Poker Tutoring with Skype

I've mentioned before that I play poker at Poker School On-Line. What I haven't talked about before is the mentoring programs that are offered there. These are available at several different levels from free (with paid membership) to extra cost. Some are just groups of people who get together and comment on each other's play, and others are more structured programs led by a professional or semi-professional player.

One of the mentors is Al Spath (http://www.alspath.com/ and former owner of victorypoker cardroom). Al uses Skype to tutor poker students all over the world, but also hosts group Skype poker discussions and games at PSO.

I joined Al for two such sessions. The first was a "ring game" of Limit Hold 'Em. A ring game is one where you can sit down at the table at any point and join the other players; a tournament has a definite starting point and you can't just drop in whenever you wish.

Skype was limited to five participants in a conference call at that time (now often 60 players can join in) , so only four of us were able to be together wth Al at the same time. Al provided both written (in the PSO chat window) and spoken commentary and advice throughout the session. I was only able to play for about 20 minutes; I came in with $100.00 in chips (PSO dollars, not actual money) and left with $114.00. I don't like limit poker as much as no limit, but it was interesting to hear everyone's banter and Al's advice while playing.

The next day I joined a tournament, again limit, and again hosted by Al. Again only four of us could participate, so Al stepped up the written commentary considerably. I made it to the final table, but made two deep mistakes there and was knocked out in 7th or 8th place. Al's running advice and comments certainly made the game more interesting.

Of course you could provide any similar training by telephone, but the advantage of Skype is the elimination of toll charges for all participants. This is what gives Al the ability to have students from any part of the world.

Al tells me that he chose Skype because PalTalk (used by some other mentors) "screwed up" his system. Other users have complained that it seemed to install some spyware also, but from my point of view the biggest problem is that it is "Windows-only" software and therefore not useful for Mac or Linux.

Training world-wide with voip products could be valuable for any sort of one on one or small group training. Skype is one way to offer that.

Al Spath had some comments to add:

I am the Dean at PokerSchoolOnline.com and own other sites (a cardroom at www.victorypoker.com, a teaching site at www.pokerinstructors.com, a book sales site at www.alspath.com - my book "Poker Journal" is also available at www.amazon.com. Read the reviews at either site, you might find them an interesting read as well, from those who purchased and utilize the journal.

I love to teach, communicate with clients, and teach as many as 50 students at one time, and most enjoy working one on one, live or on the internet, with players wanted to take the step to the next level. They may have leaks (weaknesses) in their game, or just need to understand how to "put players on hands," a technique I teach that enables the client to figure out what type hands they are up against and then either get out of the way, or win very big pots.

Paltalk is a product that seems to have a lot of spyware on the backend, hence my computer detected and conflicted (as do approx 50 of users, I hear), and I lost my entire computer system, so I refuse to have it on my new computer. Othes running it have spycrap showing up and more and more are taking the system off their machines, but others love it and use it. Choices are with the users.

There is nothing like learning (at a sharp curve) the ability to play and quickly win at poker, and that's the draw of it. The exileration of the first win is so powerful, a person has the most difficult time getting to sleep following it. Some say it's more thrilling (the first time), than sex, alcohol or drugs), but I can't imagine it being better than sex (I don't use alcohol or drugs, so I cannot compare them).

I have moved to Maryland and plan on teaching Poker 101 at the local Community College here in the fall, so we will see how the locals take to the table (wink).

If I can answer anyone's question, please feel free to email me at alspath@alspath.com.

3 comments

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Tue Mar 28 17:26:25 2006:   JosephANagyJr


great article, but doesn't seem to have much to do with linux other then Skype.

BTW, what exactly do you define as cheating? If by cheating you mean anything that gives an edge over other players, anyone who wins a pot can be considered a cheater.



Tue Mar 28 19:40:38 2006:   TonyLawrence


The article is more about Poker than Linux. It's my site :-)

Cheating is, for example, two or more players informing each other of their cards.. by Skype, IM, or footsie.



Wed Mar 29 17:22:53 2006:   BigDumbDInosaur


Tony's comments about cheating bring to mind a story I was told many years ago about my grandpa. My mother's side of the family were railroaders, and also card players (euchre was their thing). In grandpa's day, railroads were still using telegraphy for relaying train orders and routine status information between dispatchers, and more than a few railroaders of the time knew Morse code.

Well, what my grandma told me was that when grandpa and my great uncle Bert (who was a dispatcher and fluent in Morse code) played cards with the neighbors, they'd "converse" in Morse code by drumming their fingertips on the card table. To the neighbors, it apparently just sounded like random tapping but to grandpa and Uncle Bert, it was information about the cards each one held.

Railroad historians have often noted that this was a fairly common practice if the railroaders knew that their card-playing opponents didn't know Morse code. Of course, if they did, all bets were off. <Grin>

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