I was playing in a 2/5 NL cash game today, and met a good player who says he does coaching for $75-$100 per hour. He often plays 5/10 or higher but just happened to be hanging out there. I looked him up, and he finished top 5% in WSOP main event last year.

I am not an expert player yet, and he believes he could significantly improve my win rate. Should I go ahead and pay a bunch of money to this random guy that I met in hopes that it will improve my win rate? I don't really know for sure if the coaching would be helpful. Should I just trust him?

You're talking about live games?

Are you currently profitable at 2/5?

I would not put any weight at all into one single MTT finish, it is not a meaningful piece of data. If he has a historically profitable sample size in MTTs (not an easy thing to find since so few sites take into account buyins when they show MTT winnings), then you at least know he can help in MTTs.

But cash games are a bit different, even live FR.

I would find out who he has coached before. At $75-100, that's below what most good 5-10 coaches are going to charge, but it could be a complete waste of money if the person hasn't taught before.

Ideally you want an active winning player that can at least convey what makes them successful to you. Better is a fact-based coach, someone that can tell you why certain strategies work, rather than just having you copy what happens to work for now.

Yes, this is cash games. He mainly just plays tournaments during WSOP in June.

I am currently slightly profitable in 2/5, but I know I could do much better.

He says that he has coached many people before, and while he could probably make at least as much or more playing, he enjoys coaching, and it is his way of "giving back to the game."

He also claimed that his win rate in 5/10 is 10 BB/hour, including play from several years ago when the games were easier.