Firstly, this will be a long post. I feel it’s necessary to articulate all of my points.

I recently made the mistake of paying the security deposit to join the CFP program, so you don't have to. The reason I joined CFP was to take my game to the next level. I am currently only beating the micros (2-10NL) on ACR for ~3.8bb/100 adjusted over 185k hands.



Not a great graph, right? You can see why I wanted some coaching. I did feel it was important to post this graph to show that, though I’m not a big winner at the micros, I have at least SOME idea of what I’m doing over a reasonable sample.
My thought was that I could get some great advice, plug some leaks - move up. That wasn't in the cards.

Before I list the reasons why I quit CFP, I will first take responsibility for the security deposit I paid and was not given back. I thought I’d done my due diligence. I felt I’d done enough research to be comfortable paying the security deposit - with the thought that “I’m either going to improve my game, play through my 5000E contract, and the biggest risk to me is a security deposit.” I recognize that it’s my responsibility. I learned a valuable lesson, the hard way. I did raise the following issues with BCP in order to qualify for having my security deposit refunded, using a statement in their FAQ as my basis for it to be returned – “Deep inside you know it is not the right thing to ask for refunds (unless the situation is very special / the content of the product doesn’t fit the description)”. Spoiler, the content of the product doesn’t fit the description.
Here are some the reasons you should not join CFP. I will exclude other BCP programs, as I’ve not actually gone through them, but I have serious doubts:

1) You will be rushed during your initial sessions with your coach, BCP favoring marketing research over substantive content. During my welcome session, which took a full 3 days to take place after signing up for their program, I was given less than the advertised time and was rushed by my “coach”. The substantive nature of the session was virtually zero. I asked what limits my coach was currently playing (50NL, sometimes 100NL though he doesn’t get a lot of action), and when the daily coaching sessions would be. I then spent the next 15 minutes answering where I’d seen advertising for their site, reasons which might have discouraged me from joining, whether I’d seen advertising after joining their program, etc.

2) You will be judged unfairly on your ability based on short samples in order to justify their requirement that you play using a VERY basic set of guidelines, which I will go over shortly. My coach asked me about my recent win rate. My most recent 27k hands I’m running at 1.02bb/adjusted. Anyone who plays any decent volume understands the variance that occurs during a sample of this size.

3) One of the more alarming things you will notice is the advice they advocate for beating the micros, which they call NOBs, is very bad. This program, which might work to plug massive leaks by losing players, is extremely poor advice for modern 6-max games – even the micros on ACR. They will require you to open to 4x UTG with your entire range, give strict guidelines for flatting/3betting ranges (which are awful, restrictive and are completely without nuance), which you must adhere to, to continue in the program. If you flop a pair or better, bet 3/4ths pot. If you improve, bet 3/4ths again. Less than that, bet half pot. Don’t have a hand on the river, bet ½ pot. They justify this by suggesting that a world renowned coach has data on millions of hands that support this. It would take too long to go over all of the reasons the advice they require is bad. You’ll just have to trust me.

4) A main selling point for CFP is the “best rakeback deal” on the internet. What they don’t tell you is that you will generate “rakeback” in the form of points to be used on their site, along with whatever standard rakeback you would normally get through any affiliate program. The only way you’re able to use these points is to pay your balance you owe to BPC. The kicker is that you may only do this for your LAST payment to complete your contract. Not able to complete the program? Can’t use the points. These points are given as an incentive to play under their affiliate program, which they generate money from and any rakeback you generate is counted toward your monthly profit. In theory, a player could breakeven over the entire course and eventually generate enough profit in rakeback to complete their contract. Of course, their skills wouldn’t have improved a bit.

5) The software they use is extremely clunky. Many of the videos for their training sessions do not work, are out of sequence, and are generally Gordon berating players for not doing this or that correctly. They practice tough love, and if you don’t like it – “**** you.” They will even suggest you have a small penis if you whine to them. That is not an exaggeration.

6) If you are an American player, best of luck. The training hours are inflexible and will take place on Berlin time. I don’t know about you, but I work full time. The weekly coaching sessions are at 12:00-1:00pm PDT and 4:00-5:00am Saturday/Sunday. Don’t worry, you get to submit HH’s for review, to which the answer will be: “Follow NOBs. Should have bet 3/4ths pot OTF with top pair.”

7) The coach for the Micro program is a coach who is, by his own admission, only beating 50NL. He went into the “Crusher” program beating 50NL – he’s still only beating 50NL. Does he regard this as a failure of the program? No, it is regarded as a BPC success story, as Gordon has promoted him to BPC Brazil coach. https://www.bestpokercoaching.com/le...d-to-30k-euro/

8) Want better coaching? Be a dedicated 80h per month player and get access to their winners program, until then – Follow NOBs.

So this is just food for thought. You have to make the decision for yourself, but this was my experience. I felt it was bad enough to make this long ass post detailing why. What will follow this will be Gordon or someone else from BPC purporting to refute these claims in some way while berating me, as they have with others in this thread. But the long story short is that BPC will make money off of you whether you win or lose - and that’s their model.

Thanks for posting this. I know 2 other players with similar experience.

Hi, I'm not affiliated with BPC

but i'm always skeptical of these threads.

If BPC is so bad why do they have multiple students that have made $50k+

Could it be that you are just a ******?

Yea, of course. Just wanted to share my experience so that people can have different perspectives when making their decision.

BCP is good if you want to learn the basics of Poker and pay 5k or 50k while you do it.

Noobs and inexperienced players constantly fall in this trap , i know at least 7 or 8
who just arrived to the same conclusion as you did.

They earn money in the deposits and they earn a % of the rake for life!!!
When you open an account even after you leave they get some % of your rake
through an affiliate

I feel its impossible to beat todays games without quality private coaching.

This arises some questions ,

1-How do you know where to get good coaching.

2- Do you have the intelligence to understand its best to pay 100$ hour and get 1000$ in value than to enter deals like CFP where they have package plans
give u less value and the learning curve is much slower ?

The list goes on

i bet gordon is foaming at the fact that you guys are incapable of typing BPC instead of BCP

The lesson here is to assume every thing or every one in the poker world is presumed shady until proven otherwise. You will save yourself a lot of headache.

Lots of shadiness at *any* stake can be found.
CFP is especially guilty of this.

It's the small victories that matter

Yea, that's fair. I certainly did learn the lesson the hard way. And that's ok. Maybe there are good coaching programs out there, but I don't know which ones they are. And people like me will continue to vomit security deposits at BPC for the chance that it will elevate their game.

There are several cfp's with very good players in them. Just search 2+2