An offer of coaching/mentoring

[HighOctane]

I play 10NL and have logged probably 200K hands and can't get to 25NL. It’s really quite embarrassing. I started as a limit player and switched to NL last year. I am committed to learning. I own about 30 poker books, I recently joined Cardrunners and I understand almost all of the poker concepts but my bankroll seems to hover between 150 and 300 on perpetuity.

In trying to have a consistent and coherent strategy, my studies have confused me. There are a lot of varying strategies. For example, Pokey says play loose from button, but Gelford says play ubernit. NLHTAP says usually limp SCs, suited aces and some big cards, but other sources say raise or fold as limping is a weak play for bad players. Many threads on 2+2 treat high spr overpairs like the nuts but PNL vol.1 says higher SPR = pot control and folding because you are not committed. Some people say to play mechanical and more tables because you are playing ABC at uNL, others say not to. The point is I know all the ingredients but can't seem to start cooking. My goal is to make it to 400NL and eek out a part time living. I think coaching from a player like you that had huge success at my limit and above will benefit me hugely. I honestly think there are probably only a few tweaks between my current results and success (small tweaks but big leaks). But I need someone to point them out and help me plug the leaks. Even if I am not chosen, I would like to commend you for your generous offer; Very cool indeed.

[TheBobn]

Here it goes....

I'm a 19 year old undergraduate at Johns Hopkins. I started playing online around March of last year. Previously I only played tournaments with friends or in casual gatherings.

I started with a modest bankroll of $80. For the first couple of months, I built it up to between 400 and 800 and hovered in between that range. I ran really hot when I first began playing super LAG. When i stopped running hot I had to re-evaluate my game.

I took the next month or two off from poker during finals period. I read a lot of 2p2 and started trying to "learn" poker. I probably spent more time reading 2p2 than studying to be honest, it was a little funny.

Then the summer started - I was taking classes with few friends around so I started to seriously play poker. I started at 10NL and quickly moved back up to 25NL where I was in the first semester. I played about 25k hands and achieved a winrate of roughly 5pt/bb, so I moved up to 50NL. I played roughly 120k hands in the months of June and July. I won a lot, but towards the end of July I hit a pretty big downswing, in which I lost about 1/3 of my bankroll, so I moved back down to 25NL.

I did alright at 25NL, but lost the desire to play poker at a breakeven pace towards the end of the summer. I also went on vacation, which helped take my mind off of poker.

Now, I've embarked on my second year of undergraduate work. I'm an international studies/economics (dbl maj) w/ entrepreneurship and management minor. I like statistics, game theory and economics and try to apply it whenever I'm playing poker.

I've started playing again, moving from playing 9 tables to 6 tables, and my results have improved tremendously. I think I have a great mind for the game and I have the time and dedication to improve. I currently have a very safe bankroll for 50nl, which I plan to play for at least another 15k hands. My winrate has been steady at about 4.5 pt/bb at 50NL, but I don't really have the confidence nor stress management to move up.

My goals: I ultimately want to be playing somewhere between 200-400nl. I look at poker as an excellent hobby that allows me to enjoy myself and bring in extra income.(my only discretionary income at the moment) I don't plan to ever live off playing poker, but I truly enjoy it.

I've invested some of my winnings in a separate monitor, so I have a dual-monitor setup, which is ideal for multi-tabling.

I play on pokerstars and i have pokertracker, pokeracehud and actively check pokerEV to evaluate my game.

Thanks for your consideration,
Josh

[Monster207]

First of all thanks for doing this, it's going to be a huge help to whoever is lucky enough to be chosen.

I am currently a 22 year old college student in his fourth year. I originally came to college to play Div. 1 hockey and get my degree. At the time hockey was an intense passion of mine and since I'm an incredibly competitive person hockey acted as an excellent outlet. Long story short I remember going to the NCAA national tournament my first year and hanging around the hotel when I saw some of the guys playing cards. They introduced me to the game and ever since I've been hooked.

That was roughly a little over 3 years ago. During that time hockey seemed to take a backseat to poker. I didn't know what it was that made it so fascinating to me, but I threw myself into studying the game. After practice (I know this is gonna sound lame as hell) I would go to Borders and just read all the poker books available. I have pretty fond memories of sitting in the Kids/Games/Puzzles section with a bunch of 9 year olds who were reading Calvin and Hobbs while I tried to read Super System.

Anyway, quite sometime later I found the forums and started lurking and reading some mind blowing posts. (Tiens, Gigabets, etc.) I really felt like this, even more so than all the books, got me going in the right direction. Unfortunately during this time I had only played primarily in live games. I don't remember when, but I switched to online play rather recently, around 6 months ago, maybe more. I found the games slightly tougher than live but as I read the forums and reviewed the books I had accumulated over time I found that I was improving and going from a loser into what I thought/hoped was a winner. (During this time I really tried to force myself to post more hands/be more active/this so far has had the greatest impact)

Fast forward to present day and I seem/feel that I have grown quite a bit as a player. Although I'm still in the micros (10nl with some 25nl) I feel quite proud of the effort I've put into the game. You might be asking yourself 'well thats nice but what makes you a good candidate for coaching?' and the answer is that I simply just thoroughly enjoy learning about the game, even just discussing it in general. You stated in your post "I cannot guarantee i can teach you to win more money, or that you'll even improve, but I think it's definitely worth a shot.", thats totally cool with me, the opportunity to talk to someone with your background in poker would be awesome.

