If you haven’t heard by now, there’s a new instructor at PocketFives Training, the industry’s premier source for MTT instruction. John DrewPeacoq8Gonzalez (pictured) has been added to the site’s lineup of pros and took to Pokemon in his first video. The point was to help players classify opponents at the table, as Gonzalez argued to us in an exclusive interview, “The video contains what I think is simple but generally overlooked information. I think that with poker being so popular today, everyone is rushing to find the exact right way to play or an easy method to make money. That’s not the way to go.”

Gonzalez believes that starting with the basics and working up is optimal: “The harder we work on all of the little details, the more profitable we will become. It makes sense to start off and work from the ground up, and it all starts with understanding how players think, what stage of the game they are in, and how we can counter those mindsets. Otherwise, if we don’t know how to manipulate our opponents, then all of the other strategies become less valuable.”

Gonzalez made it a point to present his classification concept so all players, from newbies to seasoned veterans, could understand it and improve. The way he went about doing so in Part 1 of his series was using an extensive analogy to Pokemon. “It just kind of popped into my head watching TV one day,” Gonzalez responded when asked for his inspiration. “Even when I’m taking a break from poker, there is always something that makes me think of it. I thought it would be fun to put a twist on it since I knew a little bit about it.”

After all, getting to watch characters like HitMoBetsand DontBelieveUachufly across the screen will be pretty entertaining for anyone. Accordingly, Gonzalez said his friends and family have taken to his first video creation: “Everyone has seemed to really enjoy it. In the process of putting this video together, I had friends and family watch it so I could see how it hit home with everyone and then asked them a few questions about it to see how well they retained the information. Even my girlfriend, who doesn’t really know anything about poker, was like, ‘I think I’m a green tag!'”

The first video runs 20 minutes, an ideal length to squeeze in between activities on a Sunday. Even busy poker pros have taken to it: “My more seasoned poker friends who watched it really enjoyed it too. They said it was great to really get into the mindset of other players, as a lot of them didn’t think about it much. They were looking for the ‘right’ way to play versus the ‘right’ way to think.”

He has previously released videos for his own website and for students, so his Pokemon effort isn’t his first rodeo. Once you get around to watching the video, here is what Gonzalez wants you to take away from it: “I want people to take away that every detail matters. I want to emphasize the importance of knowing who you are up against and how crucial it is to adjust in order to maximize profitability.”

He added, “I think this video is best suited for aggressively learning poker players, but I’ve found there are also a lot of seasoned players who don’t think about this too much and just go with a lot of default lines, so when I made the video, I hoped to appeal to a larger audience in general.”

Gonzalez got in touch with Jeff Miller, who heads up PocketFives Training, and met him in Las Vegas last year during the World Series of Poker. “Then, I was approached about becoming an instructor because I believe I represent the game well,” Gonzalez said. “I’m proper and professional about most things I do, so I must have caught his eye. I try to be a good ambassador of the game.”

He got started in poker during the Moneymaker Boom, when his roommates in college began playing the game with beer caps. “At first I told them it was stupid,” Gonzalez joked, “but then when I finally sat down and won my first couple of bucks, I got hooked. I played recreationally for a little while and then more as a part-time job after college, slowly learning and probably for being a fish for a while. I started to take it seriously and quit my ‘real world’ job almost three years ago. Since then, I’ve just been working on being a master at my craft.”

Check out Gonzalez’ first PocketFives Training video.

PocketFives Training runs $29.95 per month, $179.90 for six months, or $329.45 for 12 months. There’s also a two-day free trial so you can give it a test drive without any risk. Besides Gonzalez, the fleet of PocketFives Training pros includes Jon apestyles Van Fleet (pictured), Alex Assassinato Fitzgerald, and Mike Gags30 Gagliano. Check it out here.

If you’re from outside of the United States, you can sign up for 888 Poker through PocketFivesand make a deposit to get one free month of PocketFives Training with no sign-up fee. There are no play-through requirements either, which makes this the easiest way to get free MTT training. Get started here.