16 Feb 2024 mental game moving up stakes studying fish A-game distance In the modern poker world, professional development is no less important than in any other field. Players use all possible methods to improve their skills and stay ahead of the competition. In addition to information resources and strategy books, one of the ways to learn how to play poker quickly is poker training. And here you have different options: poker courses, poker school / classes or poker coach. For example, a coach is a person in whose hands you can turn from a weak player (fish) into a shark. They will help you to understand the game better, which hides many nuances, breaks down every action, and makes efforts to improve your skill. A qualified specialist can even cure poker phobias, such as fear of the flop or higher limits. At the same time, it is important to find a common ground with your teacher and clearly calculate all the stages of working on the game. Otherwise, nothing will work. In this issue we’ll consider all the subtleties of online poker training. Reasons why poker training is a must Unlike most gambling games, online poker requires a special approach. To learn how to play it, you can start with a free option: general rules for beginners from free poker training sites, videos on YouTube and streaming platforms, specialized literature, etc. However, if a person has the financial ability to learn the game basics faster and more effectively, it is worth resorting to the help of poker courses — individually or in a group. Yes, it is often not cheap, but starting a poker career under the care of professionals will definitely pay off in the distance. Why? Let’s find out quickly! At a certain point, self-study can get out of the clear direction of the plan made by the player and spill over a mass of books and articles with bookmarks. That can be too much information, which will just overwhelm students. A newcomer can pass hundreds of instructional videos, math formulas, study the opponent's tells, and end up gaining absolutely no useful knowledge. What is this for? For a good scenario you’ll need an experienced person or a group of people who will organize the studying process and finally lead to the positive results. The role of a poker school can be equated to the role of teachers in university. For example, a student can take his skis and go to the park, but will he ski well after a few walks or will he leave the debris of his skis in a snowdrift after running face first down the slope a few times? If a beginner loses bankroll after bankroll, he urgently needs a mentor, who will help with training and improving of the skills. It’s never too late. Coaches will not allow their student to participate in questionable hands with marginal cards and will return from the irrelevant limit to the appropriate field with players who can be beaten with a certain level of skill. Another apparent advantage of coaching is that the student will be helped to clean up mistakes to the point where they become habitual. Every mentor has a certain algorithm of actions. This is an incredibly valuable thing that is worth paying for. After tens of thousands of playing hours a student will acquire individual features and skills, but it is more profitable to get the right basis as early as possible from an especially trained person. Beginners rarely spend time on training because they’ve got the main job. It is more correct to spend a few hours a week for lessons with a professional trainer. In this case, it is less likely that a beginner will quit playing poker. Work on mistakes Only he who does nothing makes no mistakes. Losses happen even to online high rollers and live cash masters. Some can identify leaks and others do not see them. These kinds of flaws are similar to the body ailments, which can be diagnosed by yourself — but is it correct? If you self-medicate, you can bring yourself to the coffin. Similarly with poker game: if you treat it incorrectly, you can finally fail to realize yourself and "die" as a poker player. As soon as you feel that such actions do not help and the situation with the game does not improve, call a specialist immediately. Best poker trainer or classes, where the players constantly getting some knowledge, will fix most typical mistakes — without extra information. Individual poker classes A personal coach is usually hired when a player cannot make himself work on his own, or has a desire to learn a new subject. Those players who have decided to become professionals and play the game for a living, hire experienced mentors who have positive feedbacks in the poker community. A poker teacher costs more, but will also give much more. Top mentors work with each student separately, developing a special program for a particular player, usually bringing the student to the necessary limit and achieving a quality profitable game. And coaching pays off more than enough. If a player has no money for personal training, when he, for example, invested more money for the future cash game session or tournament, then he can try group training in paid-for poker classes. Quite often there is a situation in which a poker pro reaches a certain level / limit and can't move on. This is quite a common problem for players who expected to achieve more. A person may rush to play aggressively and riskily, lose a lot of pots, fall into a tilt, and, as a result, lower their bankroll. It’s better to just hire individual coaching for a few lessons — it costs cheaper and without damage for a bankroll. It is also possible to apply for separate classes. For example, if you need to change the type of poker game — it can