Anyway I'll finish this off as I didn't intend to write this much.

Recently I've come to realize that in online play I'm prone to tilt. I've never realized it until the past month but I need to work on my self-discipline and emotional control. I've focused so hard on the fundamentals of poker that it seems to me I've overlooked how important just keeping control of ones self is at the poker table. From my experience so far at the micros, it seems to me that the biggest winners are going to be the ones who maintain the highest level of discipline in regards to their play. I could be way off but I feel that is the case with me. My goals are simply to work on self control and noticing when I go on tilt (not sure if this is even possible for a coach to help me with) and to narrow hand ranges for villains. Also finding value in fairly thin spots is a big concern of mine, I feel that I may be playing weak tight. (probably am)

With a coach I feel like I can find the leaks that I haven't spotted on my own and will also help me to work on the things I mentioned. Perhaps even discussing how you handle tilt etc. would be very beneficial to me, someone of your caliber has to be able to control themselves and just hearing your ideas would probably be quite insightful.

[luke4130]

Wow this is going to be tough to choose....

[Shaver67]

I'm older than most (28) and I've been here longer than most (reg date <---), I have, like you, taken more than my fair share and not given much back (post count <---)- the lack of contribution is not a function of not giving a damn but rather I see so much bad advice around here and recognize my own inadequacies, such that I didn't want to be one dispensing bad advice.

I've had a fair amount of success ~100k in 4 years at small stakes (<$60 MTTs, <$60 SnGs, LHE <5/10, NLHE <2/4, RB and BW) and up until recently I was satisfied with what I was getting from poker. Not anymore, I blew most of my roll wandering Europe over the summer and caught the travel bug something fierce. As a result I came back and started grinding with the idea of taking off again, a few months of SnGs and I realized that both my game hadn't evolved in a long while and SnGs were making me truly dislike poker. So I switched back to cash in the micros to re-acclimate my self with the game since the landscape had quite obviously changed in the few years I spent in tourneys eroding what post flop skill I ever possessed.

The switch has brought my love of the game back and Stoxpoker has got me off and running in the right direction. It has got me to thinking lately that some one on one time with a better player is probably necessary along the way to identify things I'm glossing over. So while I realize interest is high and therefore this is a long shot, I think it would benefit me tremendously and I stand a decent chance of putting it to good ($) use so I figured I'd give it a whirl.

Unlike others, flexible is the order of the day in my life, I can be available pretty much whenever with 24 hours notice.

For whomever it ends up benefiting, thanks for giving something back to the most robust poker resource on the planet. It makes me happy when I see this sort of thing and gives me something to aspire to when the day comes that I can dispense consistently good advice.

Matt

[Snafu'd]

Well, I may as well throw my name in the hat.

Background:
I started playing online poker around 2003 or so back on Party. I mostly played donk n goes in the beginning, redepositing every month. Then I found this website after picking up TOP. The first game I started taking seriously was limit shorthanded. In fact, that used to be the only forum I posted in. But with the rise in popularity of no limit, I decided to make the switch. After switching, I haven't looked back. I've played up to NL100 prior to the Neteller crash. I cashed out all but $300 or so and didn't play much for a while. I got back into it and transitioned from NL25 to NL30 deep to NL50 pretty quickly. My winrate at NL30 deep is 10.8ptbb/100 over 14K hands. I haven't been quite as lucky at NL50 though where my winrate is 1.5ptbb/100 over 11K hands. I'd like to think that most of this is running bad but I'm sure the bad run has contributed to bad play in some situations.

My status:
I'm 29 years old and actually have a regular day job. I play poker in the evenings and quite a bit on the weekends. I'm not somebody who is going to log 30K+ hands a month. I'd say a realistic average for me is anywhere around 15K hands a month. I play 4 tables at a time b/c that's how many fit on my monitor with no overlap w/o having to resize tables. I think I could realistically play more, but I chose not to.

Why I'm a good candidate:
I think I'm a pretty good player but I have a lot of room for improvement. This is where coaching would help me a lot. I contribute to these forums and always try to explain answers as best I can instead of giving one liners or just quoting others. I'm very realistic when it comes to my poker dreams. Mine is simple. To be able to play part time w/o having to ever use my poker roll for anything other than moving up to the next level. I'd like to get to MSNL stakes and make a nice side income w/o ever becoming a full time player. This may or may not be something you are looking for, but the plus side to this is that I'm going to be able to move up quicker than others that cash out their roll for spending money/living expenses/whatever (obviously this is assuming I remain a winning player). I'm also a coachable person. I've never had an ego issue and I'm always looking to learn from others. Something that may be irrelevant - I live close enough to a casino so I get to play live a bit which is nice b/c I can play higher stakes with worse players. So if you play live we could discuss those dynamics as well. Good luck with your search.

