What Poker Coaches Get Wrong (And What We’re Doing About It)

Do you ever watch poker training content and find yourself saying things like:

• This sounds great in theory, but players in my games don’t play like this
• I don’t have the time or desire to stare at solvers and charts all-day

If so, this article (based on the words of Upswing coach Uri Peleg) is for you.

Note: Want to master winning poker strategies without confusing solvers or complex math? Check out Uri Peleg’s new course “The Poker Blueprint” here. Get access now.

The Current State of Poker Training

When someone asks me for a recommendation, I sometimes go through the poker training offers on the top poker sites. And very quickly, my eyes go dark and my mind strays. It feels like the training industry today is very math and solver-focused. But poker is a multi-dimensional game.

By focusing on the theory dimension, you often zoom in. What should my bluffs be on this river? Let’s randomize this combination. Let’s look at my blockers.

By doing this, you might miss the big picture. Like this guy is eating an Oreo cookie or this is his lunch money and there is no way he’s hero-calling.

Real poker constantly throws you into situations that don’t match theory. By focusing on theory, you end up not having the correct tools to deal with multiway pots, weird sizes, unique board textures, etc.

If someone does something wrong, you don’t automatically profit. You need to have a deeper understanding of what’s going on.

By making the learning experience longer and heavier, it becomes inaccessible for people who have time and energy limitations. The more you make them study before playing, the more they end up with an energy problem, a motivation problem, and an integration problem.

The Issue With Relying Too Much On Solvers

Computer programs are very black and white. This move is correct; this move is wrong.

In reality, poker is much more fluid. And when you start looking at these charts, some hands are making you 0.01bb or they’re losing you 0.03bb. And at the level of accuracy in which we’re able to play in the real world, these are identical to 0.

So a lot of the focus of poker training is to get you to nail the 0.01% differences rather than aim at much lower-hanging fruits. For example, you’ll watch a video that explains how pot odds work and the way implied odds work. Or maybe it’s a toy game and some math examples.

A lot of poker training focuses on all that rather than just saying things like “generally you can call with open-ended straight draws and flush draws twice while gutshot straight draws mostly fold to the second bet.” This is the way that most of the top players in the world conceptualize it.

And, you know, some guys just do the math in their head as they’re playing. But I can say from experience of working with top players that a lot of them don’t even know what math to do.

What Should You Actually Ask Yourself?

The way computers work and the way poker training approaches things is from a very theoretical standpoint. It sort of assumes everyone is playing perfectly.

Whereas in practice, the question you often want to ask yourself is — considering that nobody is playing perfect — what should I do and what are the reasonable options for me at this point?

A Problem That Needs a Solution

All of these issues with the poker training industry made me come up with a question:

What would be the correct way to offer training where I gave you as little as possible, as condensed as possible, and as overarching as possible in terms of principles? Where I could send you with that to battle and you’d be okay.

What’s the minimum that gives a maximum?

Whenever you look at what a computer is doing, at the basic level, you have each hand in your range and what that hand wants to do. And you add all of those together and you would say: well, if every hand did exactly what it wanted to do, I’d be completely face up.

So I need to throw some deception in there. How do I throw the deception in there? And then the answer is, well, it depends.

What’s your range and what’s the other person’s range? The computer prioritizes things so that they’re organized in the most optimal manner possible against every counter strategy possible.

But really what it’s doing is it’s taking this principle of what every hand is trying to do and it’s putting it together with a big principle of, what does my range look like and what does your range look like? And say I have only one combo that wants to get stacks in, and every other combo wants to play defensively. Maybe that combo should play defensively too.

So you’re going to understand what’s going on beneath the hood of the computer. No charts and no math. Just logic and intuition. And by doing this, you gain several things.

Number one is you can compete against a guy who studied computers and math for a lot of hours. And you can look him in the eye when you’re playing and you kind of know what’s going on. He can’t run circles around you.

Another thing is this makes poker, poker again. By freeing ourselves from all the details and focusing on the principles and getting away from the 0.01%, you leave yourself the room to use your imagination when you play. So suddenly in every situation, it’s not like all the options are on the table. But you have a lot of options on the table and you get to enjoy yourself a lot more when you play. This also just leads to better play in general.

What is Uri’s Poker Blueprint?

The Poker Blueprint was born to address these issues I’ve discussed. I’ve coached many successful players among the best in the world. So all of the hours and time I spent studying and understanding solvers, I’m going to present it to you guys without the solvers and the math.

No charts, no math, no 0.01%. Logic and intuition to focus on what matters. And what this does is it makes poker, poker again. So it leaves you the room to use your imagination and intuition when you play.

It’s a very simple and concise framework where all the moves you’re making are going to be more or less correct. And then you have the freedom to decide which move to use in this situation. The point of this is to get you guys to understand as quickly and efficiently as possible to understand the why.

The Poker Blueprint comes out this upcoming Monday (September 30th). Pre-register here to get a free bonus during launch week!

That’s it for today. If you enjoyed this article, check out the previous parts in Uri’s series:

• Part 1 – Don’t Do This in Poker! Doug Polk vs Mariano High Stakes Analysis
• Part 2 – Elite Poker Coach Uses “Anti-GTO” Strategy
• Part 3 – Doug Polk TRAPS Top Poker Pro in High Stakes Game (Analysis)
• Part 4 – This Poker Hand Gets Crazier and Crazier (Final Table)

Note: Want to discover how to make the right play no matter the hand? Uri Peleg’s brand-new course “The Poker Blueprint” allows you to do just that. Get access now.