Poker Training Courses: Tools to Learn to Play Poker Online

So you’ve started getting into poker, or perhaps you’re a seasoned expert of the world’s favourite gambling card game. Either way, you’ve landed here searching for concise and clear guidance to the best poker training courses currently available. The game of poker is deceptively complex, and newcomers often fall for the common fallacy that they can quickly pick up the strategy and wagering systems required to make long-term profits. Whilst it is true that with poker, and indeed with all casino games, a degree of uncontrollable luck is involved, poker remains one of the few games at a casino to exemplify such a skill-gap between professional players, and amateurs.
A man taking notes, while looking at a laptop.
Published on: 26 June 2020

Best Poker Training Sites

Now that you understand the importance of refining your poker skillset before embarking on a campaign of real money gambling, it is time to discuss how to learn to play poker like a professional. There are some really great poker training sites out there, and throughout this article, we’ve put together an ultimate collection of the very best.

Whilst natural talent for probability, quick arithmetic and reading the subtleties of human body-language go a long way in poker – these naturally acquired traits are not enough to really push this game to its limit. If you’re willing to improve your understanding of the subtleties of this game, there are several tried and tested methods to achieving this.

So without further ado, let’s get into our best poker training sites.

1. PokerNerve

Owner and operated by a seasoned professional tournament poker player, Kelvin Beattie, PokerNerve is a fantastic resource for understanding the complexities of multi-table tournament poker. Where poker is being played across multiple tables at once, rather than on a single table there are subtle differences that can be exploited – all of which this course explains in detail.

This course begins with the basics of multi-table tournament poker, and works its way up to the most complex of strategies. The teaching of the content in the program is delivered via video-stream and this allows punters to learn the topic at hand completely before moving on with the more advanced concepts. PokerNerve, much like many other poker training courses out there, provides its customers with a range table. This default ranges help you get started with proper wagering techniques and understand exactly how much you should be betting on each hand.

The main benefits of using PokerNerve:

  • The course has a 7-day free trial, allowing new players to try out the training videos without committing any cash upfront.
  • The content of the videos is structured in an interesting and light-hearted fashion – making the whole experience fun for the viewer.
  • The course is completely focused on maximising the skills of beginners and uses reinforcement learning to help you progress to the more advanced topics of poker.

2. Advanced Poker Training

The Advanced Poker Training course promises to “ignite your game” – a feat they achieve with proven real-time teaching techniques. By using technology and artificial intelligence, this program puts its customers through an interactive learning schedule, allowing students to practice their skills against AI opponents. By playing through countless real-game scenarios, you are given real-time advice, strategy tips and feedback on your game.

Another fantastic feature of this software is the functionality it provides when identifying the weakest aspects of your game. If you struggle to mitigate players with high-stakes betting strategy or you have trouble taking advantage of passive players – the real-time feedback AI will give you tips on how to beat them quickly, and develop profitable techniques.

Main benefits of choosing Advanced Poker Training as your learning provider:

  • Supreme use of technology to aid and teach players how to improve in real-time based on real situations in the card game.
  • Identifies the weakest aspects of your game and provides helpful targeted training on how to improve in these areas.
  • The course will provide you with a weekly report on how to improve, and the progress that you have made so far.

Someone dealing cards.

3. Raise Your Edge

If you want a course that offers teaching from one of the most successful online poker players in the world, then this is the one for you. “bencb789” is a notorious player across the world of high-stakes poker games. Now, he is giving back to the community, in a packed course full of valuable tips, strategies, and advice to help you raise your edge in the online poker sphere. Again, this course offers its users a pre-flop range table, that can be deciphered based on any set of cards you’re dealt to advise an adequate betting strategy going forward.

This course, as the name suggests, is not for beginner players. The expectation when enrolling in this poker is that you are already a seasoned poker player with a grasp on the more advanced topics within the game. The subtleties explored throughout the videos of this program will certainly be valuable to a player with a high degree of skill and experience already. Topics such as pot odds implied odds and hand ranges must be extremely comfortable to the customer, as they are the baseline of knowledge that the subsequent teaching is built upon.

The key advantages to using this software:

  • The content is targeted toward advanced players seeking to understand the more subtle and advanced topics of online poker gambling.
  • Taught by one of the most successful poker players in recent years offering a fresh perspective on the game in modern times.
  • Methodical and highly intuitive approach taken when it comes to the course content and the teaching strategy.

4. Upswing Poker Lab

Focusing on Texas Hold’em, this card game features expert advance from some of the game’s best-known veterans, with two expert players Doug Polk and Ryan Fee leading the students throughout the course. This program is broken down into 6 core sections, which include theoretical knowledge, practical examples, and real-time feedback. Beginning with Lab Core Strategy, the classes take on a more structure approach, quickly accelerating to Multi-Table Tournaments, Live Poker and Min-Courses, the final section of the course focuses on specific scenarios and plays with deep explanations provided to the customer.

This course touches on a lot of higher-level concepts that require pre-existing knowledge of advanced poker topics such as overbetting and aggressive 4betting. Again, this course offers users a specific hand-range guideline, that can be referenced when you start playing, giving you a deep understanding of differing wager strategies depending on your pre-flop cards.

Main strengths of learning to play poker with Upswing Poker Lab:

  • Doug Polk has a fantastic teaching style and provides a lot of entertainment throughout the content of the course.
  • The active Upswing Engage Facebook community allows you to interact with other students taking the course.
  • The course content goes into incredible depth and is consistently developing students into well-rounded poker players.

5. Run It Once

Taught by the great Phil Galfond, this enormous package of taught poker courses features over 4000 high-quality training videos provided by over 100 poker coaches. The sheer scale of this program isn’t the only impressive feature, it is the quality and quantity of their content that sets them apart from the hundreds of other poker training courses out there on the market. The entire catalogue of training videos can be quickly accessed via a mobile app or tablet. One drawback to this enormous selection is that it can be sometimes difficult to know where to start.

This is more of a library and archive of professional poker help rather than a structured taught course program. For that reason, it is not well-optimised for beginners, and you’ll need to have a substantial understanding of the game to best take advantage of the content on offer. But be in no doubt that signing up to this program will expose you to some highly niche topics, all whilst improving your game dramatically.

The strengths of the Run It Once poker training course:

  • Huge database of videos and taught courses covering every aspect of traditional poker.
  • Mobile application developed for access to videos and examples whilst on the move.
  • Free access to intro videos to allow customers to make decisions that are right for them.

Poker Training Sites: A Worthy Investment In Your Game

Some punters will question if it is worth spending money on poker training courses. But the royalties earned from understanding poker in all its complexities will pay dividends to you throughout your poker playing career. This small investment made now will ensure that individuals who are regular players of online poker will realise a higher win-rate and bigger gains, allowing you to quickly win back the money you spent on the training in the first place.

If you are looking for help and guidance with other gambling games, then check out our blackjack rules, blackjack strategy, roulette rules and roulette strategy guides.

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