{"id":1370716,"date":"2022-02-21T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.pokercoaching.com\/?p=1370716"},"modified":"2025-12-29T14:22:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T14:22:58","slug":"how-coaching-helps-me-as-a-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/how-coaching-helps-me-as-a-player\/","title":{"rendered":"How Coaching Helps Me As A Player"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Between PokerCoaching.com and my 1 on 1 private clients<\/a>, I have dedicated a good portion of my time to coaching. I don\u2019t think it is a coincidence that I have seen an uptick in my play and overall confidence rise in my poker game over time as I continue to coach more and more. Coaching forces me to identify weaknesses in my game. Prior to sessions with a student or a webinar I am prepping<\/a>, I will be presented with a topic to discuss. While prepping, I find out how well I know the topic. I will often do my own study sessions on the topic to reinforce and learn more, in turn increasing my understanding and ability to present it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albert Einstein was quoted, \u201cYou really don\u2019t understand something unless you can explain it to your Grandmother\u201d. This is a very powerful quote for poker players as it forces us to think about the \u201cWHY\u201d. I can simply tell my students that they should fold in a certain situation and they can copy that advice. It is the \u201cwhy\u201d that will change their decision-making process and help them apply the concept in other situations. I myself need to search more for the why when prepping topics. Whether it is basic fundamentals<\/a> like why we do not raise A-5 offsuit from under the gun, or why a blocker bet is the most effective bet size from out of position with a range advantage in certain situations. I need to be able to explain the why to my students for them to fully understand the topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sometimes a student will ask me a theoretical question to explain a topic or in a hand I will recommend a specific action. They ask me why, and sometimes I struggle to explain why. I may know it is the right answer, but do not know why it is the right answer. This shows a hole in my game and where I need to do more study to fully understand topics. This gives me my own work to study on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past year, I have spent a lot of time studying situations with PIOSolver, a game theory optimal calculator. PioSolver can output some pretty complex strategies in certain situations. My goal when I study is not to copy the strategy. In fact, I rarely ever copy the strategy. My goal when studying with solver<\/a> is to learn WHY it does what it does. For example, why does it check-raise 7-6 suited on A-7-2 rainbow at full frequency big blind v under the gun but not K-7 suited, a much stronger hand. The reason? If we check raise 7-6 suited, our opponent folds K-Q suited, K-J suited, K-T suited, and K-9 suited. That is a win for us when we fold out the over cards. But when we have K-7 suited, we don\u2019t want his K-x hands to fold as we want to make a dominated two pair against him. Here instead of copying a strategy, I have learned to understand the depth of the strategy. It allows me to make many exploitable plays against my opponents and fully understand why I am making the plays that I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, a good way to find out how well you understand a topic is to explain the theory behind it to another player. If you can\u2019t answer their questions or explain it in a very simplistic way, you need to do more work. I do this with my students all the time, I ask them WHY they made a certain play almost every hand. I am not saying they made a right or wrong play. I am trying to identify weaknesses or strengths in their decision making to find out where they need work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between PokerCoaching.com and my 1 on 1 private clients, I have dedicated a good portion of my time to coaching. I don\u2019t think it is a coincidence that I have seen an uptick in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":2516456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,877,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1370716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mindset-lifestyle","category-poker-basics","category-poker-strategy"],"acf":{"peak_live_date":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Post-How-Coaching-Helps-Me-As-A-Player.png",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Post-How-Coaching-Helps-Me-As-A-Player-373x210.png",373,210,true],"medium":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Post-How-Coaching-Helps-Me-As-A-Player-746x420.png",746,420,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Post-How-Coaching-Helps-Me-As-A-Player-768x432.png",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Post-How-Coaching-Helps-Me-As-A-Player-1024x576.png",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Post-How-Coaching-Helps-Me-As-A-Player.png",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Post-How-Coaching-Helps-Me-As-A-Player.png",1280,720,false],"author_image":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Post-How-Coaching-Helps-Me-As-A-Player.png",100,56,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Matt Affleck","author_link":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/author\/matt_affleck\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Between PokerCoaching.com and my 1 on 1 private clients, I have dedicated a good portion of my time to coaching. I don\u2019t think it is a coincidence that I have seen an uptick in my […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1370716"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2539914,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370716\/revisions\/2539914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2516456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1370716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1370716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1370716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}