A little about me... your typical poker boom kid inspired by Chris Moneymaker's shocking upset in 2003, took me until 2008 to finally make it as pro in fixed limit holdem, became a FLHE mid-high crusher from 2009-2015, and have been fading badly since then. Polite society's solution? Get a real job, you bum! My solution? Let's switch over to NL in my 40s in an environment filled of brilliant, passionate 20-somethings who have a massive head start on me. The result? My silly ass got stuck at 50 Zone on Bonition despite watching lots of coaching videos, posting regularly on the forums, getting addicted to GTOWizard, doing a lot of database work, etc.
In late 2022, I finally decided it was time to move up and show those 200 Zone regs what this old man can do, right? Well, the results were less than spectacular:
Yes, sample size yada yada... but I do feel like I have a good sense of when I am getting my ass kicked by the better regs. And I was getting my ass kicked by the better regs. And the worst part? I had no clue what to do about it.
I then decided it would be really cool to spend over 6 months moving back down to 50 Zone and playing on a semi-depressed weak-tight auto-pilot while barely studying at all. These numbers probably look fine to most of you, but they certainly don't indicate that I am on my way to crushing 500 Zone or 1k-2k NL regular tables:
It took me half of 2023, but fortunately I finally decided to pull my dick out from between my legs and do something about my inadequate NL results. I had never tried coaching in my whole life, but I had been keeping an eye on Brokenstars. I was a fan of his Twitch stream back in the day, so I knew he was an excellent player. He had always been a great contributor on 2p2, so I knew he loved teaching. And his rates looked like amazing value compared to most of my other options.
Brokenstars suggested that we start with a database review where he immediately noticed some of the most common leaks that poker coaches encounter... a tanking red line, horrible WWSF, folding too much, not bluffing enough, etc. Brokenstars broke down exactly which spots I should focus on the hardest in great detail and why he thought that the new playing style he suggested would boost my winrate significantly.
Teaser: If you have a tanking red line, it is likely due to poor fundamentals that are relatively easy to fix.
Brokenstars warned me that my results might actually decline for awhile as I got used to the new playing style that he suggested. He was right... I went from playing way too weak-tight to borderline maniacal for the first 10-15k hands. Growing pains:
Nothing impressive, right? Wrong. I could tell that I was playing a lot better and my graph was trending upwards. So I decided to give 200 Zone another shot:
These sample sizes are all weak, but here is the thing... I no longer fear 200 Zone regs. I feel like I can go toe-to-toe with even the best of them in every pot by applying what I learned from my lessons with Brokenstars. For the first time since switching to NL, I can visualize myself crushing 200 Zone. I can visualize myself making it to 500 Zone and being a solid winner. 1k-2k NL regular tables seem like a real possibility if I fully apply myself.
I have taken 7 lessons from Brokenstars so far, and have another one scheduled for this weekend. I highly recommend Brokenstars for:
1) His target audience of serious 5nl-200nl grinders who want to move up more quickly.
2) More casual players who just want to have more fun and make their poker money last a little longer.
3) Talented players crossing over from other games such as myself.
Even if you can only afford one lesson, his database review is such amazing value that I think it can easily propel a talented 5nl player to 25-50nl within a few months if they are willing to listen and put in the required work. His PIOsolver lesson was also top notch... I went from not knowing what I was looking at to being quite proficient with PIO in just one lesson.
Brokenstars gets an A+ from me in knowledge, teaching skills, and people skills (the last one being especially hard to find in this world full of introverted geeks like me). I believe someone described Brokenstars as that guy who never shows up to class and aces the test anyway. I strongly disagree. I would describe him as the straight A student who never misses class, never misses his professor's office hours, and always has time to help his classmates out when they are struggling. Brokenstars is always super generous with his time in and out of coaching sessions, always backs up his points with facts, and most importantly he is not afraid to say the magic words that define highly intelligent, trustworthy people:
"I don't know"
And when he doesn't know, he often becomes hellbent on finding the answer. He just loves poker and teaching that much!
Incredible value, amazing coach, and a super friendly straight shooter who always holds himself to the highest standards. Highly recommended!
P.S. - And since some of you are probably wondering, my red line went from -14 BB/100 (awful) to -3 B/100 (totally fine). And my WWSF went from 44 (awful) to 51 (possibly on the high side, but much better than 44 lol... and way more fun!)