I enjoyed reading Verneer's latest Coaching blog and figured it was best to respond via my blog than in a little comment in his. I share a lot of the same feelings as Verneer and the 2p2er who called out a lot of the coaches out there. Coaching is a tricky business. Students need to realize that hiring someone does not equate to guaranteed profits. They need to work hard to help the coach help them. Coaches need to ethically look at what they charge, what they offer and who their target market is.

I feel that anyone who charges for poker training better be a winning player within a reasonable amount of time. If you have moved down in limits you shouldn't coach at your previous limits. I know I turned down three people in December who wanted 2/4 coaching on Stars simply because I wasn't playing in those games anymore. My opinions were no longer backed up by recent results and I would have felt like a snake oil sales men pedaling my wares. Two of them said "Your results speak for themselves" and wanted to pursue coaching anyways. I told them when I was back in the games on Stars I would gladly help them but until that point I referred them to a friend.

My biggest fear was misrepresenting myself and having a specific hater, who loves to flame me on 2p2, get wind of the fact I was coaching but not playing. My reputation means a lot to me and I wasn't willing to risk it.

As I've stated in previous blogs I've come back to Stars and have been winning, a lot. I've progressed through 1/2 to 2/4 and am comfortably playing 3/6 eyeing the 5/10 games since January 11. I won't post results or graphs until my vacation or the first $50k but I will say things are rolling. If I were to be asked today for coaching at 2/4 I could ethically accept but don't really want to coach that high and help people in my games. If I were to take on a student at 2/4 I'd have to charge a lot for revealing information that will be used against me. The cost would be too high.

I would never pay $300 - $500 an hour from anybody who didn't have a specific step by step plan for every second of their time. Poker winrates do not and should not transfer over to coaching rates. If you are going to charge such a high fee for coaching you better be an educator. I have no degrees in learning and all my coaching experience has been trial by fire. By that logic I have no business charging more than a lawyer or doctor for my time.

My coaching method has evolved many time over the last two years. Most recently I've been having students make me a 30 minute video of 4 tables with or without them voicing over their thoughts. They get it to me and I review and note take alone. We meet up on Skype and go over the video together with me in charge of the playback. This has all but ended any dead air during our sessions and everybody thus far has said they liked it.

I know this takes up more than an hour of my time and you'd think I'd want to charge more for this. You'd be wrong. I'd guess over half of the people who hire are PLO50 players that are tired of breaking even. Would it be fair for me to charge a really high session rate to someone who isn't winning? If I did can I guarantee they will immediately start winning? No, on both account.

For PLO50 players I settled on $75/session if they get a 4 session package. To me this is enough money that I'm happy to forego my personal time, otherwise spent being wasted, to help others. To the students its a reasonable amount of money that they will be able to recover easily. I stopped accepting coaching requests for players under PLO50 because its simply not worth it to the student. They can learn everything they need to get up to PLO50 simply by reading or watching videos.

The 2p2er had a few very solid points. If someone is selling their time they better lay all their cards on the table. There should be no question as to their credentials, what they offer you and the cost vs benefit. If everything is to your liking then go ahead and hire them. If you sense even the slightest air of misrepresentation or extortion then run for the hills. Never ever hurt your financial situation hiring a coach. Find someone who is a good fit for your needs and personality.

Personally I wouldn't hire someone I didn't believe to be a good person. Not all educators are nice teachers but I have to believe they want me to succeed in order to get my money. Don't let yourself be another Girah/Hasseeb victim.

If you want a very lengthy read about the MTT grind in Cabo San Lucas, PCA and Aussie Millions check out my friend Marty's blog.

Follow me on Twitter @Gakn29