As poker continues to evolve, so do the poker training sites designed to improve your game and get you a poker education. Poker training sites offer videos, workbooks and quizzes, live poker play, and even software that allows high volume practice. The scope of existing poker training sites reflects the reality that poker players, like all learners, are a heterogeneous group. Some absorb information well through viewing videos, others through reading, while many others need a more hands on focused approach.
Poker Training Sites
While there are many options out there, these are the top poker training sites available in 2022:
Advanced Poker Training
Advanced Poker Training (APT) remains the only option among Texas Hold’Em poker training sites where the core training involves active play. APT’s philosophy derives from a simple, but critical, fact: like all students, poker players learn faster and better through action and practice. APT’s central tool is a No Limit Hold’Em (NLH) simulation software which allows members to play hundreds of hands per hour. This high volume practice allows you to play full sessions in a fraction of the time it would take to do so in a live card room, and target the practice to areas of the game chosen by the player. For example, you could choose to deal 100 hands of QQ from early position, only suited connectors, pocket pairs, or any hand of your choosing.
Players choose from 9-Max or 6-Max cash games, Sit-n-Gos, Multi-Table Tournaments, and even Heads Up. Players are able to customize their training to target their local home game, public card room, or even World Series of Poker bracelet events. The site has a setting that mimics the exact blind and ante structure of the WSOP Main Event, and they update it every year to match the announced format. Opponents offer easy, moderate, or expert play. The site also has unique features such as a “Combat Trainer”, which allows for directed practice in very specific and common trouble areas, and “Beat the Pro Challenges” which enable users to challenge an experienced pro on an identical set of hands, and see a replay with the pro explaining his or her thinking. APT also features a monthly Madness Cup where opponents play the same set of hands heads up, with the more profitable player advancing through the bracket to the next level until one player is announced the Madness Cup champion. Advanced Poker Training can be tried out for free, and full membership is $39.97/mo with no signup fee and the cost can be reduced to half of that by purchasing a membership for a year.
If PLO is your game. Advanced Poker Training’s sister site, Omaha Poker Training offers many of the same benefits of APT focused on the PLO player. OPT even has Game Theory Optimal bots available to play for the more advanced OPT player who is looking to up his or her game. Pricing for OPT mirrors that of APT.
MasterClass – Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey
MasterClass earned a high spot on this list even though it might not be considered one of your typical poker training sites because it is frankly a bargain. They offer excellent courses by two of poker’s biggest stars and best teachers. Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey both share their poker knowledge and wisdom in separate MasterClass courses. MasterClass courses are centered around a set of videos prepared by each of their experts. These are supplemented by hand charts, text, and discussion forums for students.
Negreanu’s Class offers 38 lessons, covering topics from the very basic, such as position and hand range to more complex topics, like table image and game selection. Phil Ivey’s Class, meanwhile, offers 12 lessons encompassing tactical moves and mental strategies. These classes are outstanding, and getting into the mind of two of the best poker players of all time is an incredible experience.
What really blows our mind is the low cost. You can watch MasterClass on your laptop or stream to your TV. They also offer an app for the iPhone or iPad. Currently, a single class is $90. An All Access Pass, with access to all of the published MasterClass content, is $180 for a year. That includes not only the Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu courses, but also all the rest of their classes, like learning chess from Gary Kasparov or tennis from Serena Williams. And hey, if the poker training fails, you can watch the class and learn sleight of hand from Penn and Teller. For overall value, MasterClass is hard to beat.
SplitSuit Poker
SplitSuit Poker, developed by James “SplitSuit” Sweeney focuses on improving your Texas Hold ‘Em Cash game. The format includes in-depth strategy videos, guides, and products to help take your game to the next level. Splitsuit offers a variety of quizzes, workbooks, and even free spreadsheet resources on his site.
At $99 a month, the Vault offers access to all of Splitsuit’s courses. These include the Hand Reading Lab, the One Percent, The Mental Advantage, and more. Courses can also be purchases separately for $200 to $500 a piece.
Red Chip Poker
Red Chip Poker offers a variety of training courses geared to NLH players. Their CORE course offers over 100 lessons which include a variety of text, videos, hand breakdowns and quizzes. Each lesson offers a discussion forum, and players can earn achievements and badges as they move through the course. The site estimates CORE contains around 75 hours of study and costs $5 per week.
In addition to their CORE course, Red Chip Poker also offers a variety of “Crash Courses” in topics such as the MTT 3-Bet Shove, $1/$2 Basics, and Aggression. Each Crash Course also offers a variety of videos, text and quizzes to help learners integrate new information. The PRO membership allows access to everything on the site. The site has coaching from well-known poker coaches such as James “SplitSuit” Sweeney, Doug Hull, Ed Miller, Christian Soto and many others. PRO membership comes in at $50 per month.
Pokercode
PokerCode is the new site in town. Founded by Fedor Holz and Matthias Ebinger in 2019, Pokercode offers instruction via pre-recorded lessons, a resource library, poker resources, such as a range finder, and even live coaching with Fedor Holz himself.
Pokercode offers a large poker community interacting via a dedicated slack channel. They area also able to interact with the Grindhouse, a house in which eight professionals live full-time learning from some of the best in the game. Pokercode costs 89 Euros per month, or a discounted 699 Euros per year.
Run It Once
Run It Once (RIO), created by Phil Galfond describes itself as “the world’s leading poker strategy community.” Run It Once offers an enormous and constantly expanding library of video content geared toward a wide variety of players. An impressive line-up of professionals have contributed videos to RIO, including Fedor Holz, Jason Koon, Stephen Chidwick, and Sam Greenwood. As with the other poker training sites listed here, Run It Once offers a healthy set of user forums to help students further their training.
Run It Once offers two tiers of membership: “Essential” (low stakes) and “Elite” (high stakes). “Essential” costs $24.99/month and gives users access to five new “Essential” videos per week and the 1,500-plus video Essential Library. “Elite” members get all of that, plus nine more “Elite” videos each week, and the nearly 2,400-video Elite library at a cost of $99.99/month. Galfond describes “Essential” as geared toward games with stakes under 500NL, with “Elite” directed toward 500NL and up.
We encourage you to visit these sites and review the available training tools. Decide what best fits your needs, and start improving your game today.
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APT works! Provided your willing to pay attention. Rehearse, do the tedious work and personally commit to making the necessary mental adjustments. It’s not a toy!