Re: Coaching WARNING
I responded in the General Holdem thread a few times, but I'll repeat it here for people who didn't see that thread. I coached Snowbank briefly and spoke with him several times. He seems like a good guy, he's definitely a winning player, I know nothing of his coaching quality or style. I am surprised that he would not refund the unused lessons. As other people have mentioned, it is very standard practice to refund an unused portion of a pre-paid service. And if the refund was being requested because the student found my coaching to be bad, then I personally would offer to refund the entire amount, even for the two hours of coaching I received. I value my reputation and living up to my personal standards for excellence well above any amount of money I could make from coaching.
However, I also can understand Snowbank's perspective here. If we give him the benefit of the doubt, he had several students to choose from. He chose this one student based primarily on the fact that he was willing to pay for 5 sessions upfront. Snowbank has to turn away his other students who go and get coaching elsewhere. Then this student wants to refund over half of his money. Snowbank now has no other students to coach and will be giving up the main reason for why he took this student in the first place. I could see how he would be reluctant to do that.
Not to just shill for my friends, but I think this is a decent example of why it may be worthwhile to go with coaching from a place like 3-bet, cardrunners, stoxpoker, or some other more established place. They will be more organized, will have an established reputation, will have clearer rules of business, and in the event that your coach is unavailable for a week or two they can probably get you a well-qualified substitute on a temporary basis. Not that freelance guys are bad, but coaching is a large investment, and you need to take steps to make sure you're well-informed and protected.
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