As I've previously mentioned, I've had the opportunity to get my feet wet in the business of poker coaching. The results have been so good, that I am confident I can offer a valuable product to any aspiring poker player up to and including mid stakes 6 max NL Hold'em cash games. Since I also seem to enjoy teaching, I have decided to make myself available as a coach.
Coaching process.
I preferably offer live and in person coaching in the Copenhagen area only, and the price is $200/hr. Once the coaching process is well underway, I am going to be more flexible on these terms.
It is a challenge for many poker players to evaluate and develop their game by themselves, due to the solitary nature of the game. There is naturally no qualified debate or discussion of strategy when playing poker, and while participation in online forums can be a big help, it is always a time consuming process and often a frustrating one as well ("I cant blieve u fold that u fkn retard, LOL!!1").
The strength of coaching in person is the amount of two-way communication possible. It gives me the opportunity to watch you play while you explain your thought process. Afterwards we will discuss strategic issues that I notice during play, and obviously also situations that you currently find to be frustrating or difficult. While poker strategy is the primary area of focus, I will also be able to evaluate your whole approach to the game, including mind set, bank roll management, multi-tabling and technical aids, and alert you if I spot potential conflicts with the life of a professional player or areas with room for improvement (wife control problems is an area of expertise :)). As the coaching process continues we can mix in theoretical discussions and improve on already working strategies. This would be my suggestion for a valuable coaching process, but your ideas and needs are obviously the deciding factors.
References.
As this blog documents I am a winning player on 6-max cash games up until 2000NL. My main source of income this year has been 1000NL typically played at 7-10 tables. My hourly rate this year over more than 200k hands has been about $500/hr, so this coaching offer is of course dirt cheap. I play at the poker office in Copenhagen, and this gives me the opportunity to discuss strategy with 11 other professional players on a daily basis, giving me an excellent overview of the online poker scene.
If you are interested, drop me a line at poker@hasloev.dk. I expect us to exchange a couple of emails and/or have a conversation before we decide if there is reason to continue.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Back in the game.
Online screen name of the week: OMGCAPSLOCK
Its been two weeks since my return to the tables, and things have mostly been going very well. The first week I played only $600NL tables, in order to ease back into the grind without getting too rattled by the beats, and also simply as a reaction to my bankroll being slightly smaller than I like. After winning the first 10 buy-ins, I started mixing in $1000NL tables, and now I am mostly playing those, although frequently I think the games are much better at $600. When the difference in opponent skills is too noticable, I don't feel too proud to ditch the $1000 games. Mostly it is my opinion that you should try not to get too hung up on playing at a specific level if the games are better elsewhere.
I am up a little over $20k since my return, even though I dropped $7k of all-in results through bad luck yesterday in a break even session. When you can run that much below expected results and still break even, things are pretty good. I am also about half way through my 100 hour goal, which could have been better I suppose. I will get there though, no question about it.
I have had some interesting battles with other regulars around the 3-betting game pre-flop. I punish players who steal too often, and some won't back off. If they steal too often, and fold to 3-bets too seldom, the result is lots of big pots with mediocre holdings on both our parts. If you don't know what is going on, it can seem like a stupid game of chicken between two bullies. In fact, it is just a logical consequence of players trying to exploit a particular leak, namely playing too loose preflop. If you often 3-bet someone who often steals and then often calls your 3-bets, you would be losing a lot of money if you didn't adjust your post flop play accordingly. And suddenly I have a situation where I can't fold a pair of eights out of position on a jack high board with 250 in the pot and 875 behind. A logical consequence of the 3-betting arms race, or a macho pissing contest? Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.
Its been two weeks since my return to the tables, and things have mostly been going very well. The first week I played only $600NL tables, in order to ease back into the grind without getting too rattled by the beats, and also simply as a reaction to my bankroll being slightly smaller than I like. After winning the first 10 buy-ins, I started mixing in $1000NL tables, and now I am mostly playing those, although frequently I think the games are much better at $600. When the difference in opponent skills is too noticable, I don't feel too proud to ditch the $1000 games. Mostly it is my opinion that you should try not to get too hung up on playing at a specific level if the games are better elsewhere.