be a special course on cash games or multi-table tournaments. On No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Stud, Quiz, etc. There is always a choice to be, so don’t worry! What if after the poker course the game still doesn't work? There is no point in talking about the importance of learning poker combinations, theory, interactive sessions with a coach or in a group, watching training videos and practicing the knowledge in real life. All players who want to become professionals understand this very well. But why does it often happen that a player is trained according to the rules, but "the game does not bring results"? The thing is that in poker the such rote learning will not work — you need to study deeper, clearly understanding each step, and do not go further until you know this and many other poker lessons. A poker player doesn't need good marks in his diary for memorized strategies and other points — he needs direct results. Theory, practice and analysis are the main components of effective training. It is necessary to master the ability to identify the leaks and gaps in the game, and to extract the necessary knowledge, to adjust the learning process to the actual needs. It’s a crime to separate theory and practice. Only from the combination of knowledge and skills is a single whole that helps to quickly make the right decisions without going through the whole logical chain over and over again. Many beginners think that by reading one recommended poker book or passing a 2-hour poker course on a chosen topic, they have already learned a lot. But of course they did not. If you put them at a cash table right now. Especially online where the game is faster than live, they will float and not remember the outs and odds. In poker, the difference between a practice with play chips or a real money game is highly noticeable. And it's almost impossible to become a good player by practicing only (without learning theory and gaining new knowledge). The best option is next: knowledge + practice + constant analysis of mistakes. Practice makes perfect After the theoretical lesson and the subsequent practical game session, taking statistical data, you need to connect the third component of efficient training — analysis, which was mentioned above. Only with its help can you understand things you did correctly, and where you made mistakes. And the detailed analysis is mandatory both in case of losing and winning. Dispersion cannot be excluded from the calculations — you can come out with a good profit, having made a lot of mistakes, and you can suddenly go lower. Even with a perfect game. There are many cases where super successful players made mistakes. If you neglect to analyze, you will lose control of your learning. Conclusion: effective game training is possible only in a combination of theoretical knowledge, fixing them in practice and the subsequent mandatory analysis of hands. Such training in a complex will definitely bring you strong and sure results. The importance of advanced poker training In fact, training is necessary for that category of people who are not ready to spend months playing the game waiting for professional growth. With group poker class or individually, results can be seen within the first week of intensive work. What is important here is that the player himself is not so stupid that he does not observe all the little things that are required of him. A small deviation can lead to the exact opposite of the expected result. How a poker player behaves at the table determines his ultimate success. Psychologically weak people never become winners. They can become the best version of themselves at a short distance. But even with serious luck they will never win the competition (poker tournament), which involves at least a couple or three hundred competitors. Luck alone will not get you far, so learning to play poker requires a lot of effort. A great poker coach makes sure to study you before he starts working with you. He focuses not only on what cards you need to play with, but also on what strategies and tactics to choose, including behavioral ones. He helps you find a comfortable mode of play depending on your character, or even influences it yourself. And this is just the tip of the iceberg — it is better to use your own example and seek the services of the world's leading poker strategy community online. FAQ Where can I find a poker coach? You can search for them on poker forums or thematic resources. Be sure to read reviews about the coach's work and immediately ask questions about the organization of the learning process. Also we recommend you to visit our best poker training website and get some knowledge absolutely for free. What is better, individual or group training? During personalized lessons, the coach's attention is focused on you, while in a group, it's necessary to devote time to all the trainees. However, group training allows you to see the mistakes of others, there is live or online communication with fellow players, and this is the exchange of new information, which also helps to improve the level of skills. Is coaching for everyone? No. Sometimes it's better to go the way to success on your own or not to spend time on poker at all, if there are only failures and there is no inclination to practice. However, if a player is really determined to make poker for a living, like millions of pros around the world, he should seek the services of professionals, for example Getcoach platform. This is the only correct and well-considered decision, which is guaranteed to take the game to the next level and bring steady profits in the near future.