Getting lessons

JuiceMan

Dave, I was just wondering what ur opinion is on this is. Im turning 21 in three weeks, and have been playing online poker with a few home games here and there, steadily for about 6 months now. My casino here in windsor is only now starting to get a poker room, so i am very new to live play. I am going to vegas for my bday and plan on playing alot of limit ring games and no limit tourneys. This will still leave me with small amounts of live play. Is it worth while joining something like pokerschool online or not? the idea to me is very tempting because i really want to bring my game up a notch or two, Thus far i have been a losing player overall with most of my losses at the begining of my steady play. I have been starting a bit of a winning streak lately but nothing to write home about. Just wondering if u think its worthth the 15 bucks a month? Or would simply just play more till I get better be the best course of action?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts,

P.s Thanks also to all the members and admins who have already helped me out alot with my game.

Dave Scharf

It sounds, to me, like PokerSchoolOnline would be a great investment for you. AmyC on the forum is a regular contributor there and you might better address this question to her (I have emailed her and asked he to post her answer here).

Amy C

Hey JM,
It's true. I am a member and a contributor to PokerSchoolOnline. And I think it is a wonderful community of serious players that offers a number of different resources (lessons by pros, forums, mentors, and tourneys 24/7) to improve your game. At the bottom you'll find a link to an article I wrote about it awhile ago. I will say that most of the emphasis is on tournament, sng and satellite play. While they offer good ring game tutorials and games 24/7, the cash games are still a little too lightly attended IMHO - although I know the site is looking into more incentives to increase cash game traffic.

Since the article I wrote PSO has added a number of new programs and sponsorships. They just gave away a seat to the $25K Bellagio event and have added sponsorships to the WSOP $5000 Omaha hi/lo, $5000 Stud hi/lo, $10,000 NLHE event, and $1000 Women's
event, on top of their current and generous sponsorship program.

http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/players/amy-calistri01.htm

Good luck out there,
Amy

JuiceMan

I went ahead and singed up, Im going to give it a try for a month and see how it goes. thanks again

Amy C

Great! I look forward to seeing you there. My PSO id is oil doe.

Amy

SocietyRed

I'm thinking of giving this a try. How accsesible are profesional players to analyze my game and offer advice on a personal level. I would hate to sign up and then have access to articles and lessons only.

Red

Amy C

Well it sort of depends what and who you're looking for. Barry Tanenabum, one of my very favorite professional cash game players and Card Player writers, runs training tables/cliniques twice a month; usually one cash game and one sng. Rolf Slotboom also runs a clinique once or twice a month. Rolf is a Pot Limit monster. Both Daniel Negreanu and Jennifer Harman have their own forums - although Daniel is taking a little bit of a break over the next month as pending nuptials are taking up a little bit of his time.

But the pros are only one aspect of the kind of "teaching" available. Many of the PSO members have consistently moneyed in major events. While there are definate newbies on the site, there are members that have just incredible games and play either professionally or semi-professionally. I think the competition is better on PSO than most of the money sites I play, but because it is a school, there is also a lot of constructive interaction that goes on, on and off the tables. Hands and strategies are debated in detail. The advanced forum, IMHO, offers some of the best discussion available on the net. There are also some very intensive mentor programs (additional fee) by some of the members that have yielded some incredible results. Overall, I think the membership represents one of PSO's major strengths.

And it is also a great "penalty" free place to develop new games. In my article I mentioned that Perry Friedman, famed tiltboy and WSOP Omaha hi/lo bracelet winner, joined for a few months just to work on his hold'em game. He said after his stint at PSO, he was making more money in HE than his trademark Omaha game.

But I will also admit that I am biased. There have been a number of people that have joined and left PSO, not finding what they were looking for. And I think that it is worth getting other opinions and/or taking advantage of their free trial offer and seeing for yourself.

Good luck,
Amy