How much should you spend on you poker education

In today’s poker world there are numerous outlets and resources you can take advantage that will help guide you into poker’s winner column. These resources range from free articles and hand calculators, to one-on-one coaching sessions that can run as high as $1,000/hour or more. So the question becomes, how much should I be spending on my poker education, and what will give me the most bang for my buck?

In this series I will dissect the five different categories of poker resources, and who will benefit from using them:

• Free Resources such as Poker Stove, free online poker schools and more
• Basic Primer Books and Magazine Subscriptions
• Software: tracking, training and more
• Monthly Subscriptions to poker training sites or data-mining sites
• High-End Resources like expensive eBooks and private coaching

One of the first things you need to ask yourself is what are my goals in poker? When it comes to poker goals it doesn’t make much sense for a person planning to participate in a weekly home-game to purchase anything more than a couple books. You could also just Google poker strategy and find thousands of free articles, or join one of the free Poker Schools that are now in operation -PokerStars, Party Poker, and Full Tilt Poker all operate free online poker training rooms.

These resources are not going to turn you into a world-beater, but then again you’re not really trying to be a world-beater; you just want to be competitive in your home-game!

On the other hand, if you have loftier goals in the poker world you’ll want to take your poker education a few steps further. A break-even player with 10 years of playing experience will find little value in a $15 or $20 poker book. If this player wants to improve the price of poker has just gone up! To get over the initial hump of being competitive -which can be accomplished using almost entirely free resources-you have to be willing to start investing money in your poker education.

• In Part 2 of this series I will detail some of the free resources a player can take advantage of, such as PokerStove, strategy article archives, free online poker schools hosted by online poker rooms, and poker forums.
• In Part 3 the emphasis switches to poker books and a few other options for poker players in the $10-$40 price-range.
• In Part 4, I will examine the numerous software options that are available, and which ones will offer the best ROI for you.
• Part 5 of this series will deal with monthly subscriptions to online poker training sites and data-mining sites like Sharkscope.
• And finally in Part 6, I will go over the high-end resources of one-on-one coaching, and the high-end eBooks that can run into the thousands of dollars, but are usually worth the price!