Online poker training sites have exploded over the last few years. What was once a cottage industry featuring a few small sites with a handful of videos has expanded into a highly competitive arena, with dozens of sites battling it out for subscribers. With so many sites to choose from, the process can be overwhelming, especially for newer players. To help simplify things, here’s a simple list of questions you’ll want to ask yourself when comparing training sites:
- Can I afford it? Having a solid bankroll is essential no matter what level of player you are. If you’re a casual player, you probably don’t need as much, but if you want to play between $1/$2 limit and micro stakes, you’re going to need a serious bankroll. Additionally, are your opponents allowing you to use their play money? If they are, how well are they letting you play with their money?
- What games do they offer? Lately, Texas hold’em has seemed to be the most popular poker game online. Most of the best poker training sites offer a wide variety of cash games as well as tournaments. If you’re a tournament player, you should definitely consider using a poker training site to up your game.
- What games do they offer? While the poker training sites offer a wide variety of tournament styles, each site will have a focus on a particular kind of tournament, such as Sit and Go’s, multi-table tournaments, requisites/continuation blinds, and others. Your best poker training site will offer you all of the games you want to play, so you won’t be limited to just cash games.
- What does their site look like? You want to see that the site has a lot of players, a variety of games, a good community, and nice, friendly players. As well, you want to see that the site has a administrators and instructors that know what they’re doing. While it’s nice to have a private instructors, you also want an administration and support team that knows what they’re doing.
- How much do they charge? The costs associated with poker training sites vary largely, so you’ll want to find the best site possible. If you’re unable to find a low-cost poker training site, you can often purchase a several-week membership, which will give you more opportunity to work with a coach, in much the same way as you would with a mentor.
- Are they legitimate? While there are a few online poker training sites that offer great benefits, there are also many that are simply scams. You’ll want to use your common sense and research any potential training site deals that you are considering. Look for websites that offer poker training for a cheap monthly or annual fee, typically this is a sign of a faulty program. If you are paying a fee for poker training from a website, expect to pay a lot of money for a very limited training package. Most of these sites come with a money-back guarantee, this should be enough evidence for you to do further research.
A good poker training site will offer you a sound strategy and a clear path to coaching and playing in pit games and tournaments. You’ll be able to play in low-limit games, after which you’ll be coached to move into higher-stakes games. After several months of weekly training, usually you’ll be moved up to play in higher-stakes games and given a additional month of guided sessions to improve your game.
The Dewapoker training sites can be a useful ally, but don’t just take what you learn and blindly apply it to your own game. Most of the time, if a coach only tells you to play a certain way, he’ll be telling the same thing you’re probably already doing, so you might as well hear what he has to say.