After my last blog post several people got in touch and showed interest in coaching, so I've decided to go ahead with my plans. I mentioned that I had a pretty in depth plan for how this would work so now it's time to share it. I want to provide high quality coaching so that my students get a lot out of the experience and grow into winning players. I enjoy teaching and I really like helping people learn and seeing them grow. I've sat back and thought of everything that I wish I'd been taught and had access to when I first started out, and I will share those lessons and that information with my students.
So let's get this started with the obvious - my results so you can decide whether you want to bother with learning from me. I've put them in a spoiler so you can skip them if you already know me.
I started playing poker in the summer of 2006 and learned from a friend on LP named FirA. I sucked for a long time and was horrible at BR management. I started with NL but moved to fixed limit after I nearly lost my BR by moving up too fast. After that I became a BR nit and have never come close to being broke. After about a year I finally got the basics down and then moved back to NL and cruised through the micros. I had a heater when I got to NL100 and thought I was god, then had an epic downswing and realized I wasn't. At that point I refocused to get past the basics and learned a lot from Midian about taking the game to the next level. I played NL50/NL100 for about a year but hit a wall so I got coaching with Sakisaki. Since then I moved up to NL200 and have been a reg there for several months.
I've been on serious highs and lows from poker but over the past 8 months I finally got good enough so that I can consistently win and have been pulling out about 1k a month while also paying sakisaki for coaching and building my BR. I play poker part time while working part time for a non-profit organization. I run extremely bad (ask sakisaki, he's had to suffer while sweating me) which has left me no room to play on anything but my A game and forced me to learn a lot about tilt control, focus, discipline and other non strategy aspects of being a winner at poker.
Here are some screen shots. These are my lifetime results @ NL25, NL50 and NL100. These are the 3 levels I expect to be coaching on since for NL10 and lower the price is usually gonna be too high, but I can definitely teach you to beat those lower stakes as well. My results for NL10 and lower are not included in the SS since they're skewed - for the last 2 years those are the stakes I visit when I'm drunk and feel like playing 100/100 and going all in every hand. I'm amazed they're still in the green =)
How Sessions Will Work
I pay for a nice screen sharing software that will allow us to talk via phone or microphone/speakers and see each others screens during sessions. I've used free programs like teamviewer while getting coached in the past and they made things very difficult, so I've decided to pay for this software to make the coaching sessions smooth. You don't have to pay anything for this. We will use this software every session so that we can talk verbally and see each others screens as necessary.
During a session we will either do 1 or more of the following:
1) Discuss general strategy and ways to improve your game, from tilt control to the best poker programs to use and how to use them.
2) I prefer if you can make a video of yourself playing a regular session and then we can review it together during the coaching session. This way we can go over timing tells, game flow, etc, but can pause and really get into detail rather than live sweat sessions where you are limited in how long you can talk and get distracted by new hands.
3) If you can't make videos, we will do live sweat sessions where I watch you play or you watch me play.
4) We'll go over your HEM/PT database and review hands.
5) If you're a consistent student (doing a session 1 time a week or bought a package up front) then you can PM me hands anytime you want for review, and I might also assign you homework like articles/books to read, videos to watch, etc.
6) I'm flexible in my teaching style and will customize according to what you ask for. If you want me to just give you a general course I can do that, or if you just want to focus on specific areas that you have trouble with then we can do that, and so on.
Stakes and Game Types I Coach
Game Types:
My coaching will be primarily focused on 6max/full ring cash games. I play primarly 6-max cash games, but have played a lot of full ring cash games in my life, especially at the micro stakes. If you have no idea how to play tournaments then I can help you get started since I know the basics and can hold my own, but I am not a tournament specialist and do not consider myself to be qualified to teach you to be a big tournament winner. I don't teach HU or Omaha.
Stakes:
I can teach you to win at NL100 and lower. I may be helpful to a struggling NL200 reg or someone who is just making the move up, but I'd suggest you get a NL400 or higher reg to help you out instead of me.
NL100: If you are already a solid reg @ NL100 I may not be the coach for you, but I can help you make the transition to NL200 and explain the differences and how to adjust. If you're a breakeven reg @ NL100 I can help you become a winner and move up. But overall I do think my services are not as valuable to a NL100 player so that is why the fee is only half a buyin.
NL50: I can help you, a lot. If you've been stuck here forever or just arrived, I can help you figure it out and crush the game. I do know some NL50 players who are equal to me in terms of poker strategy, but they're stuck at this level for other reasons and if you're one of those people I can help you figure out what to change outside of your strategies so that you can move up.
NL25 and Lower: I have a lot to offer you. I can help you maximize your winnings vs all the fish you get to play with, but also help you understand how to change your game vs the occasional good reg you bump into. And I can help you a lot with moving up and expanding your game, taking it to a deeper level.
Payment
1) I charge $50 a session. Sessions last for at least 1 hour and may go longer. If it goes longer than 1 hr, you don't pay anything extra.
