Coaching

About me:

I am a veteran online holdem cash player, known mostly as GAZAVAT. Some of you might know me personally, indirectly from a forum, or through a friend, but I am not a well known player/poster on liquidpoker, so I will provide a total of 2 free coaching hours in a database analysis format(1hour each to 2 members) to gauge interest. Check the bottom of the blog for the requirements to qualify for this offer. I am not going to provide many personal details about myself as I hate and do my best to avoid public attention. If you find this unacceptable, please do not waste your time reading further.

I am in tune with my desired levels of risk and reward, so I play below my perceived skill level and way lower than my poker bankroll allows me to. I am making low variance money at HU/6max/FR NLH cash games at stakes up to 400NL, while at the same time trying to improve as a human being.



These are my most recent hands from this and last year from sites supported by HM2. I used to be solely a 6max player in the distant past, then switched to HU which I played almost exclusively for the bigger part of last year. Towards the end of last year I added 6max and FR as I was growing tired of waiting for HU action as I do not play during peak hours. Therefore, the non HU results are very recent play, while I would estimate that only 1/3 of my volume is HU nowadays.

I am a devoted student of the game myself and really work diligently on constantly improving and staying on top of all current strategic tendencies, the whole spectrum of training resources, and all cutting edge poker related software applications. Dedication to steady work ethic and mental preparation are keys to my approach. I strongly believe that players should approach poker training systematically and deliberately using regularly a wide range of analysis tools and strategies. In general, our strategies are best tested at the poker tables, but often its more optimal and quicker to model or refine our approach to situations numerically using analysis or tracking software. I have worked as tech support for HEM and consider myself an expert on using tracking software to detect leaks in the games of 6max, FR and HU NL cash players. I have a substantial technical background and my experience with HM2 stats, filters, and reports is vast. Similarly, I am a power user when it comes to higher learning curve programs like CREV (CardrunnersEV formerly known as STOXEV) and Notecaddy. My technical expertise facilitates me in setting up and optimizing your standard game plan in various situations, while my HU experience provides meaningful insight in the art forms of exploitation and adjustment.

One of my goals for the year is to become the best possible poker coach in my price range and stakes. Coaching is a very shady over saturated segment and this is one of the reasons I have not actively looked for or accepted many students or promoted my services so far in any shape or form. I have always preferred to focus on my own game instead of dealing with distractions or undesired public attention. However, this year I decided to force myself to get out of my shell and set a goal to try to provide significant value as a coach and hopefully find several really motivated and dedicated students. This last part highlights the main goal of this post which is not to find a big quantity of students, instead I would like to reach out to a large audience, but find few quality students with proper attitude. My time is a limited resource and as an active winning player, I still prefer to spend the largest portion of it playing or improving my own game, while attempting to lead a well balanced life. Despite my positive feelings towards teaching, coaching will never become a main source of income for me or take up more time then what is allocated for my own study and play.

In my coaching, I use a mix of mathematical reasoning, sound poker logic, and advanced analysis software. My desire is to teach a thought process, provide a work ethic and software edge, while improving your understanding of all intangible poker related skills. Not only can I improve your technical aptitude and study habits, but also other essential factors such as routine, motivation, and mindset. If you are looking for quick solutions or formulas, this is not the place for you. I will not provide you with my own work, instead I will teach you how to work yourself and assist you along the way. I will not provide you with ready Pre Session and Post Session routines, but I will help you come up with your own personalized one and give you pointers based on my experience. I will not give you a prepared HM2 HUD or popups to use, I will teach you how to make the most optimal HUD and popups based on your personal desires and preferences. I will not give you my HEM reports or filters, but I will explain and show how to do your own in order to monitor all areas of your game on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis in order to track progression and regression patterns. I will not give you any prepared CREV analysis trees, but I will teach you how to use and integrate that powerful program in your own study time. I will not sell/give you my NC definitions, but I will teach you how to prepare your own custom definitions and will guide you how to think about and take maximum advantage of notes and stats. My goal is not to do the work for you and get paid, but for you to learn how to do work on your own. In the short term, this will be painful and difficult for you, but in the long term, if you follow through, you will thank me that I did not give you shortcuts. Learning is a slow accumulation process that requires patience and steady levels of energy fueled by desire.

