Coaching in poker has become an incredibly profitable submarket, with average players charging even lawyer hourly wages. While that's an entire issue in and of itself, I'd rather talk about how people can benefit the most from getting coaching.
I've probably spent more hours coaching poker than any other reg on LP besides maybe Myth, and have paid for plenty of coaching hours myself from very accomplished players. In most cases people are spending at least a buy in at their stakes per hour for coaching, so it's important to make sure that you're using that money and time effectively. Here are some things to keep in mind when deciding on a coach, and then the actual coaching process itself:
(Note: Before it looks like I'm pimping my own services, I'm not currently coaching and probably won't be anytime soon. If I do coach, it would be for free, but even then the opportunities are extremely limited - i.e. free coaching offer a while back).
1. Price
My quick thoughts on pricing are that the high prices are somewhat justifiable, in that coaches are often contributing to the demise of their own professions in return for a short-term guaranteed wage (a commodity within a world of thieves). In a weird way I also think higher coaching prices force exclusivity - an accomplished coach who charges relatively high premiums will have less students at a time, enabling them to allot more attention to their current student(s), resulting in a better coach/student relationship which means a happier, less-stressed out coach capable of delivering more information more effectively to the student. As a rule of thumb I generally don't suggest low stakes players to pay more than twice their buy in as an hourly, and for mid-high stakes players I generally don't think price should ever be a deterrent (as they're usually providing very exclusive information).
2. Game Relevance
The coaching approach I would take with 400nl players would be different from the approach I'd take with 200nlers. Considering that, my approach with 50nlers must be entirely different, and it should be. I think the best coaches for anyone are the ones that know your stakes best. They have kept up with the changing metagame dynamics, i.e. the way most of the regs think about the game and other players, any trending lines, etc. As a gaming example, years ago back when I was training War3 competitively, I specifically avoided Grubby's (my favorite player) replays and downloaded replays of amateurs instead. I was a mid-level solo Orc player on the Asia realm at the time and downloaded a lot of replays from "Lyn", who was then a mid-high level solo Orc player on Asia. His play was solid and flawless, backed by rational decision making and a solid foundational understanding of the game and how other races were playing. Years later he's apparently the undisputed best Orc in the world.
3. Know your own goals
Is your goal to become a high stakes all-star or are you happy churning out a respectable, consistent monthly wage at lower stakes? Different coaches will have subtle skillset differences that allow them to be better at coaching one or the other. In the former, there's likely a lot of emphasis on critical thinking, poker theory, experimentation, situational psychology. In the latter, there's likely more emphasis on limiting variance, seeking out common and consistent leaks rather than trying to force specific exploitation. Try to get an understanding of your coach's strengths in this regard, hopefully before you hire him, which also leads to:
4. Know your coach's style
As an addition to the previous, it's important that you understand what your coach's style and strengths are. Most coaches usually just impose their style on you (as it is what they believe to be the best form of poker usually). Some coaches are better at just talking and theorizing, in which case you're allowed to make your own stylistic adjustments but those coaches are less common. Check out videos, blog posts, hand histories + analyses from your coach before thinking about hiring them. Consider how it would affect your own personal style as a poker player or as a human being. If you're someone who is trying to make rent per month, likely you don't want to hire a coach who thrives on high variance aggro fests, rather you'd prefer someone who prefers to limit variance and avoid tough spots.
5. Keep an open mind
Your coach, despite all the reviews and money he's made, isn't an all-knowing force. But he's also likely much, much, much better than you. Definitely try to absorb anything he tells you but at the same time if something strikes you as a red flag because it goes against conventional wisdom or mathematics, ask questions about it. Understand that a lot of what he says can just be a stylistic approach to the game (which is hard to quantify as being wrong) but there are times that he may make an unintentional mistake in his assignment of ranges (a common problem) or even the basics like the math for calling a river bet (been there before).
6. Follow-up
Record your session using Camtasia. Watch the session over a day or two after the coaching session. Send your coach questions via e-mail following up on certain theory or lines he mentioned. "Hey I thought about what you said about river check raising, here's a couple HHs where I tried it out, did I apply it correctly?" goes a LONG way. I'm the type of person that tries to pack as much information into an hour as possible, and I've met very few people who can digest and remember all that material days later without having it recorded. If your coach is dropping gold nuggets of wisdom on you and you forget one or two very important things he's said, that translates into a substantial loss of money, both in you having paid for that wisdom but not remembering it, and also the missed opportunity cost in not being able to implement it when you play.
