Game Selection...personal reflection

[bunky9590]

Yeah Doc. Matt is pretty good. Breaking out the old school AC connections huh? We were going toe to toe in the last expert series game. Had Matt and Louie Krieger both on my left. Bunky suvived, they did not en route to my final table appearence.

[Al Schoonmaker]

Everything I say here is just an opinion. I have not discussed this issue with David. If I make an error, I apologize in advance.
David has always been very expensive, and he is now making so much money from books and other sources that I doubt that he has any interest in teaching unless the fee would be extremely high. You could not economically justify paying such a fee unless you were playing at least $60-$120, probably higher.
In addition, David is not interested in teaching basic strategy. He would be bored teaching anything that a non expert would want to learn.
If you are a very advanced, high stakes player, you should try to retain David as your coach. For any other level of player, I would recommend Matt, Barry, or Bob.
Regards,
Al

[Al Schoonmaker]

Matt and I talk about poker very frequently, and I've learned an immense amount from him. I must also say that one of his students, Joopy, has had incredible success. She started playing poker in January 2004. She has won two Royal Vegas Poker Play the Experts titles, and I just got an email tonight that she had won a 3K PL tournament.
That's the best proof I can offer that Matt is one hell of a coach.
Regards,
Al

[Robusticular]

Look at your inner game:

www.primatepoker.com/online_poker_article001.asp

"The inner game includes items such as your beliefs about yourself, your beliefs about poker, your actual motivations for playing, your beliefs about the strength of your own poker play, how you personally value winning and losing at poker, and your beliefs about the morality (“rightness” or “wrongness”) of playing winning or losing poker.



"Lack of clarity in your beliefs and attitudes about poker is a definite obstacle in your efforts to achieve winning results. "

[tommy2]

Thanks again Al, I contacted Matt today. I agree that David would be too advanced for both my stage in poker, as well as too advanced for my bankroll. I don't take that as an insult, I still need to work on my poker fundamentals and need a coach who is willing to help me move from a novice player to an intermediate one.

[bonanz]

Doc,
where are these coaches located? Also you mentioned Brier, but failed to give contact infor for him, or can he be reached through the pokercoach email? I'm in vegas and would love to find a local coach, and i know there has to be somebody reliable here who gives personal coaching.

regards,
bonanz

sorry don't mean to impose on another's thread

[jasonHoldEm]

Barry and Matt live in las vegas.

J

[bonanz]

thanks jason,
I'd rather have a coach look me in the eye and tell me i suck rather than hearing it on the phone [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

bonanz

[Al Schoonmaker]

Bonanz,
By chance I had lunch today with Barry Tanenbaum, and he is the only coach I know personally in Las Vegas (other than David Sklansky). As I said in my column, Barry is the "resident guru" of our poker discussion group. He is an outstanding player and teacher.
Barry's email is pokerbear@cox.net. He is leaving town tomorrow for a few days, but will certainly reply to emails.
Jim Brier has never given lessons (I think), but he has taken them from Bob Ciaffone. Bob is located in Michigan.
Regards,
Al

[Al Schoonmaker]

Matt moved to the SF Bay area a while ago.
Al