Copyright © 2009 PokerTraining.org
Getting coached
About the personal poker coaching
We get a lot of questions about the important things someone has to consider when getting coached during our Pokertraining.org program. Let me give you some advice and certain things you have to consider.
1) Be ready to be coached!
Make sure that your hard- and software is working, your internet connection is running or that you´re in a mood for Poker and ready to play. Ensure that nothing disturbs you and that you´re able to interact with your coach as this is your chance to get a lot of kinks being worked out of your game.
2) Be prepared to be coached!
That might sound silly but do yourself a favor and check at least some of our basic poker articles before playing. This is not school where you don´t have to care about preparing a session. The more your coach has to work with you on the basics of Poker the less time does he have to give you some advanced advice.
3) Don´t be intimidated!
A lot of players told me that they were nervous because someone else was looking over their shoulder while assessing their game. Don´t worry about that! Your coach is not working against you, he´s in your corner with the clear goal of improving your game. If you´re playing in a regular ring-game, you´ll find 8 or 9 opponents assessing your game and let me tell you, they´re not as friendly as we are. Just be yourself and play like you would usually do. That leads us directly to the next aspect…
4) Don´t switch your style up for the coaching session!
If you have a tendency to do certain moves, don´t try to hide them because you think your coach won´t approve of them. If those actions don´t help your game, they have to be worked out of it. Your coach can´t help you with stuff he can´t see if you simply change your behavior for one session and fall back into certain patterns once your coach isn´t around anymore.
5) Don´t do anything crazy!
There´s no need to impress your coach especially not with weird and dangerous moves that don´t make any sense.
6) Don´t be afraid to make mistakes!
The river brought up the third suited card on the board and your only opponent, whom you unsuccessfully tried to squeeze out of the pot before, starts to bet. Usually you would be suspicious; however you caught the same guy bluffing in similar scenarios before and now you believe that you still might be ahead. Again, don´t be afraid to make mistakes, don´t be afraid to look stupid in case the other player got you beat in such a situation. Your coach monitors the table just like you do and as long as there´s a reasoning behind your moves, none of them look silly, regardless of the outcome.
7) Listen to your coach!
You have to willingly embrace every recommendation your coach is giving you. Only if you´re open minded and willing to alter some patterns you have the chance of improving your game and turning into a winning player. If that means you have to break with some habits, so be it.
8) Don´t take anything personal!
That´s the final aspect and perhaps one of the most important ones. Anything your coach says or recommends has nothing to do with yourself but with the way you´re playing. We´re on your side. We´re here to help you, to improve your game so that you can become a better player. So if your coach negatively comments (“bad call”, “stop making those moves”, “be more aggressive”, etc) on some of your actions, don´t take it personal. There´s no need to feel bad about yourself or even apologize for your actions. However, you have to make sure you listen to the reasoning behind those comments, accept them and try to avoid similar mistakes in the future. Think about it, every mistake detected will be a mistake you´re less likely to commit in the future.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you can see, getting coached isn´t anything that causes many troubles for you but will help you tremendously in the long run. When other sites only dish out advice and leave it up to you how to figure things out, especially when it comes to implementing knowledge into practical actions, we will help, support and accompany you during the stages of our program.
Back to top