7. Follow-up some more
Months after your coaching hours are finished you're making a lot more money and feeling good about yourself, then you hit a downswing and you're unsure if it's just variance or because people are finally catching onto your antics. Re-watch the coaching sessions you've hopefully recorded to see if you've just forgot about something. Talk to your coach again see if he's changed his opinion about anything he's taught you. I'd be very surprised if the answer is no - the coach you hired is hopefully a very good player, in that case he probably spends a lot of time thinking critically about his game and learning about new things, his game is bound to change.
I'm a huge fan of coaching and being coached, it's just sad that the coaching industry in poker gets so much hate (although in most cases it's well deserved). I definitely wouldn't be where I am today without my coaches but at the same time, this is still poker, which is a meritocracy and to be able to acquire the most out of your coach you need to put in the due diligence.
In my down swing post I mentioned the importance of confidence and that I lose it too easily.
Well today I saw Giggy's vid on Playing A Game. Really sick timing and here are my notes:
Confidence
- The most important factor in Playing A Game
The opposite pole of confidence is Fear.
Fear makes it impossible to play your A game. It is arguably even worse than tilt and anger.
Players often face the following fears:
1) Fear of losing money
This is the biggest factor. Most people have problem even starting session because of fear of losing money. You will see many people that do not put the volume in and think they are not motivated, a lot of the time its just plain fear of losing gains that puts people off putting in volume.
Solution:
-Either Face your fear, or at least be able to control it.
-Treat poker like a video game.
-understand how your brain works and find solutions tailored to your own psyche.
Giggy personally likes to always have 7+hours for his sessions, just to be able to get unstuck and not get the fear of losing money next time. He plays actually better when he is either stuck or is winning a lot, and it doesn't matter to him if he is stuck 2 or 20 BI in a session.
He also mentioned that some people fear losing a lot during one session, and stop loss will be great for you if you do that, as when you know you never lose more than the 'acceptable' amount you will fear losing much less.
2)Fear of other players
When you fear a player, he will crush you. He WILL FUCK YOU UP.
You have to be confident that you can pull some moves on every single player that you are playing against.
You can still be modest and respect other players, and you should, but you should absolutely not fear them. They really are not crushing your soul in every single spot, that is not possible unless they hit some sick heater of hands. Every single player is just a human and has his leaks that you can exploit.
3) Fear of the unknown
Example: Players without imagination always take new untried lines only with the nuts. They know they have the best 100% of the time and there is nothing unknown that they can fear. But when it comes to bluffs they take a different approach because they fear trying new lines and the unknown reaction of the opponent
Others: Fear of pulling the trigger, fear of not being good enough for your limit, fear of playing bad
When you play bad you fear to continue to keep playing bad, which makes you play even worse because of your fear.
The same goes for hitting a few bad sessions at your limit: You fear that you are not good enough, you lose your confidence and you suddenly really are not good enough.
Endnotes
You have to understand yourself to play your A game. What makes you confident and what makes you play without fear. ALL YOUR WORST FEARS WILL BE REALIZED
-Well not quite, but close to it, and it is especially true in poker. If you fear something, it will happen.
You have to be realistic and realise poker is just 1 long big session.
You have to be also honest with yourself.
Variance
One thing Giggy edited later in his video. Accepting the fact that losing 50 flips in a row is just a reality of poker is absolutely basic and vital. If you don't accept the luck factor and get tilted and start fearing every time you run under EV you are FUCKED.
Stare at the wall for 2 days straight or do whatever you can, but you have to realise this fact and come in peace with it, Tackling fears mentioned earlier will not help you if you can't accept the basic reality of poker.
Haters gonna hate... by DustySwedeDude, November 13
Only written ~15% of my paper on "Game theory in Negotiations" and I've already managed to cite Pascal's Wager. Working on getting "Lennon, J and McCartney, P,. "Can't buy me love", Parlophone, 1964" in there as well.
Such a fucked up game. Edges are pretty huge fish v competent person. You can constantly get yourself into 70-30 or 88-12 spots. There is only 1 problem, holding up lol. Somehow even with these crazy edges the swings are pretty big, I guess because it is a limit game. the greatest part of it is how mindless it is, for the most part.
677 my ftp your stars(need to withdraw bankwire)by whamm!, November 12
cant do it now since i just deposited it from click2pay so if anyone wants this by tomorrow.
need to withdraw my money online and i have no fast bankwire options with ftp so id appreciate it. thanks
I'm at 71.5k vpp, going for SN this year still playing (probably) $6, $16, $27, and $38 18 mans, depending on how well I can move up. Crushed the $6 level so far, and starting $16's tomorrow, wish me luck LP
Just finished playing 74 matches in a row against the sickest fish ever.