2) You can buy a package for $250 and get 6 lessons (1 free). If you buy a package you also can PM me hands anytime for analysis and I might assign you homework to do between sessions (articles/books to read, videos to watch, etc.)
3) Long term profit sharing deals are available but will require a more in depth submission process. If you want long term coaching contact me via PM and I will let you know what I need from you.
4) If you miss a session without notifying me ahead of time (6 hrs) or having a DAMN good reason, then at the next session you will pay half the price of the missed session PLUS the full price of the new session. If I miss a coaching session without notifying you ahead of time (12 hrs) or having a damn good reason, then your next session will be 100% FREE.
5) I am free Mon/Wed/Fri all day so those are the best days for me to do sessions. I can usually fit something in any day of the week though. On Sat/Sun if I do a session it will need to be in the afternoon. We will schedule the sessions via PM here on LP or AIM/MSN.
Applying for Coaching
If you want to take lessons from me then please send me a PM with the below information. I will review it and get in touch with you to set up a FREE consultation session which will last 15-30 minutes. During that time we will get to know each other and talk basic poker. After that we can both decide whether we want to continue and start paid sessions. This way you don't have to pay $50 to spend 30 minutes getting to know me and 30 minutes doing a sweat session, and then decide that you don't like me. You get to decide you don't like me for free and if you do like me then we can get serious on the coaching.
PM me the answer to these questions to apply for coaching:
1) Name, age, location:
2) Preferred poker site(s) and screen names:
3) Current bankroll and game(s) played:
4) How many hands do you typically play per month?
5) How long have you been playing poker?
6) Have you had any coaching before? If so, how did it go?
7) What’s your schedule like? When do you want to do your session? (Give a specific time please)
8) What's your Skype and AIM/MSN?
(Yes, I stole those Q's from Myth's coaching thread. No reason to reinvent the wheel and we all know Myth has this coaching shtick down ^^)
That's all. If you have anymore questions then please reply to this thread or PM me.
I have no illusions that I'm some super pimping awesome poker player, but I do know that I have beaten every limit below NL100, have about 3 yrs of poker experience, have received coaching from some fantastic players, and have been doing poker as a part time job for the last 6 months and consistently pulling out money as a supplemental income. I'm sure there are microstakes guys that would like to achieve the same level and I can help them do that, and would like to help.
As I have more free time now and am getting back into poker, I've been thinking about the idea of coaching people. I enjoy teaching and I really like helping people learn and seeing them grow.
The point of this blog post is to gauge interest. I'm thinking of doing something along these lines:
1) Free 15-30 minutes consultation to see if you'd be a good fit as a student
2) If we decide to go ahead with coaching then $50 per session which lasts at least 1 hr and may go for 2 or more.
3) If you are taking consistent lessons (at least 1 a week) then you can PM me hands anytime and I'll go over em for ya.
4) If I have no idea what to do in a situation I will consult with friends who are better players than I am so that you get a good answer.
5) Coaching is targeted to NL100 and lower (but if someone wanted help moving up to NL200 or just getting used to it I can help there).
I currently grind NL200 and definitely don't feel good about giving someone advice at that level, but I have played like 300k hands of NL100 and won a lot there and beat every level below it, so I feel good giving coaching to anyone at those levels.
Note, to someone @ NL100 $50 is a small coaching fee, which is intentional cause I figure I won't be as helpful at that point, where as for NL50 it's a solid fee but I will be very helpful, and NL25 and lower it's a lot of money for a session in relation to your buyin amount BUT I will be extremely helpful to you.
And even if I don't know that much more poker strategy than you (IE a good NL100 reg) I have spent a lot of time focusing on learning about improving results with techniques that aren't related to basic poker strategy, like tilt control, focus, discipline, etc. So I am not just offering lessons on how to play a hand, but bigger lessons on how to approach poker and be successful.
So, would there be any interest? I have a much more in depth plan of how to be a great coach in my head and I've only given some general details of what I'd like to do here. If there's some interest in this then I'll take the time to put together a full out post and start making appointments with people for the free consultations. If there's no interest then I'll just spend more time grinding =)
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I have a good screen sharing program that allows us to do sessions smoothly plus talk easily either via the phone or your microphone/speakers. So the coaching sessions will not be hampered by shitty technology which I know happens a lot
This has been the story of my poker life lately - break even or lose money. No heaters for me =(
Did a hand review today and found that all but 1 of my stackoffs were either A) losing a flip PF or B) coolers. There was 1 hand where it was a clear fold as all I had was an overpair + a gutshot vs 2 opponents who were going crazy, but I was tilty and not willing to let go of a hand. I made the mistake of seeing the flop and going "I'm getting this in" and not adjusting my plan when I saw the rest of the action. MUST MAKE DECISIONS ACCORDING TO ALL INFORMATION IN THE MOMENT!