I am up a little over $20k since my return, even though I dropped $7k of all-in results through bad luck yesterday in a break even session. When you can run that much below expected results and still break even, things are pretty good. I am also about half way through my 100 hour goal, which could have been better I suppose. I will get there though, no question about it.
I have had some interesting battles with other regulars around the 3-betting game pre-flop. I punish players who steal too often, and some won't back off. If they steal too often, and fold to 3-bets too seldom, the result is lots of big pots with mediocre holdings on both our parts. If you don't know what is going on, it can seem like a stupid game of chicken between two bullies. In fact, it is just a logical consequence of players trying to exploit a particular leak, namely playing too loose preflop. If you often 3-bet someone who often steals and then often calls your 3-bets, you would be losing a lot of money if you didn't adjust your post flop play accordingly. And suddenly I have a situation where I can't fold a pair of eights out of position on a jack high board with 250 in the pot and 875 behind. A logical consequence of the 3-betting arms race, or a macho pissing contest? Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Chase for 100 hours.
Here I am, back home again from holiday. I spent a couple of weeks in Italy, enjoying the mountains, the sea, the ice cream, the pasta and of course the wine. Italy is a nation of aesthetics. They love beauty in all forms, buildings, people, cars, and they spend more energy enhancing and celebrating it than any other people I have visited. When a 200 year old building is considered new, you know they must spend a bit of money on building maintenance here and there. This is very enjoyable when you are on a holiday, but I think for every day life it might become too much for a dull scandinavian like myself. On the other hand, the fine art of taking a break for a perfectly brewed espresso is definetely something to be inspired by, even up north of the wine countries.
It has been an expensive summer, and while vacationing is more or less supposed to be so, I have also been losing a nice pile of money on teh poker since beginning of May. I have booked about 100k hands of poker with a net loss to show for it. I will give you a minute to think about how long it would take you to play 100k hands.
...
The question that everyone asks is of course: Have you played bad, or have you just been unlucky? Of course it is more or less implied that it would be impossible to be unlucky for such a long stretch. Well, that is obviously up for debate, but I will maintain that yes, I have more or less been running bad while playing well. It may sound like I am ignoring obvious warning signs, but I simply haven't played significantly different from the previous 100k hands in which I basically cleaned up the tables. It is hard to believe when you haven't experienced it, but the amount of variance in poker results is just mind numbing, and I have received a heavy dose of the worst of it the last 3 months.
All that is going to change now, and I have promised myself 100 hours of solid poker in August. To start with I have dropped down to 600NL to try and gain some momentum, confidence and hard currency before I return to my beloved 1000NL that have treated me so harshly lately. I have already booked 20 hours with earnings of a little over $200/hour this week, so it has been a pretty good start. Yesterday was a roller coaster. I played 6 hours, and I was down 6 buy-ins at one point. I finished strongly though, and brought it back to even before it was over.
I will update a bit more frequently now and hopefully it will be all reports of happy days and big $$$.
It has been an expensive summer, and while vacationing is more or less supposed to be so, I have also been losing a nice pile of money on teh poker since beginning of May. I have booked about 100k hands of poker with a net loss to show for it. I will give you a minute to think about how long it would take you to play 100k hands.
...
The question that everyone asks is of course: Have you played bad, or have you just been unlucky? Of course it is more or less implied that it would be impossible to be unlucky for such a long stretch. Well, that is obviously up for debate, but I will maintain that yes, I have more or less been running bad while playing well. It may sound like I am ignoring obvious warning signs, but I simply haven't played significantly different from the previous 100k hands in which I basically cleaned up the tables. It is hard to believe when you haven't experienced it, but the amount of variance in poker results is just mind numbing, and I have received a heavy dose of the worst of it the last 3 months.
All that is going to change now, and I have promised myself 100 hours of solid poker in August. To start with I have dropped down to 600NL to try and gain some momentum, confidence and hard currency before I return to my beloved 1000NL that have treated me so harshly lately. I have already booked 20 hours with earnings of a little over $200/hour this week, so it has been a pretty good start. Yesterday was a roller coaster. I played 6 hours, and I was down 6 buy-ins at one point. I finished strongly though, and brought it back to even before it was over.
I will update a bit more frequently now and hopefully it will be all reports of happy days and big $$$.
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