Relevant Poker Training Sites

Improving your poker game sometimes feels like a thankless task – there is plenty of information out there on how to play better – and training sites are among the best ways to learn more, share your hands and then improve - but how to separate the wheat from the chaff?

Well that’s what we’re here for and we’ll start with an old-school pioneer who are still going strong almost ten years on –

Deuces Cracked.com

‘We help beginning players start winning, intermediate players become advanced, and advanced players become unstoppable,’ is their bold claim and it’s really hard to argue with that, a torrent of online winners coming through their video ‘school’ over the years.

The founders of the site, Emil ‘whitelime’ Patel and Jay ‘KRANTZ’ Rosenkrantz were joined by fellow 2months 2million star Dani ‘Ansky’ Stern and the likes of DOGISHEAD and NoahSD – producing over 1200 videos covering everything from NLHE theory through online MTT’s to PLO. The perfect grounding for anyone serious about improving their game.

Whichever training plan you decide to fork out for, you get a week’s free trial – including the $29 monthly plan which gets you access to the Premium video selection. The 6-month sign-up is only $147.90 but the real deal is the yearly plan - $278-40 which gets you not only Premium access, but also live online podcasts.

The twice weekly podcasts cover small stakes and live poker, so it should be money well-spent by most of those who go through the learning process and come out winners on the other side.

Nothing stands still of course, and over the years Deuces Cracked has changed with the times, honing the techniques you’ll need as the games change. Much of their recent content has focused on the Ignition poker network cash games and tournaments (formerly Bodog) – a tough training ground for video training content which you can preview here.

As with any training site worth their salt, a healthy forum for discussing your progress, your hands and everything related to your training is a prerequisite – and DC has a fine forum which covers all the bases and more.

What more is there to say about Deuces Cracked? I’d like a prettier website – but I’d like a prettier wife too and that ain’t going to happen! Be happy that the result is what’s important – these guys know how to make you a better player!

The Ivey League

‘Teaching the world to win at poker’ is some claim, but who better to do so than the man who has won almost everything in the game - plus $100million or so!

Phil Ivey, the man himself, is behind this sleek and ambitious site –and he doesn’t just lend his name to it, he actually provides content too. NLHE cash games and mixed games mostly, which covers a few bases.

Of course, he has tons of help on the coaching and content front. The coaches section is a who’s who of the live and online game, big name stars such as Patrik Antonius, Ben ‘Sauce123’ Sulsky, Cole ‘CTS’ South and aejones topping the current list of some 33 specialist coaches, with dozens of older ones available too!

Claiming ‘It’s more fun when you win’, you might expect such a heavy-hitting site to cost the earth, but actually the price plans are more than reasonable.

You can sign up to the ‘Undergraduate’ program for free which gets you access to the forum and basic video collection, or fork out $9 per month for the ‘Bachelors’ version and a more intensive selection of game-changing videos.

The top level coaching program is the ‘Masters’ at a $75 monthly fee, which sounds a lot. But if it works, and it most likely will if you put in the effort because the standard of tutorials is amazingly high, you’ll recoup that in no time at all.

Searching the video files is made easy with a user-friendly system of drop-down menus and the same clarity shines through in the useful accompanying forum. Basically it does what it says on the tin – exactly what you’d expect from a professional approach.

PokerSnowie

"PokerSnowie can make a bad player good, an average player great and a great player into a world beater.”

Again a big boast, but PokerSnowie is so strong – and so popular - nowadays that it is used by most of the top online pros, which is as good a recommendation as you’ll get!

Of course, this is as far-removed from the traditional coaching methods as you’ll get – as my colleague wrote recently:

"Sophisticated software designed to function like a human brain, except this brain has played trillions of hands of poker during its development and has learned strategy tips from each one of them.”

The interface is basically a challenging game of poker, where you can ask for instant advice, a tool which you will often use in the beginning. Feedback is given which will detail your errors and score your game based on various factors. Pot-sizing, balancing ranges, implied odds – everything is included to challenge you and then improve your play!

When it comes to cost, the different packages on offer are very competitive for what must have been costly development.

The ‘Starter’ package is an annual $34.99 and will work for everyone from beginner to low-intermediate. You get 500 hand upload analyses and 100 scenarios per month, more than enough to find out why you’re losing all the time!

For $99 per year you get the 'Intermediate' level, and here the numbers rise significantly – 8000 uploads and 1200 scenarios, plus pre-flop advice. And then the training biggie – the 'Pro' package.

At $229.99 for the year you’ll definitely get your money’s worth, but as with everything else in poker you have to really out the work in – and 120,000 hand uploads should force you to do just that!

Overall PokerSnowie is great – a completely different approach to poker training and perhaps the future of poker itself if the AI gets any better!

Elliot Roe

Ignore Roe’s mental approach to the game of poker at your peril! Everyone can learn playing techniques until they are blue in the face, but if their mindset is wrong then they’ll inevitably lose. This is where Elliot Roe comes in, and with Fedor Holz, Brian Rast plus ‘pleno1’ among his clients he must be doing something right!

Ever gone on tilt? Not been in the mood to play but did it anyway? Played when stressed? Not known when to stop? All of these and more can kill your profit no matter how well you have been running until then.

As Holz is quoted on the website:

"He mastered the concept of teaching you how to self-improve and step by step – with the help of hypnosis – leads you to an enormous increase in self-consciousness. I’m a big fan of his methods and I’d highly recommend him to anyone striving for success.”

As you might expect from someone at this level, it doesn’t come cheap! Although there are products available from as little as $25, Roe’s private coaching session are in line with similar pro mind-coaches.

$300 for a 90-minutehypnotherapy session, or $1000 for four. If you really need to work on your mental game you can get 10 for $2250, but if this is the part of the game you’re leaking money through, Roe’s Zen approach has to be considered!

OK, so four different training sites which have stood the test of time and consistently produced winning players along the way. Which one you go for is up to you, but hopefully this breakdown provides some useful directions and guidance!