Enhancing Your Poker Skills in 2020
In the highly competitive world of poker, it’s crucial to continually enhance your skills and equip yourself to excel in the game in 2020. There are various methods to achieve this, including:
- Utilizing available software programs to analyze your game.
- Reviewing your hands and strategies with trusted friends or fellow players.
- Enrolling in one of the many comprehensive poker courses available today.
- Subscribing to a poker training website to watch instructional videos from seasoned professionals.
Each of these strategies has significant benefits, and when combined, they can substantially elevate your poker game.
However, not everyone has access to a network of poker friends to discuss hands with, and investing in an online poker course can be a considerable one-time expense. Watching poker training videos, though useful, may only partially address the weaknesses in your game.
So, what’s the most efficient way to improve your poker skills, you might wonder?
The Power of One-on-One Poker Coaching
The answer could very well be one-on-one poker coaching! As a seasoned poker coach with Ultimate Poker Coaching, having successfully mentored numerous students, I’m well-positioned to highlight the various advantages of personalized poker coaching.
An Introduction to One-to-One Poker Coaching
Most one-on-one poker coaching sessions are conducted online using software such as Skype, TeamViewer, and Discord. These platforms enable the coach and student to communicate effectively even if they are on opposite sides of the globe (which is often the case with 90jili many of my students!). Additionally, these programs offer screen-sharing capabilities, allowing both coach and student to display their computer screens, facilitating the lesson’s progress.
A typical poker coaching session lasts about an hour, although it can occasionally extend to two hours. Generally, I believe that sessions longer than two hours can become counterproductive. The quality of learning tends to diminish after the two-hour mark, so a focused one-hour session is usually optimal. Most students find a coaching schedule of 1 to 1.5 hours per week to be effective.
How to Prepare for a Poker Coaching Lesson
Before the lesson, it’s beneficial for the student and coach to discuss the topics to be covered during the hour. This preparation helps the student mentally gear up for the poker insights they are about to receive. Regular communication between the student and coach is also crucial to maintain a dynamic and effective learning experience.
As a coach, I ensure that each lesson is thoroughly prepared with a plan tailored to the specific needs and learning style of the student. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” This principle holds true for both coaches and students in the context of poker coaching.
How One-to-One Poker Coaching Can Take Your Poker Game to the Next Level
Poker training sites and courses, while often packed with excellent content that can significantly enhance your poker skills and win rate, are designed to cater to a broad audience. They aim to attract players with varying skill levels and budgets. Although these resources typically offer content divided into beginner, intermediate, and expert levels, the learning experience they provide is more generalized compared to the personalized approach of one-on-one poker coaching. It’s akin to a university student attending a standard course versus receiving individualized tutoring from a professor of that course.
While poker courses cover trends in the game and offer strategies for adaptation, they cannot identify your specific errors at the table that might be hindering your progress.
Many students seek out poker coaches like myself after purchasing these comprehensive courses but finding they need further explanation to fully benefit. Despite the high quality of the content, these courses often don’t address the unique doubts and challenges students face in their own game.
Plugging the Leaks
Much like a skilled plumber, a poker coach must identify and fix leaks in their student’s game. This involves spotting recurring mistakes or misconceptions the student has about specific situations at the table. This process, usually carried out through hand reviews or statistical analysis from the player’s Heads-Up Display (HUD), is an effective way to enhance the student’s performance.
A coach should be adept at recognizing patterns of errors in the student’s game and providing quick solutions to correct these leaks. Common issues among many of my students include:
- Defending too widely from the Big Blind in multiway pots or against early position raises.
- Overplaying small pocket pairs preflop and becoming confused postflop.
- Calling raises from the Small Blind with too many hands.
- Uncertainty about which hands to 3-bet, especially at different stack sizes in MTTs.
Whatever the leak, it’s crucial to address it promptly to prevent the student from continually losing money in these situations!
Being Critical in the Right Way as a Poker Coach
When coaching a player, it’s essential to provide constructive criticism to convey the areas where they need to improve their poker game. Without addressing these issues, the player may continue to struggle without knowing how to resolve them. This can be challenging, particularly in initial sessions when the student and I are still getting to know each other.
Striking the right balance between being critical yet constructive is often difficult, especially if a student is reluctant to acknowledge their faults and instead makes excuses. To maintain a positive dynamic, I often mix praise for aspects of their game they are excelling in 90jili with feedback on what needs improvement. Excessive negativity can erode the student’s trust in the coach and disrupt the learning process.
My goal is to balance necessary critique with timely praise to ensure the student remains realistic about my expectations while staying motivated to continue learning.
Getting the Message Across in Poker Coaching
For many newcomers, the world of poker can be daunting due to the extensive jargon involved. Terms like GTO preflop, exploitative play, cold 4-bet, and balanced ranges can be overwhelming, even for experienced players like myself! As a coach, it’s crucial to tailor my lessons to the student’s level to prevent them from feeling overwhelmed by the complexities of poker.90jili
I work with a diverse range of students, each with unique needs, mentalities, and thought processes. Ensuring that each lesson is well-planned and delivered effectively is a continuous process that I strive to improve. It’s vital to present the correct information in a way that the student can appreciate and comprehend.
Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together
Students who find value in my initial one-hour sessions often opt for five or ten-lesson packages. This allows me to approach their learning as a short university course in poker. Over 5 or 10 hours, I can cover a range of topics, such as blind versus blind (BvB) play, 3-betting strategies at different stack sizes, flop c-bet tactics, and mental game approaches. This comprehensive coverage equips the student with the necessary 90jili tools to make significant improvements in specific areas of their game.
With multiple sessions, I can build upon previous lessons and observe the student’s real-time progress as they begin to understand and apply the concepts being taught. This ongoing development is rewarding for both the student and me as a coach. Poker coaching aims to establish a solid foundation, enabling the student to continue their poker career independently. Within five hours, I strive to give my students the momentum they need to pursue their poker goals with greater clarity and focus than when they began.
The Game of AIs and Poker Solvers
Teaching poker in 2020 goes beyond traditional methods like chalk on a blackboard. The game has evolved with the advent of various programs and solvers that many players now use to enhance their skills. The release and widespread adoption of poker solvers like PIO and Monker in recent years have revolutionized the approach to the tactical aspects of the game.
High-stakes players frequently refer to solver-approved strategies when discussing online poker hands. Previously, we all had to guess the correct ranges for different situations, with some guessing more accurately than others. Now, by studying with solvers, we can unlock a deep understanding of the game, allowing us to play near-perfect poker from a game theory standpoint.
Consequently, many poker lessons today focus on utilizing these advanced software tools to facilitate learning. Even at a basic level, visualizing poker ranges and understanding how equities shift between different sets of ranges is crucial. Solvers have become essential in coaching players, significantly enhancing the efficiency of the learning process.90jili
To aspire to become a professional poker player, regardless of the game format you specialize in, studying with solvers is imperative. While you can achieve a solid win rate in live poker without solver knowledge, neglecting this aspect in online poker grants your opponents a considerable advantage.
Final Words
In essence, poker coaching is a comprehensive process aimed at identifying and addressing the various weaknesses a player may have. While I may be biased, I firmly believe that poker coaching offers the most effective path forward for players struggling with their game. Unlike other learning methods, coaching provides immediate solutions to these challenges.
A good poker coach imparts wisdom, introduces new concepts, and dispels any previous doubts or misconceptions the student may have. When students fully commit to this process, the sky truly is the limit!