[EMc]

For future reference, I dislike these threads cause what is to stop other coaches to do these to get their name out there for free. I will leave this one cause ama beat me to it, but I dislike them

[dlorc]

<font color="green"> About me </font>

I'm 23, a degree student ( business ). I'm british.

Pre-UIGEA I was playing limit but the game got a bit boring and UIGEA really turned me off a bit, I played ~1/2 to 3/6 ( LHE and stud8 ). I started playing again last month but with a focus on NL as the game selection is 100x better. First things first I burned through the FPP I had on stars from my limit days and won 4 sunday million seats via the 2700 FPP turbos out of 4 entries. ( these things are so fishy its utterly amazing ).

( I made around $4000 pre UIGEA ).

The money isnt particularly important to me but the winning longterm is. I'm playing 50NL ( .10/.25 blinds which is 25 NL most sites ) I have around $500 on FTP and the same on absolute with rakeback at both.

I put two weeks in at full ring on FTP before deciding that 6max was a much better choice in the long run, short handed play is a much superior skill to have than full ring.

I switched over to 6 max and my stats post-transition are below.


The first week I approached it in a limited way - fire up 4 tables and let us gogogogogogogo. Obviously not the best.

This week I've cut down to 2 tables and spent more time evaluating my play and reading and rereading ( on my reading list at the moment are psychology of poker, stoxs' book, NL holdem theory and practice and the mathematics of poker - along with a lot of "the wells" by recognised players ), rereading barrys book and SS2.

<font color="green"> Why Should I be chosen </font>

I think this is a fantastic opportunity and I have a great idea that might help more than just me if you choose me.

I'd like to record 1~hr or so of 3 tabling ( 4 is pushing it for me to play well at the moment - especially with commentary on top ), for you to spend review time on rather than post individual hands or have you sweat me, then if you're amenable to noting some of the interesting hands and discussing them over vent/skype I'd like to summarize and perhaps post the video+summary in uNL.

I think doing this twice would probably take up around 4hrs ( 2hrs of video review+2hrs discussion time ).

I have camtasia and am familiar with producing videos so I'm quite happy taking some time doing something funky with it for sharing.

<font color="green"> Goals </font>

Overall poker goals are to improve my game to the point where I can play 400-1000nl online as a winner, perhaps higher but I'm realistic about life.

<font color="green"> Coaching Goals </font>

Firstly I assume there are some points I'm missing in my postflop game - I think postflop I play decently.

I feel like my biggest leak at the moment is firstly taking some marginal hands too far, and secondly stacking off light a little too often. I can find at least ~5 hands where I've stacked off horrible in the last two weeks although only twice this week, probably more that I dont recall.

So my coaching goals are really

1. Improve my postflop game as much as possible
2. Evaluate big pot play more accurately.

I've posted a partial shot of my pokerEV for the last two weeks.




Thanks for considering me and taking the time to read all these applications.

[icheckcallu]

Hi my name is Audrey and I have been playing micro poker for about 1year. I am a single mother struggling to finish school(nursing) so I can put my daughters and I in a better spot. I think I am a winning micro 6maxnl25 player at 4ptbb/100. I could be winning more but I have a tendency to bluff a few buyins here and there.

I would like to get coached to cut down on my learning curves. I am willing to do what it takes(no sex) to become a winning midstakes player.
All I ask for is to be given a chance to thrive and I promise you I wont disappoint.


stat
16.7/12.9/3.2




[ QUOTE ]
Modnote: I'm not a coach, I don't really plan to be a coach, I won't accept any students as a result of this thread. I'm doing this because I can hopefully help someone out and give something back to the forums.

About me: Currently play 5/10-25/50 with pretty decent results, originally started playing 0.01/0.02 with $40. I took a year off from University last year to play full time, and am now beginning my final year, although i'm aiming to play 20+hrs a week. I've had coaching myself from several people including, most recently, BobboFitos.

I realise a post is nothing without stats so this is my latest database:
http://www.legopoker.com/img/uploads...1195224849.jpg

My offer: I've taken a lot from these forums, and haven't given much back [my post count is testament to this]. I'd like to offer someone who plays uNL 4 free hours of coaching. I'm not a coach and I don't really plan to become one but I will probably be able to help someone out.

I DO NOT want to be inundated with PMs, feel free to PM me about other stuff, but anyone directly asking to be chosen will not be considered.

Please use this thread to tell me about yourself, why you should be chosen, what your goals are, what you want to get out of coaching etc. To be honest, i'm not sure what i'm looking for yet, but I will have chosen someone by Sunday. I will post in this thread, with an explaination of why they were chosen, and at that point the thread can obv be locked.

I cannot guarantee i can teach you to win more money, or that you'll even improve, but I think it's definitely worth a shot.

Let me know if you have any questions and i'll do my best to answer them.

[/ QUOTE ]

[bravos1]

[ QUOTE ]
I am willing to do what it takes(no sex) to become a winning midstakes player.

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you really have a compelling reason to put this in here, or did I just get leveled?