Regret$: Very good advice, particularly for students wandering into cash coaching or newer and less aware players.

For all students (particularly heads up sng students): Just really make sure that you're going to put effort into improving if you decide to spend money on coaching (or any tool/instruction/advice/even free material if it will take up a lot of your time). Unless you're a hobbyist (and they exist and usually know what they want and are honest with their game much more so than any other type of players) you should definitely avoid getting coaching if you're only going to play poker for 5 hours a week.

If somebody disagrees, I'm very interested in specifically why, but generally you see such a drastic difference in the rate of improvement and ultimately the success of players that play say 200 games a month compared to players that play 500 games a month (generally speaking of course, different structures will make those #s variable, but we'll use Stars turbos as an example for the above). It's just so hard to improve if you only put in the minimum amount of playing time, unless of course you're studying your butt off outside of the games (in which case playing the game is almost always going to be more +EV for you in terms of learning faster, better and making money).

I got 2-3 hours for free from someone here in 2+2, god i cant remember hes name, but he wanted me as a guinea pig, so he could start coaching for $$$.

He learnt me alot, he sweated me, and we talked alot on skype, and i noted down some good stuff he told me.

I would definatly advice people to have some coaching, the only problem is that its so expensive.

No, I'm too stubborn for it .
But maybe when I move up and I will feel like I am getting outplayed...

Imo coaching is required to enabling progressing over some blocks.
You need from time to time someone who knows where he talks about:
- to criticize your play so your thoughts about the faccet where you are currently working hard on is indeed now correct / going in the correct direction
- to share his thoughts about your play as fresh thoughts are welcome from time to time to think differently about it
- to highlight major and mediocre leaks so you can focus your learning instead of working on those 80 vids/250 posts/5 books / 30 topics you have still laying around for studying
- to explain / to phrase something out for you as it then suddenly clicks, can give you an AHA moment
- to make you aware of things you even did not knew it existed
- to ground you again as from time to time you are convinced you are applying certain things correctly but you are still way off in reality
- to destroy bad habbits that are so baked into you, you even no longer think about it but you just do them time after time
- ...

have never received coaching o.O. that being said i do think its a good investment, provided you dont go overboard w it

I've only been coached by one person (jungleman) but it made a world of difference and while I was crushing HU back then it took my game to a whole other level. I think coaching is great as long as the coach is very good himself, not only skill wise but also able to motivate you, etc, when you need it.

some coaches are overpriced so you have to shop around a bit... personally I feel like it's a steal in most cases as long as the criteria above is met and the coach charges under his hourly winrate.

This point I tend to disagree with.

Supply and demand often dictates hourly rates, not playing hourly. If a coach makes $200hr and isn't getting coaching interest at $150hr, he has to lower his hourly or discontinue coaching.

On the opposite end, a coach could make $100hr at the tables, but be such a great teacher that the demand for him is great, so a $150hr rate might be reasonable in that case.

The basic concept here is that performance isn't necessarily an indicator of teaching ability. Now obviously if your coach can't beat 100NL, there are some issues, but it has nothing to do with hourly. And I'm not saying to go grab a coach that charges $300hr but only makes $50hr, but I'd focus less on that and more on what the coach teaches, the reviews from real students that have used the coach (and their results in motivated/higher volume cases) and reviews from other coaches.

But to fully play devil's advocate: Would you rather have the $150hr player that charges $125 because it's "near his hourly" or the $100hr player that charges $125 and has incredible reviews and his reasoning for his hourly is "on the direct feedback and demand of the coaching?" I would feel much more comfortable with the reasoning of the latter person.

Another aspect are hot runs. Variance isn't just 300 games, it can be 3000 games (in husng terms). You don't want to directly associate hourly with coaching rates in the most extreme sense, otherwise you'll just be paying a premium to people that are running well, rather than a more reasonable rate to the same skill set people that aren't running so hot. Look at some fairly successful player, take a look at some of their longest "hot" or "cold" streaks. If you know the person, all the better, as you can see for example that their thought process and coaching abilities were likely similar during both stretches. It's the mark of a true poker player, to weather variance and understand that hot and cold is a part of the game. But calculate hourlies for those cold and hot extremes, it would often be unrealistic to expect them to charge so much or so little during 1k+ game stretches if they just adjusted coaching rates for hourly.

Ya those are all good points Ry, thanks. I didn't really think of it that way but you're right. Personally I like to charge below my hourly because if I charged more I'd feel like I am robbing my students, despite good feedback, experience, etc.. I guess it's a preference thing.

I've seen coaches who charge 400/hr and play 5/10.. imo sounds a bit over but I guess supply/demand and value does play a part in it.

How do people generally go about locating coaches?