The biggest question the guests of PokerTrainingGuide have is how to choose the right poker training site. This is a complex question and deserves a step-by-step look at what makes training sites worthwhile. Most low-limit players have a hard time making the large investment into professional training, but PTG sees it as an investment almost every player should make if they want to win serious money and take their game to the next level.
Step 1:
What games do you play? You have to know which game you want the most professional help with and then narrow your choices accordingly. To help you short list the top training sites that suit your needs please consult our categorized list of top ranking sites by game type. If you play multiple games, check to see which sites show up on both types of games you play. For example; Player A plays NLHE Full Ring Cash games but also like to play SNG’s. We consult our rankings and see that Cardrunners and Stox Poker are on both lists. Now you can consult the reviews of both training sites by clicking on the right sidebar and read the reviews to choose the perfect site for you.
Step 2:
Let’s further refine our list by calculating what you are getting for your money. When you make the investment into poker training you need to know what you are getting out of it. There are some easy calculations to perform if you are trying to decide between two sites to see which site might be better value.
- Video Quantity at the start: This is what the sign up fee pays for. A bigger library from the beginning decreases your cost per video. As an example Cardrunners has 700 Videos and therefore has a cost per video of 14 cents.
- Amount of Videos released per month. This is what your monthly dues goes towards. A site putting out 35 videos a month only costs 80 cents per video for proven instruction that can’t be learned from a book.
Step 3:
What can you afford? The top training sites for the most part have a fixed initiation fee plus a monthly fee for using their services. If we assume that watching the videos and learning from the top online pros who have all beaten the games for large sums of money will add 1.5 PTBB/100 (PTBB = 2x the bb in NL and the BB in limit) to your win rate we come up with the following breakeven analysis for various limits. We also rate the need for training at the various limit based on earning potential above and beyond the cost of training.
| No-Limit | Hands | Need |
| NL25 | 3600 | Medium |
| NL50 | 1800 | High |
| NL100 | 900 | Essential |
| NL200+ | 400 | Essential |
| Limit | Hands | Need |
| .25/.50 | 3600 | Medium |
| .50/1.00 | 1800 | High |
| 1.00/2.00 | 900 | Essential |
| 2.00/4.00+ | 400 | Essential |
Step 4:
You now need to decide whether or not to sign up through a promotion with poker room to get a free poker training or a few months membership free. We are a huge believer in getting something for free. PokerTrainingGuide thinks that the only way to become a better poker player is to apply what you?ve learned and there is no better way then to grind a bunch of hands at a poker site to get free poker training. This savings on your bankroll is the way many players have kept their bankroll healthy and growing and if it works for the majority of winners it must have a positive expected value.
Step 5:
Sign up for a poker training site knowing you are making an investment that will pay dividends for the rest of your poker career. PokerTrainingGuide strongly believes that players will recoup the cost of any membership by playing one or two hands per month in a different fashion and winning more money because of it. When you win that pot because of it you will think to yourself why did I put if off for so long?
