An Offer

[James282]

I've noticed a few posts recently asking for some help with Hand Histories, or coaching etc - and figured a good way to both help people out(and help myself) would be to offer some Poker coaching. I will offer my services at the generous rate of $50 an hour because I believe this will help me as well as others. The way it works is, I'll watch up to 4 tables of your's at a time, you IM me each hand, and I will advise you as to how I would've played it and why. I'll do this for any game at any limit. PM me if you want to talk further of this on instant messenger.
-James

[applej25]

IMHO paying someone to watch you play on the Internet is rediculous. Might as well keep the 50 bux an hour. No matter how bad you are it would be extremely tough to lose that amount each hour. I mean sometimes there are different solutions to a problem. My advice is to just keep reading these boards and play as much as possible. That is the best way to learn.

[chief444]

I'll do it for $25/hr. Although I admit that the advice from James would probably be twice as good. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Pat Southern]

Can't we just post hands here and get your advice for free?

[Tosh]

I'll probably take you up on this in March if you're still going.

[sthief09]

[ QUOTE ]
IMHO paying someone to watch you play on the Internet is rediculous. Might as well keep the 50 bux an hour. No matter how bad you are it would be extremely tough to lose that amount each hour. I mean sometimes there are different solutions to a problem. My advice is to just keep reading these boards and play as much as possible. That is the best way to learn.

[/ QUOTE ]


the point is that it has future value. you don't have to lose $50/hr for it to have worth. your comments make absolutely no sense and you're just wrong

[sthief09]

[ QUOTE ]
Can't we just post hands here and get your advice for free?

[/ QUOTE ]

there are things that all of us do wrong that we don't know we're doing wrong

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
IMHO paying someone to watch you play on the Internet is rediculous. Might as well keep the 50 bux an hour. No matter how bad you are it would be extremely tough to lose that amount each hour. I mean sometimes there are different solutions to a problem. My advice is to just keep reading these boards and play as much as possible. That is the best way to learn.

[/ QUOTE ]

your comments make absolutely no sense and you're just wrong

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm, I thought they made sense...I mean I understood them and all...

--Zetack

[sthief09]

I think it would be a lot easier if you just looked over hand histories. I don't see how watching the actual hands would make anything easier

[sthief09]

I should've said his arguments make no sense, because they don't

[applej25]

Then go ahead and pay, be my guest. Its just my opinion if you dont like it thats fine, but my post seems pretty understandable to me.

[sthief09]

by your logic, coaching has no value unless you're losing whatever the coach is charging per hour

[Pat Southern]

I realize this, but to pay $50 for about 150 hands seems a little excessive since there will only be about 30 debatable hands in that sample.

[applej25]

No, by my logic 'INTERNET' Coaching has no value. And if you are paying 50 bux an hour you are going to be taking a loss no matter what unless you have a miracle session or are playing High limit. I just think it is rediculous to pay someone to watch your game on a CPU. I mean its like another poster said, you can just post hands here and get many opinions, not just one. That is the whole point of the forum, not to advertise coaches.

[bisonbison]

just so everyone knows, Tommy Angelo charges about $100/hour. Joe Tall offers hand reviews for about $45/hour.

[sthief09]

[ QUOTE ]
just so everyone knows, Tommy Angelo charges about $100/hour. Joe Tall offers hand reviews for about $45/hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought JT was 40 for 1000 hands.. maybe that's changed though. TA also requires a trip to LA and a minimum number of hours and a trip to LA doesn't it?

[PokerBob]

Is it just me, or does the idea of a coach seem almost absurd? I guess maybe if my life depended on it, but how much more can you learn from a coach than you can learn by consistently reading/posting on this forum? IMO anyone who wants to learn to be an expert player will do so with the proper brains/effort and this website.

[Redeye]

[ QUOTE ]
I think it would be a lot easier if you just looked over hand histories. I don't see how watching the actual hands would make anything easier

[/ QUOTE ]

This might be a little more useful in that if you just send hand histories, you'll often be absent reads and player stats. If he watches the tables, he can pickup player reads and use PT stats to try and show why someone should play a certain way based on that specific player.

[PokerBob]

[ QUOTE ]
just so everyone knows, Tommy Angelo charges about $100/hour. Joe Tall offers hand reviews for about $45/hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, if JoeTall comments on one of my posts, am I stealing? /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[Pat Southern]

[ QUOTE ]

I thought JT was 40 for 1000 hands..

