With the game of poker evolving as much as it has, it is nearly impossible to become a great poker player without using some form of poker coaching.
There are many different types of coaching, ranging from free to paid poker courses and one-on-one training sessions. All of these forms of poker training have their own value, but you may still be wondering how to get the absolute maximum value from your poker coaching.
We will discuss how to make the most of your coaching sessions, what common mistakes to avoid, and what to do to maximize the value in 2022. Let’s start with talking about how you can maximize the value of free poker coaching and go from there.
As you would expect, free poker coaching is the most accessible form of coaching out there and offers a ton of value. New poker players, in particular, can profit greatly from free options, which can be found on any poker training site, including this one.
Free poker coaching is usually offered in the form of articles and sometimes in the form of videos, and it allows players to learn the basic concepts of poker without investing a dime.
If you are new to the game, free options offer incredible value, and you should not avoid making the most of it. Trying to learn poker without any help can be tedious and annoying. Instead, getting some help from free training sites will give you the advantage you need when starting.
To get the most value out of free poker coaching, you should make sure to read and watch every piece of the free material you can get your hands on.
Preferably, you want to make sure that you are reading the content in the order it was intended, as this will ensure you understand the things that are being talked about in the more advanced lessons.
The truth is that there is a lot of fairly good and advanced material out there these days that’s completely free, and making use of these materials before you start investing money is a great idea.
Once you are ready to get some advanced poker coaching, you will probably need to pay for it unless you can find an experienced player willing to coach you for free.
These days, there are plenty of affordable poker coaching courses out there. However, this abundance can often lead players to make mistakes and choose the wrong course.
Before settling for a poker coaching course, make sure you have read the reviews and found out what the program entails.
Find out more about the coach who created the course and their results, as well as the coaching style and the kind of materials the course contains.
You will want to ensure that the poker coaching course is intended for the form of poker you prefer, whether it is cash games, MTTs, heads-up, etc.
Furthermore, you will want to make sure that the coach is a proven winner in these games and someone who actually has real insights to share, which is not always the case.
If you can get a free preview of the course or snippets of it, you will definitely want to do that, as this will ensure you can relate to the coach’s teaching style and methods before you invest the money.
It is not rare that a poker player will buy a poker coaching course but not really use it in full. In fact, most players don’t utilize the entirety of the coaching they purchase or spend nearly enough time studying poker.
Once you have joined a paid program, it is highly advisable to spend many hours studying it and re-watching more advanced concepts.
Chances are that watching a coaching course just once will not be enough to remember all the things discussed in it, which is why going over the program multiple times can prove very beneficial.
You should also be making notes while watching the videos. Make a note of anything you don't fully understand and the key things you did understand from every lesson.
These notes can help you learn more efficiently, memorize all the key concepts faster, and remember the things that had you confused so you can find a solution to them later.
It is important not to rush your learning process and allow yourself as much time as needed to cement your knowledge and fully adopt the lessons being taught by your poker mentor.
If a poker site has 40 hours of video material, you will probably need 200 hours or more of studying time to ensure that you have truly mastered the course.
The results of such meticulous studying will show in your results, as you will be able to fully emulate your coach’s game and apply every single concept you learned during the course you underwent.
Private one-on-one poker coaching sessions were the norm in the past, and many of the best poker coaches only offered this service.
Today, poker coaches record full training courses and sell them to players, but that doesn't mean there isn't still value in getting private lessons.
The biggest advantage of getting private lessons is that your coach can look at your game, quickly detect the mistakes you are making, and explain how you can stop them.
Plugging leaks through private coaching with a great poker player can be one of the finest ways to advance your game, but it can also be very costly. One-on-one poker coaching is typically very expensive, so you should only look for it once you have tried the other types of training.
For instance, you may have purchased a training course and spent the hours needed to understand it, but you still struggle a little in the games.
In this case, paying for a top poker coach to spend some hours reviewing your sessions and detecting leaks you may still have in your game will be well worth the money you spend.
Again, it will be critical that you find the right player who is a big winner in the games you play and can confidently say what works and doesn’t.
Be careful, as many "general" poker coaches will take your money for private coaching lessons but will not be able to give you the value you paid for.
Only pay for a coach whose coaching style works well for you and whose methods you understand and are able to adopt. If the coach is not right for you, don’t be afraid to say so and look for another.
Finally, always record your coaching sessions, whatever form they may be in, as this will allow you to re-watch them later and refresh your knowledge if some of it fades away over time.
All things considered, this form of learning should be an exception rather than a rule. There are so many quality training programs for a fraction of the price compared to private coaching that you usually are better off joining them. On top of that, sites like Pokercode have an active community where you can get your questions answered by coaches, so you get the best of both worlds.
This brings us to the matter of pricing. Different poker coaching courses or private coaching lessons will cost different amounts, and it's very hard to say how much such coaching is worth.
In fact, it all depends on what you get from the coaching. If a poker course can help you beat high-stakes games, it should easily be worth thousands of dollars.
On the other hand, if the course is only good enough to help you beat the micros, it should probably not be worth more than a few hundred.
Since every player is different and poker games don’t all play at the same level, the truth is that any poker coaching will be worth a different amount for different players.
As a general rule of thumb, you will not want to pay more for poker coaching than you can afford to lose in a decent-sized downswing at the tables, but there are exceptions.
If you are desperately stuck at a certain level and are looking for ways to move up, it may be worth buying a poker course with great reviews or paying a private coach a number of buyins to help you advance your game.
At the end of the day, only you know which direction you want to take your poker career in and how much poker coaching might be worth to you. Yet, keep in mind that all good education costs money and that a good investment in poker coaching can pay serious dividends down the line.
Most poker coaching programs will give you the tools and the knowledge you need to be a great poker player, but they won’t automatically make you into one.
Instead, you will usually need to spend time studying the game yourself and using the knowledge you gained from your coaching lessons to improve your own game.
If you are stuck and can’t seem to move up in poker, you should probably be spending more hours studying the game and fewer hours playing it.
Instead of breaking even at the tables and constantly being frustrated, spend the time you need going over the hands you have played, running simulations, and discovering new ways you could play the same spots.
Good poker coaching will set you on the right course, but if you want to truly get the full value from it, you should be prepared to spend many hours studying the game and improving your poker skills by applying the knowledge you gained from your coaches.
If you have the feeling you need to sharpen up your game then Pokercode is a great place to start. Sign up for a free account and set your first steps towards becoming a better poker player.
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