23 Jan 2024 As a regular poker player, you have developed considerable expertise and an understanding of the mechanics of winning. If you find joy in helping others improve their poker skills and want to diversify your income, becoming a poker coach could be the perfect path for you.In this article, we will look at the specific steps you need to take to become a successful poker coach. Step 1. Become a consistently winning player. To become a poker coach, you first need to be a winning player. And since luck plays a big role in the short term, you need to play a significant number of hands while showing a good win rate. This will be a practical confirmation of your expertise. What distance should I have? For cash games, we would recommend a distance of at least 200,000 hands. Until you have reached this milestone, it is better to focus on your development as a player. What win rate should I have? "Good" win rates vary greatly depending on the stakes, game type, poker room, etc. For example, at high stakes, a win rate of 3bb/100 can be very good, while at low stakes, good regulars can have a win rate of 6bb/100 or more. Try to compare your results with other successful players in your field. Anyway, if you've been playing poker for a living for at least a few months now, and feel confident about the future, you're already a pro and can move on to the next step. Step 2. Practice speaking and listening skills. If you want to be a successful coach, in addition to your poker game expertise, you also need to develop communication skills. It includes: explaining concepts in simple language; ability to listen and answer questions. You can easily practice these skills by participating in live hand discussions with colleagues. Organize a few meetings to study together and discuss strategy. It is better not to invite many people, 2-3 people will be ideal so that you have a lot of involvement in the discussion. After several meetings, you will feel progress in the ability to clearly express your thoughts, as well as listen to the interlocutors and help them learn. This may already be enough to move to the next step. But generally, we recommend that you keep such meetings as part of your poker routine. Step 3. Take a few coaching sessions as a client. Once you've become a consistently winning player and also feel confident in discussing strategy with colleagues, the next smart thing to do is to try coaching as a client. This will allow you to achieve several goals at once: ♠ You’ll look at examples of already practicing trainers "from the inside". You will be able to analyze how they organize the learning process and communicate with customers (with you in this case). ♥ You’ll better understand the client's position. Having been on the client side, you are aware of all the problems and requests that your clients may face in the future. In this way, you will be able to become a more professional and client-oriented coach. ♦ You’ll get new knowledge and strengthen your expertise. The coach will analyze your weaknesses and give you tools to work with them, and can also give you new concepts that you have not applied before. You will be able to use the new knowledge both to pass it on to your students and for the overall development of you as a professional player. Take a look at our article on How to find a poker coach. Step 4. Create your coaching page on Getcoach.poker! Once you've completed all 3 steps, you're ready to start your poker coaching career! Fill out a simple form with all the details so we can create your page. Apply now For more information on how the platform works for coaches, see the article I am a coach.