[/ QUOTE ]

I would happily pay for that, in 1000 hands you'll get a much better idea of your leaks than an hour of 4 tabling.

[sthief09]

[ QUOTE ]
No, by my logic 'INTERNET' Coaching has no value. And if you are paying 50 bux an hour you are going to be taking a loss no matter what unless you have a miracle session or are playing High limit. I just think it is rediculous to pay someone to watch your game on a CPU. I mean its like another poster said, you can just post hands here and get many opinions, not just one. That is the whole point of the forum, not to advertise coaches.

[/ QUOTE ]


I make far over 50 an hour, and I have since 5/10. even if I didn't it would have future value for me. the point of the coaching is that we all make mistakes we don't know we're making. if you somehow knew all your mistakes and posted them all, then I'd agree with you, but that's not the case.

[Tosh]

[ QUOTE ]


I thought JT was 40 for 1000 hands..

[/ QUOTE ]

Wtf when did this happen, and why did I only just find out?

[colgin]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it just me, or does the idea of a coach seem almost absurd? I guess maybe if my life depended on it, but how much more can you learn from a coach than you can learn by consistently reading/posting on this forum? IMO anyone who wants to learn to be an expert player will do so with the proper brains/effort and this website.

[/ QUOTE ]

My life definitely doesn't depend on poker. Still, I want to improve and maximize my earn within the confines of the time I have to play. With that in mind I do have a coach and it has definitely been +EV for me. Personally, I don't see it as a substitute for reading/posting here but another invaluable resource in my development.

The best thing about a coach, as opposed to just reading or just posting here, is that a coach can help you discover and fix quickly certain leaks that might otherwise take you a long time to diascover even if you frequently post on this forum. That is because (mostof us) are selective in which hands we choose to post. So we may be missing entirely some leak that would be obvious to a good player who took the time to review 1,000 of your HH's for example. My coach helped me plug a leak that I should not have needed him to fix. But since I didn't realize I was making this basic mistake (even though I frequuent this forum) it could have gone unnoticed for some time to come. That one fix alone (putting aside the other help and advice I have received from this person) has easily paid for the coaching fee I have paid.

[applej25]

OK This is it, im not trying to argue with you. 'I' feel there is no value in it. 'I' don't think I am a perfect player by any means. And I'm sure I make plenty of mistakes. I just don't want to pay someone for them to tell me something I can learn on my own from a much less expensive source. But it sounds like you really want a coach, so if thats what you want why are you disputing it with me? JUST GO GET ONE.

[sthief09]

check his bio. I e-mailed him about it a month or two ago and I think that's what he said

[bisonbison]

wow, yeah, I was way off on my JT quote. I just wanted to show that you could get someone as great as JT for a very reasonable price.

If you email him at joetall@riveredagain.com, he'll give you details.

A month or so ago when I inquired, he was "500 hands for $25 or 1000 hands for $40"

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
But it sounds like you really want a coach, so if thats what you want why are you disputing it with me? JUST GO GET ONE.

[/ QUOTE ]

You insist on diverting from Josh's point.

[sfer]

Table image considerations, for one.

[sthief09]

try and take it more personally next time. I don't think it's possible

[J.R.]

does the phrase "opportunity cost" have any meaning to you?

[ QUOTE ]
I just don't want to pay someone for them to tell me something I can learn on my own from a much less expensive source.

[/ QUOTE ]

You realize it costs LESS "dollars" but MORE "time", and as a poker player, you should have an acute understanding of the value of time, i.e. your hourly rate (for many of us our self-worth hangs on every last cent of it...just kidding). And this all assumes you could uncover your own leaks via self-diagnosis and posting (not to say a coach is gauranteed to help fix everyhting). But do so as you like

[imported_stealthcow]

why coach someone when you can make that much (or more) just playing?

[Lost Wages]

OK, so what was the leak that you plugged?

Lost Wages

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
...and why did I only just find out?

[/ QUOTE ]

Big ocean. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[donger]

anybody know what Bob Ciaffone charges per hr to go over hands and concepts?

[J.R.]

reviewing and teaching may help you think more clearly --it did re: calculus and econ in college for me-- and some of us can only 8-table or whatever for so long before we go nuts. And there may be even non financial motivations/benefits, such as altruism and feelign good about helping someone.

[SomethingClever]

[ QUOTE ]
Tommy Angelo charges about $100/hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

And I already know what he's gonna tell me...