Getting back into the swing of things, grinding out some hands, not feeling so scared of it. It's not so much fear as just lack of motivation. I don't feel the same fire I did a month ago so when I sit down I feel like I'm forcing it and that I'm not giving my A game. Gotta get more mental control so I can turn on the A game no matter what.
Sticking to my "don't check the BR" technique. I know I'm either up or down 1-3 buyins. Something like that.
At least I don't suck at poker. It's hard to forget all the months of practice. The thing that has given me the most trouble is if too many tables come up. I can't keep up like I used to so I have to keep the table count down. It's easy to do these days as NL200 is really thin on good tables, and this is on Fri/Sat! wtf man, where'd all the fish go? T_T
I think it's really good that the WSOP is coming up and that I'm gonna go. It will help me refocus on poker this month. Then I can spend the rest of this year putting poker as a top priority and hopefully get myself into NL400/600 grinder status. That's the dream.
Vegas is gonna be great, can't wait. If you live out there and have a couch I can crash on then lemme know, I'm driving out and bringing a sleeping bag and that's about the extent of my plan right now.
I'm playing 6max and like I said in my blog below, it's been about a month. Looking at the tables they don't look right. I think it's the cards. Didn't peoples cards used to be over their image and not on the table? The only thing on the table was the chips, right? It's fucking throwing me off. I'm so anal about these things.
I haven't played serious poker in a month. Holy crap. And now I'm trying to get myself back into the poker swing of things and it's a bit weird... doesn't feel right. Part of me is nervous that I'll play shitty, part of me isn't feeling as mentally strong as I was before I stopped, and part of me is really eager to get playing again.
Just gotta do it!
I have played a bit of poker but it was 2 live home games vs friends who are not very good, and 1 live tournament at the local casino which was kinda fun but it's not the same as online grinding, and it was for much less money than I normally play for online.
I am happy about one thing - live poker finally doesn't feel too slow to me as I've learned how to spend the time productively, searching for tells and so on. I feel a lot better about the idea of going to Vegas during the WSOP main event to play in the cash games and meet up with folks. Just gotta grind out btwn now and then so I can afford the trip!
Ok, time to get working and stop talking about working.
Well I'm caught up. I waited months before watching season 5 because I prefer watching LOST in marathons sessions rather than 1 episode a week. So I avoided any articles or threads about LOST for months and sat back waiting for the season to end so I could download it all. I've been working 24/7 for the last 3 weeks so I didn't have any time to watch LOST till this weekend, which was my first one off in ages.
Sorry to anyone who got an accidental spoiler last night - I was drinking and cruising through episodes, and I had a funny idea and quickly posted it in my blog btwn episodes. Guess the title was too spoilerish (though I just thought it was a cool title) so my blog got deleted. The LOST spoiler police are vigilant around here!
My blog title was "Ben is the John Connor of LOST" cause I had just watched saiheed (sp?) try to kill Ben as a kid. My girl and I have always talked about how Ben is unkillable and has had a million guns pointed at his head over the seasons and ALWAYS finds a way out of it. Then suddenly there's time traveling and attempts to kill him as a kid and I realized that Ben was the John Connor of LOST - you can't fucking kill the guy no matter how hard you try or how many terminators you send after him. I guess the fact that I watched Salvation yesterday afternoon might have influenced my thinking.
If you've been reading my blog since Friday you'll know that it has become my LOST blog for now. And on Friday night I tried watching the beginning of season 5 after getting high. And you'll also know that I realized it was a BAD idea. LOST is not a show that mixes well with being high cause it's fucking confusing enough without any help. So yesterday (Sat) I ended up rewatching all 7 episodes that I'd watched on friday night so I could figure out wtf was going on. Then I powered through the last 10 episodes and went to bed @ 6am. So even though I started watching on Friday, I still watched the entire season in 1 day cause I had to rewatch everything, lol.
The season started out confusing, then it made sense for a while and I thought I understood everything that was going on, and then the finale came and confused the shit outta me. Very LOST style to do that. My understanding is that we have 2 seasons left before the series finale. I'm so curious to see how they will tie this all up.
As for being confused, the 2 biggest things are wtf is up with John Locke (is that even John Locke?) and did the bomb work? Whats up with the white background at the end of the season when the final "LOST" appears on the screen, as that's normally a black background. Is the bomb just "the incident" or did the bomb change things? God I wanna know!
And who is this new crew of people carrying john lockes body around? They seem to have been recruited by Jacob.
Ok, that's enough rambling for now. I'll probably go rewatch all 5 seasons of LOST sometime soon. My favorite part of the show is still season 1 when things were very lord of the flies.
I've realized that while the first 2 episodes were confusing, they weren't as weird, crazy and confusing as I thought they were. It was definitely too hard to comprehend cause I was high. It's funny rewatching these episodes cause I see stuff that was intense before and I realize how it isn't intense at all, haha.
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