A few years back, I had the opportunity to be an instructor for one of the two-day poker seminars. I took the job thinking I would be able to make a few bucks and have a new experience. At the time, I didn’t expect the largest benefit would be how much it would improve my poker game. At the seminar, the coaching was pretty basic and along the lines of what I expected, but the kicker for me was meeting an individual who later approached me about doing some private lessons with him.

He was a nice guy and I could tell he had a natural ability for the game, but he definitely had some major leaks and flaws in his thought processes. I agreed to do an informal coaching deal with him, mostly because I liked him more than anything and thought I could learn enough about business from him to make it more than worth the time I would spend teaching him about poker. I was right in that I have been able to learn a ton about business from him, but I have also learned more about poker by teaching and explaining than I ever thought I would.

We focused on getting ready to play the World Series of Poker Main Event, which was perfect for me. We were both planning to play the event anyway, so we laid out a list of topics and spent 30 minutes to an hour a couple times a week talking about everything from early level strategy to when to 3-bet to what to do between days to research your table draw.

As we started talking, I quickly realized that having to explain why I do almost everything I do and having someone question me and push me forced me to evaluate and examine my thought process. That in-depth look at the whys of what I was doing made me start to see things more clearly and gave me a much better grasp on the underlying reasons for the decisions I was making instead of relying on rote memorization in a lot of instances. The better understanding of the why almost immediately led to me making better decisions.

As we continued our lessons and discussions, my own game kept getting better and better. The more we dug into topics and theories, the more refined and polished my game became and I broke through a plateau in my play that I hadn’t even realized I had hit.

When I first started playing, my learning curve was steep, but then, as happens to everyone, it leveled off. While I was improving, it was in small margins instead of large chunks, and the average skill of players as a whole was probably increasing at roughly the same rate I was, so I wasn’t actually realizing any advantage. That changed after just a few weeks of coaching and I felt myself jump ahead and started seeing the results in almost every session I played.

I would suggest coaching as a solid learning tool for anyone out there who has reached a comfort level with their game, but wants to push through and go to the next level. Find someone you enjoy working with that is a few steps behind you in their poker development and see if they would be interested in getting some coaching from you.

Then, as you are teaching them, never shy away from the question of “Why?” Give it your all to answer as fully as you can and you will push through some of your own barriers and expand your own game.

Court Harrington has worked on the business side of the poker industry in roles including tournament reporting for PocketFives, radio hosting for PokerRoad Radio, coaching for the WSOP Academy, and a variety of behind-the-scenes responsibilities. He also plays in cash games and tournaments. Harrington is currently doing consulting work and exploring business opportunities outside of the poker industry. You can contact him at PokerRoadCourt@gmail.com.