Poker Resources

Outside of forums which are free and widely used, the three main paid external resources to improve one’s game are coaching, training sites, and books. Each has advantages and disadvantages in terms of efficiency, reliability in terms of a high probability of being helpful, and cost.

Coaching is generally the most expensive resource to improve ones game. It is highly personalized, tailored to ones own game and needs, and with the right coach, one can move up very quickly as it is the fastest way to plug leaks. Coaching methods take several forms, including live sweats, video reviews, hand history reviews, and theory discussions. Generally, video reviews and hand history reviews are the most helpful forms, as they give time to discuss specific leaks instead of glossing over them. The main downside of coaching is that it is expensive, with top coaches sometimes charging hundreds of dollars an hour. Further, there have been cases of coaches falsifying their qualifications, and such a coach will set you back the coaching fees as well as the cost of mistakes you make due to wrong lines and ideas he teaches.

Training sites, in contrast, have the advantage of being very cheap, generally about $30/month. They have a huge amount of material, sometimes thousands of hours worth across many games and different stakes, and watching all of it one will probably go over most conceivable +EV lines possible in NL Hold’em. However, this is not an efficient use of time, as the quality and usefulness varies. It can actually be difficult to identify which series are worth watching without experience with particular video producers. Further, the lessons aren’t personalized so that one may not have it emphasized that a particular leak needs fixing.

Books can be divided into traditional publishing, and Ebooks. Traditional publishing books are often not geared towards online play, and may be outdated in their lessons and strategies even for live play. For example, Super System was highly relevant for NL Hold’em in its time, but games have adapted so that it is no longer relevant. The Theory of Poker is still relevant, and the concepts are necessary to master, but it is no longer sufficient to master those concepts to beat today’s games.

Ebooks, in contrast, often have highly accomplished online players as authors, writing about the games they play in daily. These same authors are often video producers, but in ebook format the ideas will be presented in a condensed format and stripped down to the important ones, making learning much more efficient. Their downside is that they can be expensive for the amount of material you get relative to training sites, and most of the ideas can be learned by watching training videos, albeit at a slower rate.

Possibly the most knowledgeable people in player development are successful professional stakers, as their livelihood is dependent on the success of their players. What one sees with some of the more successful staking groups is that most offer training site memberships, and some offer coaching and ebooks. In general, staking groups tend to offer extensive coaching for players starting out in a new game, such as 6max players trying heads-up or full-ring players trying 6-max. They also often offer some coaching when players move up in stakes, but may or may not offer coaching in other cases. Thus, it is almost always worth it to get a training site subscription, while coaching and ebooks depend on a players budget and goals.

One of the best poker resources in today's game is the best-selling poker book The Poker Blueprint. Check it out today.