How to Coach Poker Student
Posted by Chris Bowling
Posted by
Chris Bowling
posted in
High Stakes
How to Coach Poker Student
Hi guys,
Been streaming a lot on twitch lately and had someone that is interested in buying an hour of my time and for me to coach them. Because I normally 4-table 5/10, I'm looking to charge around $300.00 for the hour. I told him I would do it only if I could figure out how to give him the most effective coaching experience possible. For a student that normally plays on Ignition and has hand histories stored in HM2, what is the most effective way to coach this student?
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For $300 an hour you should have a good plan for this:
I agree. Coaching fees should be based on the value you're offering to your student, and nothing else.
I totally agree. That is why I'm trying to seek out advice on giving the best coaching experience possible. I do have thoughts, but wanted to get you guy's opinions. Something I was thinking about is that I could go through a bunch of hands in the students' database where he lost the pot and point out any areas that he should have played different. I can then be able to see losing trends. Also, checked out hands where he's defending the BB. Usually that is a common spot that could use improvement and perhaps he's not defending enough.
You should give him a reduced rate for the first one or two to get the feeling for it — say $100. You could also go pro bono to build your coaching skills if it was something you wanted to do more often, but everyone is out to make money I guess. That would be a good chance to see if you are good at it, if you are articulate with your thoughts and feel like you can provide the student with good value.
Makes sense. I like this
throw em a bone
btw
♥ wut your doing on twitch!!!
Good stuff!!!
Good way to do it. I've done sporadic coaching throughout my career, and I always gave the first lesson for free so that there would be no misunderstandings about my approach and what I expected my students to do. If they were pleased, they would sign up (they all did).
I used a strict pay-in-advance-with-no-refunds policy from that point on (I usually sold blocks of 5h at a time). I only had one student quitting in the middle of a package and asking for money back for the hours he didn't take.
That was due to his personal finance issues and had nothing to do with me or the quality of my coaching, so I stuck with the deal terms (but told him he could come back for the rest of the package at any time in the future). I don't allow people to waste my time, and I was always crystal clear about payment terms, so there was no ill feelings over that.
Pro bono for the first student is a good idea imo, if there is plans to take on more people later. Then you can see the time invested in #1 as a startup investment to gain experience and feedback. It pays off later, because much of the the material you make for #1 can be reused for future students.
If you do pro bono for the first student, I would suggest creating a feedback form(s) that he fills out in exchange for the lessons. It doesn't have to be crazy long or anything, just a way to make it more likely that you get detailed, thoughtful feedback.
Also a big question should be what stakes does he play, anything under mid stakes you should tell him to find a training site, study group, cheaper coaching etc etc. Alot of people look for the magic pill in coaching, and it just isnt there.
I've never received formal coaching or coached someone else formally.
I think constantly questioning their plan is reasonable in order to get them to respond w an appropriate heuristic. developing a practical understanding of position in terms of designing ranges on future streets. cb too much oop? how do they construct their turn betting ranges? what sizes are they using? should they consider going MUCH bigger ott and otr? what are they 2barreling? 3 barreling for value on different runouts? bluff combos on different runouts? checking back ott to defend otr?
get them thinking about designing their ranges on future streets. figuring out how frequencies might affect strategy on future streets. adopting a style that focuses on exploiting weaknesses they might identify. my 2 cents.
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