Just to present all facts, here is the mystery coach's FT graph (the other graph was for Stars) - hasn't made money in almost 2 years there since 2009 as well.  And again, a negative win rate over an adequate sample.  And the dude owns his own coaching site!!!

Oops.  Forgot to wipe out the name that time.  So between the two sites, that's like a 300K hand break-even in the last 2 years.  Actually, "break-even" would be kind, since he's dropped almost $500K in that time on the two sites.  So would you want coaching from this guy?!?

If someone offered me 5 hours of free coaching and my choices were aejones or a small stakes guy "crushing" at 3ptbb, I'd take aejones - easily.  What would you do?  If someone offered me $7,500 in coaching and I could have 5 hours or aejones or 50 hours of some small stakes dude, I'd rather just pocket the money.  I'm a cheap ass, what can I say?  But I'd still take aejones.

Oh and funny that aejones happens to be Vinivici's boss at Leggo Poker.  "Boss, you really shouldn't be making videos or coaching anymore - you are no longer qualified.  Oh, and you need to stop charging $1,500 an hour on coaching.  We need to start policing ourselves as a community.  Aw-ight?  Umm...  BTW, can I get a raise?"

I just wanted to illustrate that you don't *have to* be a winner in today's games to provide some valuable insight into today's games.  I've learned a lot from watching aejones' videos.  He plays a completely different style than I do and I generally find his videos entertaining.  There are MANY different facets of poker... there's the mind game (like discipline, attitude), the business end (rakeback, bankroll management, etc), philosophies and metagame, styles of play, understanding opponent tendencies, nuances of preflop (ranges, bet sizing, table dynamics, 3+bet pots, etc), and all the various postflop scenarios (too long to mention).  For me to get some value out of a coach, I would much rather talk to some dude who is the best in one area - that can turn a losing or weaker areas area of my game into a +ev one, rather than some dude who does well all the things that I currently do well ALREADY.  To accomplish that, I don't think I need someone who crushes overall.  While I will probably "lean" towards the person with a great win rate all thing being equal, win rate is just one of many factors that go into deciding on a good coach for your particular needs.

In aejones' case, just talking to him about his reads on the other Stars 5/10+ regs could be worth over a multiple of his coaching rate of $1,500 an hour - especially the ones who are vulnerable to playing in 3bet pots.  For those who don't know, AE specializes in forcing people to play in 3bet pots oop (something I don't do much).  And that's the area of my game I would want the "coaching" on.  I'm not going to want to talk to him about spots to 4bet-shove or opening ranges from the BB, because I don't know that he's particularly good at that.  But all he needs to be to be a good coach *FOR ME* is for him to add some value to *SOME* part of my game.  And he can do that - potentially in a huge way.  I can't say that about a crushing small stakes guy who basically plays my game.

If you suck at poker, you probably want to get coaching from the small stakes guy.  But that's how markets are set.  People like me would want to pay a premium from aejones, and the noobs are happy to get the small stakes coaching at relatively bargain basement prices.

Not to mention all the things other than win rate that go into being a good coach - effective communications, organization, problem solving.  I know a guy who got coaching from a mid stakes crusher (also a good video maker) and even tho he seems to work hard, it didn't seem to translate into a noticeably positive win rate.  So win rate should be only one of many criteria you need to consider before hiring a coach.  And you should probably have some realistic expectations of what a coach can do for you. But since I have limited experience with the coaching process, maybe I'll save that for a later post. 

All I wanted to say today was... "Yes.  You can be a losing player and still be a good coach."