The Value In Having a Poker Coach

The Value In Having a Poker Coach
Millions of poker players around the country, indeed, around the world, want to make more money by playing poker. However, the majority of these players are not really giving themselves a fair chance to do so. Do you think a pro golfer players on the PGA tour without a swing coach? Baseball players have hitting instructors, pitching coaches, etc. Boxers have trainers. If you want to improve your poker game quickly and dramatically, one of the best things you can do is hire a poker coach.
Think about it. Would you take any other activity and flounder around throwing money at it without getting some one to show you the basics first? Even if you know the basics and then some (and most poker players think that they do!) it never hurts to have a non-biased third party analyzing your game. This is what a good poker coach will do.
A poker coach will watch you play, probably take notes or put your statistics into a software to find weak points, or what is called 'leaks' in your game. These problems, like a hitch in your golf swing, can be difficult if not impossible to find on your own. You need someone subjectively looking at the plays you make while you are making them.
Jeff Sluman in his nice final table run 2 years ago at the WSOP Main Event hired Phil Hellmuth as well as others to help him work on his game prior to the final table being played. Jeff didn't end up winning but moving up to finish higher in the prize money like he did made his decision to seek out coaching look pretty smart.
It is hard to honestly self-evaluate your poker game. It is easy to blame bad beats, the other (stupid) players, being card dead, etc. This is why you need to spend time with a coach.
The other reason is that many times coaches will have suggestions and changes in strategy that you can make to take your game to the next level. There are plays that you can make in certain situations that you may have not thought of on your own and a coach implementing these changes at the right times can make a huge difference. It can turn a losing day of poker into a profitable one.
The biggest drawback to finding a poker coach is that they tend to be expensive. The reason for this is simple: if they are any good, they can make more money playing poker than they can teaching someone else to play poker! Many coaches charge $250-$300 per hour of coaching. However, there are coaches out there that offer packages to fit the budgets of smaller dollar level players. It takes some looking, but you can find them and you can benefit from their teachings.
A good coach will usually conduct a brief interview of some sort before getting started and before you buy any coaching to determine your goals in playing poker and whether or not that particular coach is well suited to help your particular game. This is important because you don't want a coach who specializes in cash games if your goal is to play in big multi table tournaments.
It is also a good idea to check references of a coach and see what his body of work entails: who has he coached? has he written a book on the subject? what are his coaching methods? All these things are very important in choosing someone to make your poker game profitable.
Overall, poker coaching is probably something everyone who plays poker or who wants to play poker seriously, should have. It requires listening to some hard truths about your game sometimes, but if you want to make money playing poker, isn't it worth it?