I definitely am all for calling people out when they are taking advantage of others.

However, you read OP. It's also not a typical situation. Therefore, not all coaches are going to be prepared to handle the situation correctly in regards to giving him overall advice.

Sure, the coaching may be good, but his bankroll for coaching and playing the stakes he insists on playing may be too small and he may be risking busting that bankroll before he sees enough improvements to make money.

Also, the coach could very well have thrown some caution to OP before they started.

And finally, the most common similar situations in these often involve very rich people wanting to start at bigger stakes than a person with less money would want to start at. This is perfectly acceptable if the person is willing to lose money for awhile while they learn. If a guy is making 300k a year at some non poker job, he may want to play 1kNL and be willing to lose five figures until his coach helps him become a winner at that level. I am not saying that is OP's exact situation though.

Anyways, I would just caution any opinion, positive or negative, about the coach while we still have limited information.

Just play PLO instead of NL. There seems to be a plethora of absolute beginners at 2/4 and 3/6 there lol

If I were to make an assumption OP, is that you came into poker with unrealistic expectations. I don't think you realize what it takes to beat 100NL, let alone midstakes. Most of the folks who do have spent years of practice, gaining experience, and sharpening their game at the micros and small stakes.

One thing is a fact: 99.9% you will lose at the midstakes for a long time. If you've got 6 figures sitting in a savings account, have a trust fund, or have a high income job AND are willing to sacrifice tens of thousands of dollars in the learning phase, by all means.

You said you CAN'T keep losing like this. You will continue to lose like this. That is a fact. The question is, do you want your learning investment to be at 400NL or 10NL? This is up to you.

You need to be humble and patient. The number of hours you have spent learning this game is LOL compared to the number of hours you need. And even that is not enough.

Anyway good luck to you.

Coach or no coach, you've been playing for a month, which is about as "beginner" as beginner gets. You wouldn't expect to become a golf professional with only a month of coaching.

Move down one level and play 5000 hands. If you aren't in the green for those 5k hands, move down again. Repeat as needed until eventually you will find a level you are beating or you'll be at 2NL. This will rapidly approximate your skill level via an objective process. Wherever you end up, undeposit all but 40 buyins and then practice rigorous bankroll management with it. Move up when you have 30 buyins for the next higher level and move back down if you fall below 30. No exceptions, no "should", no delusions of granduer. The purpose of this is to put you at the table with players that are comparable skill level to yourself. Any other way of doing this will be subject to ego self-delusions. This is a very common issue with all poker players, I'm not just picking on you.

A coach will have the most benefit trying to explain concepts to you when you are playing against people at your level for a couple reasons. First, they'll be making the same mistakes you are (or comparable ones) and he'll see that in there play and tell you how to exploit it. Second, you will see the impact of your knew knowledge because you'll go from breaking even to winning. That is a powerful reinforcement that you have made an improvement. If you are playing 4 levels above where you should be and he doubles your skill, you are still playing 3 levels above where you should be and you'll still be bleeding money. You'll get no positive reenforcement for the things he's taught you. **IF**, after you find the level where you are breaking even, if you do not see improvement in your results after a batch of sessions, THEN fire your coach and get a new one. If you still don't see results, the problem is you, not the coach.

I'd ask your coach the same question you've asked this forum. In fact, maybe you should post his answer here, or better yet have him post your answer here. My guess is that if he's actually a good coach, there's something he's advising you that you are ignoring. Or maybe he's scamming you. His answer would be very telling. And people here would be able to let you know if the problem is his advice vs you following his advice.

You need to learn fundamentals before you worrying about balancing your range. If you started playing basketball a month ago would you hire Kobe Bryant to teach you how to dunk?

I hope he's not a troll for the very same reasons, as I don't mind seeing egomaniacs go down for the count.

wow. 70K hands in your first month? No way this is true. If so, stop playing so many tables first off.

+EV

Clearly the coach's fault!

A half-way decent coach could take an average person who has never played the game before and turn him into a 6-figure generating winner within a month. [Obviously the average player is making lots of money - hence all the sites filing for bankruptcy because of the negative rake.]

OP is better than average. He's beaten micros over a few hundred hands, is an excellent writer, and shows the patience and dedication needed to become a truly great poker player.





P.S. It's not Monday.