FOLD!

I keed Tommy Angelo, I keed.

[James282]

I'm not trying to twist anyone's arm, and reviewing hand histories might be more efficient, but I really haven't thought about how to quantify exactly how much that sort of service would cost. I also think it helps people much more to work through hands on a hand by hand basis. And if you consider all the money you are giving away each hand you play if you have leaks that you don't even know about, this seems to me like it'd be a tough offer to refuse. If I could go back and receive help like this when I first started, I would have saved myself literally thousands of dollars. But if you don't understand why advice like this would be valuable, then you're probably a long way from being a long-term winner, and likely won't be.

All of this assumes that there are things that you don't know about the game that you could learn from me in an hour or two of playing. Assume you are a 2/4 player who wins 1.5-2bb/100, had two hours of coaching and only improved to a 2.5/100 it would pay for itself in 4k-5k hands. If you are playing higher limits it pays for itself even more quickly. The fact is small stakes players often make so many fundamental mistakes that sending them an email of "you need to raise 99 in hand 443, check behind the turn in hand 17, reraise the river in hand 954" etc. would be just short of worthless.

But like I said, this is by no means a post to try and coerce anyone to PM me. I make way(read: way) more than 50$ an hour simply playing poker. This was more to reach out to players who feel like they've been playing "flat" as well as to help myself. No more, no less.
-James

[btspider]

[ QUOTE ]
wow, yeah, I was way off on my JT quote. I just wanted to show that you could get someone as great as JT for a very reasonable price.

If you email him at joetall@riveredagain.com, he'll give you details.

A month or so ago when I inquired, he was "500 hands for $25 or 1000 hands for $40"

[/ QUOTE ]

regardless of the actual price today.. i assume these hands must be sequential? 1000 hand picked hand histories for sub $100 seems like an incredibly deal for that much work. if 80% of them are PF folds.. then 200 'real' hands for $X seems reasonable.

[Tosh]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
...and why did I only just find out?

[/ QUOTE ]

Big ocean. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Bleh, lets work to remove it.

[applej25]

sorry GOD I'll never disaggree with you again

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
I've noticed a few posts recently asking for some help with Hand Histories, or coaching etc - and figured a good way to both help people out(and help myself) would be to offer some Poker coaching. I will offer my services at the generous rate of $50 an hour because I believe this will help me as well as others. The way it works is, I'll watch up to 4 tables of your's at a time, you IM me each hand, and I will advise you as to how I would've played it and why. I'll do this for any game at any limit. PM me if you want to talk further of this on instant messenger.
-James

[/ QUOTE ]

While I worry that posting this might mean it's less convenient for James to coach me, this is a an unbelievable deal. James is easily the best online player who has ever offered to do this.

Tommy costs a dime a day plus his travel expenses if the coaching isn't happening in the Bay Area, and what you get for the money, while apparently fabulous, won't help you that much with playing online.

Joe is a fantastic player and a great guy, but he only plays one table at a time and therefore isn't the sort of player that most of you guys are trying to become.

I've played with James both online and B+M, and he's very possibly the strongest playing poster that I've met. In addition, he writes well and understands how to explain what he does and what you could do better.

This is a no brainer.

scrub

[sthief09]

[ QUOTE ]
I realize this, but to pay $50 for about 150 hands seems a little excessive since there will only be about 30 debatable hands in that sample.

[/ QUOTE ]

play more tables /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[The Dude]

For those of you wanting to get better, I highly recommend you take James up on this offer. He is one of the very best Party 15-30 players, and you will benefit tremendously from his advice.

The single best step forward I ever took in developing my game was to find a coach. In John Feeney's book Inside the Poker Mind, he says the same thing. Definately worth it.

[Evan]

I can tell you from personal experience that this is an awesome deal for you guys. James is definitely one of the top players I know (meaning likely the best but I'll leave myself some slack to be wrong).

I've played with him a bit and I've spent a lot of time talking to him about specific hands and poker in general. He's helped me a ton so I'll say that I'm fairly sure he could help a lot of you guys.

I see a lot of posts on here about people moving up limits and asking how to adjust. Off the top of my head I'd say this may be the best use of James' offer. Just an idea.

I have to run out but I'd suggest taking him up on this offer. If anyone wants to PM me with any questions feel free.

