Search for a mentor

[CheapFlop]

I was curious - how does a person go about finding a mentor?

I realize that often it is a case of meeting someone in the course of playing, whether that's at a B&M casino or online at the tables. But are there other ways to align oneself with a more expert player to learn? Do you have to pay such a person?

[tufat23]

imo there's a few ways.

best is via a website. I would suggest a specific mentor isn't neccessarily necessary since they cost a lot. read some books and check out a site like cardrunners.com or pokerfox.com where you can watch videos of the expert players. Also at pokerfox.com you can request lessons. I had one for 6hrs at $250, but i think $300 is standard now.

[CybrPunk]

Let me ask you this... why do you feel that you need a mentor?

What I often tell people that approach me about mentoring is this... when it comes to the basics like starting hand selections, pot odds and learning how various hands matchup on each street there are people who have already written books that explain these subjects much better than I could dream of. Their books are gold for newer players because of the wealth of information out there.

Once you've learned the basics you're ready to start discussing strategies and various decision points. You start to discuss situations and how to apply the different aspects of poker to them. I have found, in my own experience, that discussing those strategies here on TwoPlusTwo has helped me tremendously.

During the course of my time here I've also become friendly with a lot of players away from the forums. My AIM list probably has about 50 regular posters from these forums who I discuss strategies with as well.

It's my opinion that these activities combined will make you a better poker player, even moreso that finding a single mentor who you can learn from. I really think there's an advantage to having so many different players who all have their own unique style to discuss these things with.

[tminus]

7-11. did you know you can put them in Coke to make pretty fountains?

[theben]

books to learn the basics

playing experience and posting badly botched hands so we can flame you [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] to learn how to play poker

thats much better and cheaper than a mentor