies proposed in his main training series.
A lot of focus has been put on comparing LLinus’ play prior to January 2018 and in the period after that. It becomes clear he’s made quite a few strategy adjustments in the last couple of years, bringing his game much closer to the GTO model.
However, the course goes a step further as Millar also spends time exploring areas where LLinus is deviating from GTO and adopts a more exploitative strategy.
He goes through his database, looking for explanations for these deviations and, unsurprisingly, usually manages to find quite a reasonable one in this course.
Play Like LLinus Review: Overall Flop C-bet Strategy
The first couple of videos look at LLinusLLove's overall approach to flop c-bet strategy. Kanu7 is using the overall sample of some 2,500 hands, which provides him with enough information for different spots.
He compares hands from before 2018 and discovers that LLinus has actually lowered his flop c-bet percentage overall.
Why is this?
The video goes on to break down some of the reasons why Loeliger decided to change up his strategy and lower his continuation bet frequency overall.
Without going into too much detail and revealing the actual information, it’s safe to say that this video offers some really good insights into the development of a great poker mind that’s always open to learning new things.
In the second video of this section, Millar offers a more detailed breakdown of LLinus’ c-bet strategy by looking into several different board types, namely:
- Monotone flops – his c-betting frequency has dropped in recent years, and he’s also introduced some changes in terms of sizing to better go with new GTO discoveries.
- Disconnected flops – talking about disconnected flops, Millar notes that LLinus has lowered his c-bet frequency by quite a lot in these situations. He also talks about some of the most common mistakes his opponents seem to be making against him.
- High connected flops – another interesting area to look at where LLinusLLove has changed his approach, betting more frequently and simplifying his sizing.
- Low connected flops – these are types of boards where you want to be checking back a lot when people aren’t donking into you too much, and it seems that LLinus has adopted this style as well, lowering his c-bet frequency quite significantly.
- Paired flops – still betting at a high frequency, but there is a significant drop when compared to his earlier play.
What Millar is trying to emphasize in the first segment of the Play like LLinus course is that it seems that he’s adopted an approach that’s much in line with the GTO poker strategy.
This shows that the best players in the world remain best exactly because they’re ready to learn and adopt new knowledge as it comes instead of staying stuck in their old ways.
Play Like LLinus Review: Turn Play after Checking the Flop
After discussing the flop, the course moves onto the turn. What is it that LLinus do in different turn scenarios? How does he approach these spots, and how does his strategy align with what’s suggested by the GTO solvers?
The first video in this segment talks about turn probes, i.e., situations where he decides to check back the flop and faces a bet on the turn.
Millar discovers some interesting discrepancies here as Loeliger seems to be deviating from GTO numbers in certain spots.
His fold percentage to turn probes seems to be higher than what solvers suggest, which would indicate a leak in his game. However, coming from such a competent player, is this really the case, or is he finding ways to exploit the field as his opponents aren’t bluffing enough in these spots?
If you love stats and numbers, you’re really going to enjoy the way Millar breaks down the math for various spots and how he uses Holdem Manager filters to pull out particular scenarios he wants to look at.
Indirectly, this course will teach you a lot about how to use Holdem Manager on a higher level and really get the maximum out of it.
In the second video, Kanu7 focuses on delayed c-betting scenarios. Once again, this is the spot where LLinus is deviating from the GTO strategy – and by quite a bit. His delayed c-bet percentage is quite low, but it’s working for him as opponents seem to be folding a lot.
Alex Millar suggests that he might be taking advantage of the field once again. With a low delayed c-bet, LLinus can incorporate more bluffs into his range.
Since he’s not betting much on the turn after checking the flop, his opponents tend to bet into him a lot with his value hands, which gives him more opportunities to bluff when they do check the second time.
Play Like LLinus Review: Turn Play after C-betting
The third segment of Upswing’s Play like the LLinus course focuses on his turn play after c-betting the flop. His turn bet frequency seems to be somewhat lower than what GTO suggests, but his average size is also higher, so that’s probably enough to account for the difference.
Once again, he seems to be exploiting his opponents in these spots, betting with some of his air while checking back some of his marginal hands.
When he checks back the turn and opponents lead on the river, he seems to be folding more against smaller sizes while calling more often facing a big bet. On the other hand, in the spots where they check to him, and he bets the river, it seems his opponents are over-folding, probably in part due to him often using bigger river bet sizes.
Play Like LLinus Review: The Last Part
The final two videos of the Play like LLinus course offer a wrap of everything that’s been discussed up to this point.
The first one focuses on tying everything together and showing how LLinusLLove Loeliger has managed to find ingenious ways to make small adjustments to his play and rise above the competition, which is probably why he’s had so much success playing online.
The second video in this segment and the final one in the course turns the tables. It offers some very good advice and suggestions on how you can adjust your play when facing LLinus or some of the best poker players.
While it is very useful to know how you can exploit the field, it is just as important to be able to counter these tweaked strategies.
Millar offers an excellent breakdown of everything that’s been discussed in previous videos and provides useful tips on how you can effectively counter these strategies if you happen to recognize them in your games.
Play Like LLinus Review: Is It For You?
Kanu7 is one of the top cash game players himself and more than capable of dissecting the play of another player given enough information.
So there is absolutely no doubt that the advice he brings in Play like LLinus course is very useful to serious players.
What I really liked is that:
- You get to see how one of the best players approach various situations
- You will learn how to deviate from GTO play profitably
- You will identify population tendencies and can take advantage of that
While this kind of program is not for beginners, you will surely get a lot of value from this information if you already have some experience with solvers and poker stats. Play like LLinus will really open your eyes to some new and interesting ideas, so it is well worth the investment.