[Lurker4]

[ QUOTE ]
regardless of the actual price today.. i assume these hands must be sequential? 1000 hand picked hand histories for sub $100 seems like an incredibly deal for that much work. if 80% of them are PF folds.. then 200 'real' hands for $X seems reasonable.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was wondering about this as well. It's probably still a good price if its 1000 sequential hands, but it's an incredible deal if the hh's are hand picked.

[sfer]

James is also pretty cool. I mean this seriously.

[ddubois]

[ QUOTE ]
I will offer my services at the generous rate of $50 an hour because I believe this will help me as well as others. The way it works is, I'll watch up to 4 tables of your's at a time, you IM me each hand, and I will advise you as to how I would've played it and why.

[/ QUOTE ]
I would pay this much for this kind of education in theory, and I do think real-time advice has signifigant value over post-mortem hand history reviews, but I don't think the system you have outlined would be feasible. Who has time to IM every potentially relevant hand while 4-tabling? (It's true most hands need no comment, like 73o in MP, but my leaks could just as easily be coming from the hands I do not call, or do not defend my blinds with, for instance.)

It would make much more sense to use some sort of remote-presentation / screen-sharing / video-conferencing software. I think you could probably jury rig this with a web-cam, turned around and pointed at your screen, whilst on MSN messenger (in conjuction with a simulatanoue phone conversation seems best).

[Schneids]

This one time last summer James robbed me of $40. Literally, he held a gun up to me and stole $40. He can't be trusted. He'll probably just take your money and run and leave you wondering why you were his personal ATM.

[James282]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I will offer my services at the generous rate of $50 an hour because I believe this will help me as well as others. The way it works is, I'll watch up to 4 tables of your's at a time, you IM me each hand, and I will advise you as to how I would've played it and why.

[/ QUOTE ]
I would pay this much for this kind of education in theory, and I do think real-time advice has signifigant value over post-mortem hand history reviews, but I don't think the system you have outlined would be feasible. Who has time to IM every potentially relevant hand while 4-tabling? (It's true most hands need no comment, like 73o in MP, but my leaks could just as easily be coming from the hands I do not call, or do not defend my blinds with, for instance.)

It would make much more sense to use some sort of remote-presentation / screen-sharing / video-conferencing software. I think you could probably jury rig this with a web-cam, turned around and pointed at your screen, whilst on MSN messenger (in conjuction with a simulatanoue phone conversation seems best).

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey - I've done this before, so I know it's possible. Who knows how long I will want to, but I know I can /images/graemlins/smile.gif I agree that your system is far preferable but wouldn't have the first clue as to how to set it up. Maybe with WinHoldEm /images/graemlins/wink.gif
-James

[MarkD]

Assume you have 4 tables open.
Clockwise from top left to bottom left you lable your tables Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4.
Table 1 is named 12589
Table 2 is named 11111
Table 3 is named 13456
Table 4 is named 14521

So in the top left we have T1 = 12589, in the bottom right we have T3 = 13456.

Both you and the other guy have your tables set up the same so you are looking at the same thing. Then you just IM stuff like this:
T1 - 73o
T2 - 8s9s
etc.

It would be easy if setup properly I would think.

[Entity]

[ QUOTE ]
Assume you have 4 tables open.
Clockwise from top left to bottom left you lable your tables Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4.
Table 1 is named 12589
Table 2 is named 11111
Table 3 is named 13456
Table 4 is named 14521

So in the top left we have T1 = 12589, in the bottom right we have T3 = 13456.

Both you and the other guy have your tables set up the same so you are looking at the same thing. Then you just IM stuff like this:
T1 - 73o
T2 - 8s9s
etc.

It would be easy if setup properly I would think.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Party might frown upon that if they got a screenshot of that, though. Seems a bit risky.

Rob

[stoxtrader]

sign me up. 4-8 tables of the 15/30 or 30/60 games, depending on how many we can do. At least 2 hours, maybe more. I'll PM you for details.

[Chris Daddy Cool]

james is a great player and if you could afford it, it'd be foolish not to take him up on this offer. note that he doesn't have to do this at all and could just spend his time playing poker and make waaaaaay more, so he's doing this out of the goodness of his heart. i'd definitely be interested and i'm considered pretty decent by these boards.

[ChicagoTroy]

James, what games and limits? I'd be interested in limit HE, but there are some other games as well.

[James282]

I would only really do limit hold 'em and NLHE SnG's.
-James

[bobbyi]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it just me, or does the idea of a coach seem almost absurd?

