Hello,

I've got a free one hour coaching session soon (I still need pick a date) and I wonder what can I expect from it?

How to prepare for it, what are your general advices.

What are your experiences from first coaching sessions?

I can't say I've ever used one, and would never consider using one in 2022, but from your end the first thing I'd recommend doing is to do a proper self appraisal of where you think your game is at, and what you think your biggest weaknesses and leaks are, basically in order to not waste coaching time trying to work over some of the simple stuff

Thanks for the reply.
Why wouldn't you ever consider using coaching in 2022?

As I don't believe it would ever offer a return on investment comparing the current state of the game to the prices many coaches are quoting.

Definitely disagree with this. Coaching (and other poker training content) is the kind of stuff that pays itself off over time. Not to say everyone should be chomping at the bit to join a cfp or spending thousands on poker, but for a struggling player even a few hours of attention from a solid winning coach can go a long way. It's a bit harder now but plenty of people went from beginner-level to winning at online 200 and 500nl over covid and those games are considered tough in the grand scheme of things, so rapid progress and becoming profitable at decent stakes is still very possible in modern day.

Of course I wouldn't recommend spending hundreds of dollars an hour on coaching as a low-level player (unless very wealthy), but there are plenty of good coaches that charge <$100 hourly.

One thing I would do is have this discussion with the coach. Any individual coach will want or expect some different things headed into a session. It's worth having a 5 minute conversation about what to prepare and expect. If there's nothing in particular, I might come with a few problem spots (maybe marked hands?) and questions prepared.

The other thing I would say is don't be shy asking questions of your coach. A good poker coach will be able to simply explain a lot of important poker concepts and should be able to justify the strategy they recommend with poker theory, exploitative reasoning, database analysis, or so on. If you don't understand something or you disagree, ask about it until you better understand.

Some coaches have different styles, but I would also recommend diving into your thought processes while discussing hands and concepts - there are a lot of relatively common poker beliefs that are simply wrong, and it's likely you have at least a couple of those things in your poker thinking. Sharing your thought processes (a little, no need to go into absurd detail in every spot) can help the coach figure out where things may be going wrong and can uncover fundamental leaks in your game.

Hope this helps. I have prolly been involved with 200+ hours of coaching (mainly group, some individual) as both a student and coach and this is some stuff I've found to be useful in that time. With that said though, every coach is different and I would also recommend having a quick conversation with them about it rather than asking us as a third party.

one hour isnt going to give you enough time to get good.

start reading,

What is the strength of the coach? Use his strength to absorb most of the knowledge. If you have big problems in Poker, ask him how he would play these spots.

It is a broad answer since we do not know you and we do not know the coach. I am sure you will find the right questions for him.

I have never paid for direct 1 on 1 coaching. I've tried subscription coaching to videos (For example $99 a month) it's definitely an eye opener. It's like a lightbulb moment happens and you start realizing why poker theory is important. Watching high level pros utilize solvers and explain why hero does A & B and then if villain played the hand correctly in response makes a lot of sense. Then you practice it in an actual game over time to see the results. The more you get into the solver world, the less obvious your cards/hand strength becomes. I

There's always going to be places for exploitative play as well to maximize value versus weaker players though.

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I went off topic, but a hour will go by quick for a one on one session. Database review? Going over poker concepts? What game we talking No limit Hold'em? Microstakes?