I think everyone should get Skype: as it's the best program to talk to others over the net.

AIM is also a good way for people to communicate.

I'd ask for everyone involved or who'd like to be involved to add me on AIM: GodlikeRoy

I'll sort out the chains and post them in here and then I'll sort out any final details or touches regarding payments or getting students + coaches in touch through AIM.

Please keep posting if you'd like to be involved as as soon as we have enough people for a new chain we'll get one going. As of now it looks like we can get 3 going so I'll write them up within the next hour or so.

Added you Roy, and sent you a message. Also I have Skype as well.

I am putting myself in the mix as a head coach.

I am going to start by charging $100/hr. I am charging less right now because I do not have experience with (formal) coaching. My hourly at poker is higher than this but due to the lack of variance with coaching I feel I can accept less and still have it be worth my while. If I feel I am doing a good job and get positive feedback on my coaching this rate may be upped in the future.

For those that do not follow my exploits, I am mainly a NL400 player. I also game select and play NL600 and NL1000 sometimes. I have been a pro since June 2007. I am Canadian and have played at iPoker, Pacific, Cake and Ongame during the last 6 months. My "home" is Ongame.

Edit: My AIM is TripleBTP if anyone has questions

as most of you know, i don't know jackshit about nlhe, but i definitely have some ideas about the education part.

1) i think the levels are too close. you might want to say something like 10/25 as one group, 50/100 as another group, 200 as another group, and 400+ as another group. you guys would have a better idea about where the natural breaks would be, but i'm guessing that there are conceptual leaps that happen at certain levels (e.g., usually at plo8, 25 and 50 play about the same, 100 is different, 400 is different, and 200 is a weird mix of 100 and 400).

2) a good/winning player does not necessarily equal a good teacher. i think glr is hinting at that now, but it's a key point worth reiterating. imho, a good teacher will figure out what fundamental points his student needs to learn and will focus on those. the nuanced stuff usually needs to be held back. i know that if i were to coach 25plo8, what i would actually do and what i would need to teach someone to do would not always be the same. that being said, a student would not need to (and probably wouldn't be able to) consider all the factors needed to make a play (hopefully closer to optimal) that i would make but not recommend to said student. in short, a good teacher will know what to teach and what NOT to teach at any given time.

3) anyone who teaches might want to review those threads at 2p2 when some high(er) level player went down to play the 25s or 50s just to make a point that the games were still soft. iirc, there's one where some dude just beats the crap out of the 25s for a really good number. i realize the games are probably different now, but some of the principles might still carry over.

4) i think styles need to be considered, too. for example, if i were to learn nlhe from someone, i probably wouldn't want a heavy dose of xaston because i don't really want to learn his stated philosophy (at least it was at one time) of playing game theory optimal. i much prefer to play an exploiting/exploitable game, and i cater my game to my opponents at a given time in a given hand (that's why i probably couldn't play more than 6 tables at once). let me make it clear that i'm not knocking xas -- i think his style has plenty of merit and i could learn from it -- but i wouldn't want it to be my "main" style or gear.

5) can zmej be fit into the mix in any way? i think zmej has the potential to be a great teacher at any stakes. he'd probably want money rather than lessons, but still...


anyway, that's my 2 cents. overall, i think this idea has a lot of merit. i hope it works out.

Excession could be a good teacher i think. Zmej would definitely be great to have.

Shobute, are u interested?

This thread needs more entertainment imo...

Kuso,

1) The groups are meant to be general guidelines. There really is no strict rule for who should be in which group. Zmej is a 100NL player, if he did return, what group would he be in? He would be a head coach. There's at least one player playing 100NL who is not comfortable coaching a NL50 player, so he is in a lower group, where he would still receive good coaching from a player the level above and also be able to feel comfortable coaching someone from the group below.

2) This is true. What this program will do will not only have coaches teaching students poker, but the coaches will learn from the other coaches how to coach. Ie I will start off teaching someone playing NL200 and while I'm teaching them I'm sure they'll pick up on how we're conducting lessons, what things I'm picking up on, etc, and be able to pass that on to whoever they coach.

I'm available if anyone wants to talk to me about what's involved in coaching before they start and can give anyone some tips for things to look out for and how to conduct a lesson, and I'm leaving myself open to any questions anyone may have (add me on AIM: GodlikeRoy). Hopefully people will not only improve their game but improve their ability to coach. I also believe that as people coach, they learn, so really..it's an incredibly powerful system for people wanting to improve their game.

3) Do you have some links to those threads? They sound good for everyone playing those stakes to read.

4 & 5) I think Xas and DH answered these pretty well. I think a coach teaching a student the exact same style and ideas that they already know is good to an extent if they can teach advanced plays, but when you get a coach teaching new things and planting new ideas and concepts into the mind of the student that's when their game really expands.

Zmej is no doubt a brilliant thinker but as Xas said he probably wouldn't be the best coach for an English speaker.

Ex,

That's too bad that you can't be involved but hopefully we'll have this program running for a long time and you can join down the track.

All,

I've decided upon a few general rules/guidelines:

Each chain will book & pay for 5 hours at the beginning.

We'll aim for one lesson per week. This allows for people to pick a time that suits both parties and not be too often so that people with semi-busy schedules can't participate. It also leaves enough time in-between sessions to allow for people to review their sessions, try their new concepts out in their games, prepare for the next coaching session, etc.

As far as payments go here is what I have so far:

$150/hr
Level 1 - $75
Level 2 - $40
Level 3 - $25
Level 4 - $10

$125/hr)
Level 1 - $60
Level 2 - $35
Level 3 - $20
Level 4 - $10

$100/hr
Level 1 - $40
Level 2 - $25
Level 3 - $15
Level 4 - $10

As far as payment methods go, I think it should be standard for all students to pay for their 5-hour set up-front so as to make things as simple as possible and also protect the coaches in the case of an unknown or semi-unknown student people a part of the chain. I believe we can all trust the coaches we currently have and any coaches we may add in the future will not be added unless they are also trusted. As far as Puzz goes, as many of you don't know him, I will take responsibility should anything go sour in that case (although I am virtually 100% sure that nothing will be wrong).

We can have the students send the money direct to the coach or I can collect it and ship it to the coach when all the students have paid. Both work, really, and I don't mind either way. I never intended to burden the top coaches with the administrative responsibility of having to organise things which is why I offer to take that role and make sure things run smoothly.

I'm hoping that once my coaching site is up we can have a more automated system for all of this but until then I'm fine with taking on the workload.