[/ QUOTE ]
Just you.

[Schneids]

[ QUOTE ]
I would only really do limit hold 'em and NLHE SnG's.


[/ QUOTE ]

Don't be humble I remember that one night you were trying to goad me into joining you at 10/20 7-stud/8. I also remember you cleaning up on that table. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Nick B.]

If you are somebody that is looking to improve your tournament game, this would be a great opportunity for you. Get James for 2 hours and play 2 sngs at a time, so you can understand why certain plays would work. I think playing any more than 2 and you won't be able to take everything in.

[bobbyi]

[ QUOTE ]
Assume you are a 2/4 player who wins 1.5-2bb/100, had two hours of coaching and only improved to a 2.5/100 it would pay for itself in 4k-5k hands.

[/ QUOTE ]
I agree with the general concept that good coaching will pay for itself after not very long, but I think that going from 1.5BB/100 to 2.5BB/100 is an unrealistic expection for what can be acheived in two hours. Maybe in some isolated case, you will find a single large leak in someone's play in the first two hours of coaching, but on average this does not sound like a realistic amount of improvement to expect over two hours of coaching. However, I have never had formal coaching, so I don't know from experience what kinds of results can be obtained. Do you really think this is realistic for two hours of review?

[ddubois]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey - I've done this before, so I know it's possible.

[/ QUOTE ]
I guess it's a failure of my imagination then. Did you find yourself able to get any decent two-way discussion in with your student? I would think that were I playing 4 tables, continually being forced to make new decisions on new hands, while simultaneously being given feedback on a prior hand, I would have little time to explain my thought process, and instead would be reduced to just skimming your comments. I'm a slow typist though. Would you consider receiving a phone call rather than using IM, and do you think that would be more or less effective than IM?

[Michael Davis]

Your price is way too low. You should be bombarded by requests and you can add mine to the list.

-Michael

[elindauer]

I made a post exactly like this 36 hours ago. People complained it was spam. It was deleted by the moderator.

Oh right. I didn't get all my buddies to post what a great idea it was. Sheesh. How about some consistency guys?

For the record, I think this is a great thing for your poker game, and I offer a similar service of perhaps more in-depth, post-mortem analysis.

www.ericlindauer.com/poker.html (http://www.ericlindauer.com/poker.html)

Good luck.
Eric

[James282]

Hey Eric, quit being such a dork. I'm not even really making money off of this comparitively. And I didn't get "my buddies" to come vouch for me. In fact, I didn't tell anyone I was even going to do this before I did. A lot of the people who have responded(The Dude, for instance) had never had any interaction with me before this thread and by virtue of being at the same table, even though I have no clue what his Party SN is.

I'm surprised what a huge crybaby you are.

As for the offer, I may have to up the price soon due to the sheer number of responses I've gotten, or just make this a short-term proposition. The first couple of sessions are happening tonight and I'll have to see how mentally taxing it is.
-James

[elindauer]

Hi James,

Your tone is way too harsh. You should read my post again. You will see that I support what you are doing and am merely offering a competitive service.

You incorrectly assume that I think it's your fault that our posts were treated differently. That's just silly.

What you call "being a crybaby" I call "pointing-out-an-almost-comically-obvious-random-application-of-power".

-Eric


[ QUOTE ]
Hey Eric, quit being such a dork. I'm not even really making money off of this comparitively. And I didn't get "my buddies" to come vouch for me. In fact, I didn't tell anyone I was even going to do this before I did. A lot of the people who have responded(The Dude, for instance) had never had any interaction with me before this thread and by virtue of being at the same table, even though I have no clue what his Party SN is.

I'm surprised what a huge crybaby you are.

As for the offer, I may have to up the price soon due to the sheer number of responses I've gotten, or just make this a short-term proposition. The first couple of sessions are happening tonight and I'll have to see how mentally taxing it is.
-James

[/ QUOTE ]

[Ian J]

Well,

I just finished my first hour with James and I wanted to let everyone know that this is good work he's putting in. He was extremely attentive and obviously he's very knowledgeable. As far as I can tell, the posters attributing to James being a good guy were dead on. If you can afford this and you truly believe that there are some areas that you need some help on (which we all should), then you should probably give James a shot. It's a bargain for the price.

[Stefan Prodan]

I may want to take you up on this as well, James, if we're forming a queue here.