Hi everyone

I´m curious what you think about studying from training sites and/or courses, and how far you think it is possible to take your game without any personal coaching? And how much more effective would you say coaching is in terms of time and money spent learning?

I´m a decent 50nl player and I feel like I could keep going pretty far on my own with some good study material and time invested, but having someone look at specifically my game would of course be extremely effective. I only have so much of my current bankroll to spend on this so I´m interested in what your experience is and what type of training you would prioritize in my shoes

If you think you can do a lot of improvement on your own, then you might as well continue to do that. A coach and additional resources are going to be better for you when your game starts to plateau and you aren't sure what to do OR if you simply value improving at a faster rate and the cost associated with that is not significant to you.

I would say it depends on the person and the learning capabilities. If you are able to study the game on your own and don't require extra motivation/pushing from a coach then you can try to do it using the training sides, books, etc. Which is also much cheaper option.

But if it's difficult for you to get the motivation to study your game on regular basis, then coaching would be a better option.

So many variables(good coach? good training site? student good at self study? student has strong mental game? student already knows how to work with solvers?.....) it is impossible to say.

Are you beating 50nl now over a decent sample? How much time do you have to devote to poker play/study? Do you have and follow quality preflop ranges?

Thanks for your input!

My sample at 50nl isnt big enough yet, but I´ve beaten 25nl for a very good winrate over a decent sample and I see many of the same leaks and types of fish är 50. Mabye 3-4 BB/100? I really dont know. I study almost every day and I have good charts that I follow pretty closely.
I dont own a solver but am planning to get GTO+, and I feel pretty comfortable with how they work and, at least to some degree, how to interpret the output. I dont know any specific coach so would have to find one.

I guess I´m wondering weather or not it is worth the more expensive option (coaching) even if I think I could potentially move up one more stake on my own. It would be faster and possibly better in terms of improvement, so my question is to players with experience with different training options

For a good student who has GTO+ and membership at a good training site, I think you can learn a lot. Now that solvers are so cheap and common I think the quality of training content has gone a lot.

I still think a good coach could help speed up the process but I can't really say by how much. I do know some students just go so deep down into solverrland they can get a little lost, and have really benefitted from having a some feedback and a framework for exploring the game.

Solvers are highly useful tools for establishing balanced approaches which will serve you well against tough opponents as you move up the stakes. Exploitative play is the tendency to deviate from balanced strategies in order to exploit weaknesses in your opponents' play, which is particularly essential against bad opponents. If you're playing lowstakes, you will need far more understanding of exploitative play than you will balanced play, as your player pool will be full of players making large errors in their own game. Playing balanced against these guys will lose you edge, and might even lose you $.

For example, your opponent is a hugely passive calling station who doesn't have a fold button. If you proceed to bluff this guy with a normal GTO-type balanced frequency of bluffs for value in a given spot, you will get called too often and lose your shirt (but not, if you have good mindset, your **** :P)

A good simple exploit vs. the above player (as a general strat) would be to rarely bluff and only when there's an obvious scare card or some other golden opportunity, and generally to play thinner for value (more marginal value bets), larger sizings for value and take pot control / showdown lines more often with very weak showdown holdings as they will v rarely bluff you when they have Q high etc. and they'll let you get to showdown. Time to print $.

This is one simple illustration of my point above. Many of my midstakes students for example spend all their time studying highstakes sickos who need really good comprehension and application of GTO, and applying it against the wrong villains. Even more so with lowstakes guys. Even in mid to higher stakes, GTO and exploitative play aren't contradictions, they go hand in hand. One is how to play balanced and be protected against exploitation, the other is how far we should (and can) deviate from these balanced lines for specific reasons vs. specific villains without running into trouble.

This is one of many things which a coach can help you get straight in short order, if they're good at what they do.

#endrant

hmu for coaching