Coaching formats:

Database Analysis: I prefer to start with this as a first session as it gives me a lot of information about possible areas of improvement. The way this works is, the student exports between 50k-150k hands from their database from the chosen game type (FR, 6max, HU), zips and sends them to me at least one day before via https://www.filemail.com/ (you do not need an account). I then import the hands into HM2 and do the analysis live on my computer with the student over Teamviewer + Skype. I can do this on my own and send back the video file with commentary, but interacting with the student is more effective. This database analysis can extend over several coaching sessions depending on the desired analysis depth or it can simply be a brief overall review, so that we are on the same page of what general areas need improvement so we can focus on them during other coaching formats. I consider this format to be the best value for a coaching session.

Video review: Student records a 30min video of him:
-playing tough/interesting tables
-student records himself, while talking out their thought process
-student records a session from a certain point where he is off their A game

Afterwards, we review the session together. This format provides very good balance between game flow and in depth theory discussions.

Hand history review: We review a few interesting hand histories chosen by the student (preferably they address a specific weak area that was identified earlier), while discussing all possible scenarios and related theory plus general game plan implications. Additional analysis software is used during these sessions for more objective and realistic analysis. Alternatively, I can run a filter myself on the provided database sample by the student and pick the hands myself in order to address a specific concept or situation.

HU session: We play each other HU for 30-40min. Then I send you my part of the video with my own analysis of the match later or we discuss specific hands and adjustments immediately after the match. If a student likes this format, this can be a longer match and the analysis can be extended over several coaching sessions.

Sweat session; Student plays, while I sweat real time at a maximum of 3 tables, so we can cover each decision thoroughly. My experience shows this format to be the least valuable and effective.

Other: This usually involves specific software coaching, setting up optimal HM2 HUDs, reports, filters, CREV trees, NC definitions, Flopzilla, Equilab, SliceEQ etc.. These are formats that are chosen only if the student specifically requests them and I am very flexible and open to suggestions. Also, I have a lot of experience with mental game improvements and applicable strategies, so upon request, I can provide guidance and recommendation in areas such as optimal routines, schedules, goal setting, motivation and mindset. Students wrongfully underestimate the importance of these intangibles as well as hugely overestimate their expertise in these areas.

Homework: I give out homework assignments very often and expect the student to come prepared for our session. You will not get much out of the coaching if you come with a mindset that you will simply passively absorb proven successful strategies and then replicate them in your game.

Pricing:

Current price is 100$ per hour, I expect this price to go up soon. I do not coach students that play 400NL or higher in formats different from Database analysis or Other software related coaching and analysis. At this point, I do not do staking or profit sharing coaching.

Feel free to contact me by PM or email selfcoacher@yahoo.com , but remember that you need to be ready to put in significant amount of work beyond the coaching sessions as there is no instant gratification.

Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play the bigger the role preparation seems to play.

You will have to fill out the following questionnaire before our first session:

Questionnaire:

What games/stakes do you play?
Very brief Poker history?
What are your short and long term goals for Poker?
Have you had any coaching before? What did you like and dislike?
What are your goals and expectations for coaching?
Do you have any specific leaks or difficult spots you want to address?
List any known mental game issues you have.
What is your current play/study ratio? How many hours and tables on average do you play weekly? What does your study time consist of?
List all poker related software that you use.

Requirements for free coaching:
Two liquidpoker members with accounts created earlier than 2012 with at least 100 posts(as of today) will be chosen for 1 hour each of free database analysis coaching format. To be eligible, besides meeting the aforementioned requirements, you will have to answer all questions from the questionnaire as well as provide a short reason why I should pick you. You can PM me the answers (if you you want to keep the info private and not post them in the comment section), but make sure that you post the following comment - "PMed for free coaching" in order to avoid any confusion. I will make the picks myself by the end of next week as long as there are at least 10 qualifying candidates.

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