It’s never been tougher to consistently win at poker. At the same time, it’s never been easier to improve your skills with free and premium information online.
If you want to see great results this year, it might be time to look into poker coaching.
Let’s take a look at the best ways to improve your poker game through training (click to jump to that section):
Live poker coaching is still alive and well. If you look hard enough you might find that some of the more famous names in the game are offering coaching services.
Rates for a live poker coach vary dramatically. Prices range anywhere from a couple hundred bucks per hour to sometimes $10k or more for a few one-on-one sessions. Just typing “live poker coach” into Google, or checking out the coaching forums on Two Plus Two will give you an idea of the range of services and prices that are out there.
This kind of coaching doesn’t come cheap, but if one-on-one, personalized poker education suits you, this is one way to go.
Live coaches teach in a variety of ways. Many of them will take a look at your database (if you play online), go through your hand histories and consult with you about ways to improve your game. Coaches specializing in live poker might meet up with you in Las Vegas, play a few sessions with you at the same table and evaluate your game from there.
Depending on your goals, you can certainly find live coaching tailored to your needs, whether it’s online poker, tournaments, or live cash games.
Getting accepted into a poker stable will get you the financial backing to play at higher stakes than your personal bankroll might allow.
With big money on the line for your backers, many poker stables will also provide coaching from world-class players. This approach comes in an effort to give their players as much of an edge as possible.
From a poker training standpoint, joining a stable gives you access to a wealth of poker knowledge. You’ll often have the opportunity to learn from the network of other players in the stable and the backers themselves. You’ll also receive coaching from world-class players that the backers bring in to educate the “horses” in the stable.
The financial backers are making a big investment in the stable. You can guarantee that they take their investment seriously and will provide whatever training is needed to keep the players at the top of their game. From this perspective, being part of a stable could get you access to poker training from high-stakes pros that are either financially backing you, or being paid by your backers as a coaching specialist.
This is certainly one way to go on the path to poker knowledge and jumping into the high-stakes world is something every player dreams of. This path is not without drawbacks, however. Getting into makeup, for example, makes you little more than a slave to the table.
Getting deep into makeup can feel like a hole from which you’ll never escape
Mikka Anttonen outlines the pros and cons of playing as part of a poker stable in this article. Check it out for an excellent, thorough breakdown of life as a horse in a high-stakes stable.
The most cost-effective, stress-free option for training is joining a poker training site. Getting an Upswing Poker course, for example, gives you access to the tactics and strategies used by world-class players.
If improving your skills with a poker training course appeals to you, click here or on the banner below to take our Which Course is Made for You? personality quiz.
The Upswing Lab training course is perhaps the best poker coaching option for most players, giving you the most value for your money. You pay a monthly/yearly subscription fee and get full access to the Lab’s vast amount of training resources and hundreds of hours of content.
For the sheer amount of training material you get for your money, there’s no better value training than what Upswing Poker has to offer.
If you want to learn for free, check out the Upswing Poker blog or other poker blogs for free articles. Or, you may be interested in one of Upswing’s free poker resources.
If you’re serious about improving your poker skills and results, one of the above methods is your best poker coaching option.
One final piece of advice: if you’re just getting started, make sure you leverage the free poker content on Twitch, YouTube, and sites like this one. Grabbing our free preflop charts below is a great first step.
Take care and good luck at the tables!
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