I get this question all the time (or some variant of it – “I don’t think I’m good enough for coaching yet”, etc) and I’m always surprised by it. The truth is that learning to play poker to a high standard is exactly like learning to do anything else to a high standard. There is no perfect time to get coached, and there is no minimum level of knowledge necessary to receive coaching. Somebody who has never played poker before could get coaching, and it would have the desired effect of improving their skill in playing poker…if the coach is able to adapt to their level of ability!

It’s my belief that the reason why the preconception exists that you have to have achieved a certain level of ability in order to be ‘good enough’ to get coaching is because in the early days of poker coaching (probably 2006-2008ish), most people involved in coaching had no teaching experience whatsoever, and as such were simply good poker players who were explaining their thoughts and actions as they play hands, and hoping people learned from it. This led to there being many beginner players who assumed that they had to reach a certain level in order to simply understand the points that coaches were making – the reason being that these coaches were unable to adapt their teaching style to fit players of a lower level.

Fast forward to today, and (not to toot my own horn too much, but…) some poker coaches do have teaching experience outside the game. They recognise that an adaptive teaching style is necessary, and that simply explaining your thought processes is not enough for most people. Poker coaching has begun to fall in line with other, more well-known forms of coaching, and these days literally anyone can get coached at poker if they can find the right coach.

Problem is, though, that the preconception still exists that you have to be ‘good enough’ to get coaching. It’s probably because people watch training videos, get confused and don’t understand them, and then assume that this represents what all coaching sessions are like, so therefore they must have to improve their knowledge of the game before getting coaching. That’s not the case at all – it’s like saying, “I was planning to take Japanese classes, but I don’t think my Japanese is good enough yet”. This statement only holds weight if there’s no Beginner class available!

It’s all about finding the right coach for you. If your coach can’t adapt to your ability level, he or she isn’t much of a coach at all.

P.S. Obviously it works both ways, too – if the coach provides an overly simplistic analysis that doesn’t actually help you, that’s equally bad. Hence, finding the right coach for you. Do your homework, talk to them beforehand, and if they can’t convince you they’re worth your time, they’re probably not.