Hi Guys,

New here to 2+2, and relatively new to the game of poker, or at least studying the game at all. I'm in my mid 20's and live in Los Angeles. I'vee played poker since my late teens but have basically stayed at the same knowledge of strategy and the game the entire time(basic understanding of rules).

I'm about to take a couple months of hiatus from work and was thinking about diving deep in and working on my poker game. I'm located relatively close to multiple casinos in the greater Los Angeles area and have a relatively good amount of money I can set aside in order to bankroll my education. Wanted to get some words of advice on how I should start out on this journey to not suck at poker. What books and courses I should check out, as well as what coaches I should reach out to here on 2 + 2. I'm sure I should probably spend a few weeks or months on studying books and courses before thinking about seeking some coaching help but wanted to get some advice and avoid creating bad habbits.
Thanks!

Hi mate.
In my opinion, the most important thing is to decide what will be your approach to poker in the next 2 to 5 years. Do you want to become a pro or just to play part time and for fun? Your expectations should be in line with the amount of effort (and money) you are willing to invest.
After that you have to decide which poker format is the one you want to specialise (live or online, nlh or plo, cash, spins, mtts, sngs, etc). You should become extremely good in one format if you are interested in making some serious money from poker. After that you can start mixing your knowledge with other types of poker.
In my case, the learning curve (after the first years when I was playing just for fun) started from some books, then I decided that I am interested in specialising in spins, so I bought some video packages specifically for this format (and HU sng which is extremely relevant) and after that I did some coaching sessions.
If your chosen format is spin n go poker I could share with you more details. Let me know if you are interested. Good luck!
Cheers

My advice is to start with online cash games, you can always go from cash games to other formats like MTTs but switching from MTTs to cash is much harder. Also learning online is much, much quicker than learning live. First start with play money until you feel like confident there, then go to nl2 zoom on pokerstars (other sites are easier but will not teach you as quickly). Find the sticky in the micro stakes strat forum with all the old strat threads and go through those, at least the most relevant/interesting. Then find blackrain on youtube/his blog and go through those as well, definitely his older stuff as well. With practise you can beat nl10, then you will be ready to crush live (I'm guessing that's your goal). Let me know if you are looking for coaching or courses on how to beat microstakes from nl2 to nl50 and I can give you my skype.

starting on play money is a bad idea. won't teach you anything about real poker play.