He was open shoving pf about 25% of the hands and also doing shit like this all the time: + Show Spoiler +
Submitted by : player999
PokerStars Game #52560331196: Tournament #330678605, €50.00+€2.25 EUR Holdem No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2010/11/12 0:18:37 AT [2010/11/11 23:18:37 ET]
Table 330678605 1 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: DocZock61 (1110 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero (1890 in chips)
Hero: posts small blind 10
DocZock61: posts big blind 20
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to Hero
Hero: raises 40 to 60
DocZock61: raises 40 to 100
Hero: raises 640 to 740
DocZock61: calls 640
Showdown DocZock61: shows (a pair of Fives)
Hero: shows (a pair of Tens)
Hero collected 2220 from pot
DocZock61 finished the tournament in 2nd place
Hero wins the tournament and receives €100.00 - congratulations!
Summary Total pot 2220 | Rake 0
Board
Seat 1: DocZock61 (big blind) showed and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 2: Hero (button) (small blind) showed and won (2220) with a pair of Tens
He run like I've never seen anyone run in my 20k+ games tho. At one point when we were 2tabling he stacked me at the same time with 33 and 55 on QT3r and K95r against my QT and K9. I was down a bit over 11bis to him at some point but ended 36 wins/38 losses.
Still finished up today overall tho, but its so sick to know that I lost to this guy over a lot of matches, fml...
Ok I give up on quitting LP lolby whamm!, November 11
i quit even in quitting. i have lots of concerns and questions about non poker related stuff online and IRL, but realize i dont have any smart friends online or IRL (lol) i can ask on a regular basis. ive practically taken a long break from poker and im enjoying it atm. i have a question about cpanel website stuff and here it goes...
how the hell do i find my root directory? i dont see a root icon in cpanel. im trying to learn phpbb3 and basic site building html stuff. thanks in advance and welcome back whamm! lol
Finally got my self (temporarily) unstuck for the month.
It's quite nice to know that I can beat the variance and climb my way back up. I'm sure I may get stuck again but I'll know that I'll be able to dig myself again like I did this time~~
Thanks to Jamie217 for discussing PLO with me every few days. Appreciate it
Have not been running great as of yet, but I am confident in my game, which to me is the most important aspect of poker. I have been sitting down at tables, and not feeling outclassed at all. I got a long ways to go before I know whether I am able to beat the stake, so only time will tell, but I have a feeling this time around, I will be moving up instead of down again
Anyway, got a coach for the 1st time in my poker career, and it seems to be working well, even though we have only had one session. He has instilled in me that every time I make an action, I ask myself "Why are you doing what you are doing?" Has helped me think a lot more analytically about poker in general and my game as a whole
Wish there were some TV poker I could link, but with the exception of the world series, there won't be any for a couple weeks. Latest news at The Big Game is Jared Huggins from 2+2 is basically a shoe in to play on these upcoming episodes or the beginning of next season. Truly a heartwarming story. If you have not heard of him, you should look him up. Heres his audition tape for the Big Game
News from Poker after Dark is there are some sick tables coming up. One of the cash games is rumored to include Phil Galfond, Patrik Antonious, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Brian Hastings, and Brandom Adams/Harrington25. I also think there will be a table coming up with Annette Obrested, Huck Seed, and Hellmuth I believe. Apparently, Hellmuth takes another huge beat, which is most likely going to be entertaining
Not to mention FTP million dollar cash game will be airing sometime in December/January, and High Stakes Poker will be back too. Really looking forward to those.
HEllo everyone,
it's a shame that I've no post and only leeching some epic treads here (such obviously is ROFL thread). It's because i'm mainly using account at polish LP site.
I'm writing to you with some request.
At the beginning of 2010 i was able to purchase items on PS3 PSN US store with my neteller card. Unfortunately I can't do this anymore . There is a solution - PSN cards. Is there anyone who is using those? It would be awesome to buy some and send me just the code(i wish i could buy some via internet without paying shipping a piece of paper to Poland). I will send the money first for obvious reason
Contact Users: 444 Active, 1 Logged in - Time: 08:40
(a pair of Fives)
. There is a solution - PSN cards. Is there anyone who is using those? It would be awesome to buy some and send me just the code(i wish i could buy some via internet without paying shipping a piece of paper to Poland). I will send the money first for obvious reason 
