Poker coaching, in plain English
One-on-one lessons for players who want to stop guessing — from your first hands to the spots that have been quietly costing you for years.
Most poker advice is either a chart you will forget by Sunday or a three-hour video aimed at someone playing for a living. Coaching with Fred is neither. You bring the hands that bothered you, and you leave understanding why they bothered you — which is the part that changes what you do next time.
Two decades at the table, most of it spent explaining hands to people across the felt. No jargon for its own sake, and no suggestion that you should have known already — there's more on how Fred got here if you want to know who you'd be sitting down with.
What you actually get
- Hand history review. Bring the hands you were unsure about. Fred works through what the betting was telling you and what the alternatives were, in language that survives contact with a real table.
- Drills for your leaks. Not a generic syllabus — targeted work on the spots where your chips go. Most players have two or three, and they are rarely the ones they expected.
- A written summary. A short recap after each session, so the lesson is still there a fortnight later when the spot comes up again.
- Somewhere to use it. If you are local, the weekly games in Barooga and Cobram are a friendly place to put the work in straight away.
Who it's for
Anyone from "I just learnt the rules" to "I hold my own at $1/$2 but I have stopped improving". The only real requirement is being willing to talk through a hand without ego — show the bad bluff, ask the obvious question. That is where the work happens.
If you have never played live before, start with the hand rankings and come to a game — that is a cheaper first lesson than any session, and Fred would rather you did that first.
Common questions
Do I need to be any good already?
No. Most people who get in touch have either just learnt the rules or have been playing socially for years without ever studying it properly. Both are a fine place to start — the first session is about finding where your chips actually go, not testing you.
What happens in a session?
You bring hands you were unsure about. Fred pulls them apart in plain English — what the bet was actually saying, what the alternatives were, and which habit the spot belongs to. You leave with one or two things to work on, not a chart to memorise.
Is it online or in person?
Coaching runs one-on-one over video, so distance is not an issue. If you are local to Barooga or Cobram you can also just come to one of the weekly games and talk to Fred there first.
How often should I do it?
Most players get further with a session, a few weeks of playing the thing they worked on, and then another — rather than a run of lessons back to back. The table is where it sticks.
Where to start
Send Fred a message with roughly where you are at and what you want to get better at. No obligation and no sales pitch — you will get a straight answer about whether coaching is the right thing for you, or whether you would be better off just turning up to a game first.
Ask Fred about coaching See this week's games
Working on your game on your own? The poker strategy library covers the fundamentals — position, pot odds, board texture and the rest — for free, and everything Fred has written sits on the blog.