Training sites are under-priced relative to the value they provide if you use them. Most are priced at $100/mo or less. This is $1,200 per year. If you were to put $150,000 into tournament buy-ins over those 12 months, you would need to increase your ROI by 0.8% to make it breakeven. Add in that you get to use the knowledge beyond those 12 months and increase the total buy-ins, and the math starts to make it clear that if you utilize them well, they will be +EV.
The problem is that most people consume poker training content as entertainment. They watch it while falling asleep or while playing. You’re not going to understand new ideas deeply and will quickly forget most of what you’re watching. If this is how you will consume the content, you may just watch YouTube poker content for free and save money.
To make the training sites worth it, you need to treat video watching like school or a job. Sit down and allocate 30-90 minutes to study diligently. Take notes. Rewind and re-watch ideas that don’t immediately make sense. Leave questions you have on the video, and you will likely get your questions answered by the video creator or others in the community you’ve joined. If you utilize these training sites in this way, they will be worth it.
At Pocarr, we provide full financial backing, and all of the main poker training is paid for by us. This is one of the main advantages to getting staked by a large stable. You have no out-of-pocket cost for coaching, and often the quality is a bit higher as the incentives are better aligned for the coaching staff. At a poker training site, the coach gets paid whether he reveals 70% of his strategy or 100% of his approach. If, however, the coach is paid based on students’ performance, they are better incentivized to reveal 100% of their strategy. We are not accusing coaches of training sites of doing this, but you want to have the right incentives in place where you can.
Study in the right way, and poker training sites will be worth it.
