muruntau
29.06.11, 13:55
Ranka coachi teemas arutlesin, et coachingut ei tule vaadata kui kulu vaid kui investeeringut ja lubasin selle kohta teha pikema posti. Tegingi, aga inglise keelse ja 2+2'te. Kopin teksti siia ka, loodetavasti pole probleemi, et see inglise keeles on.
Hey! Don't let yourself get distracted by my lack of posts here, I've been around for a while. I am long due an educational post in an Estonian poker forum but I decided to write it in here and in English as I think it might be helpful for all of you guys whether taking your first steps becoming a poker player or being already an established player in lower/medium stakes. There are probably several posts of this kind in this forum and I'm not saying anything revolutionary here. My aim in writing this is to explain it once again why investing in studying of poker is one of the best investment ideas out there and to prove it with numbers. I hope it helps!
Coaching as investment
I've seen a lot of people who consider coaching and and all other sorts of studying methods of poker as too expensive. At first glance it really does seem so, for a player that makes less than $10/h it does seem indeed too expensive to pay +$50/h for coaching or to pay +$100 for montly subscriptions to various video sites, the same applies to players of low stakes unwilling to pay ~$100/h for coaching etc.
This is clearly a mistake and in the long run a very costly one as they view the expenses occurred only as costs. But the cost of educating oneselves is never just a cost, it is investment, investment in yourself. And in almost all cases a very profitable one as well in the long run. In most cases the cost of videos, books, coaching hours pays back in only one or two months, which makes the ROI of investing in yourself 500-1000% ROI per year! Compare it with putting your money in a bank deposit earning 2-3% per year or into stock market for long run 10% ROI (there are some possibilities in getting +100% ROI's in startup businesses but very few of us are able to pull this through). The difference is HUGE, its 200-300 times more profitable than deposits and 50-100 times more profitable than stocks. The players who put money to invest in any other option than themselves for reasons of getting a second income or diversification are clearly making a very costly mistake that in economic terms makes no sense at all and is just plain stupid.
One other reason why this happens is that paying for coaching takes at first a significant amount of your earnings while adding insignificant growth to income in first months. In fact, the net income for those who take a definite amount of time and a definite % of their income to study is actually lower in the first months! After half a year the difference may be there there but still not so significant as to be able to say with certainty that coaching makes financial sence for the player. The real difference comes out in the end of the year, where the players who do opt to study persistently and invest in themselves growing amounts of money will make several times more than the ones who think only playing works for them.
Let me prove it with numbers.
There are three players, player A, player B, player C. All the players start from the same startingpoint, everyone has a $500 bankroll, is able to earn $5/h, can use 100 hours per month on poker for both playing and studying and all players are with the same mental and physical abilities when it comes to poker. It is of no difference which format of the game they play. The difference comes in when it comes to studying. Player A **** in insignificant time to study, is able to increase his income by 5% per month for the first six months and then reaches a stagnant level in his earnings. Player B **** in 10% of poker time to study but close to zero investment, just reading forums, reading books and watching a few videos downloaded from torrents occasionally chipping in a monthly subscription to a videosite (investing 0% of income). He is able to increase his earnings by 10%/month for 6 months and 5% after that for the rest of the year. Player C takes the studying part of the game very seriously, spends 40% of time studying and spending every month 20% of poker income on books, videos, coaching etc. He is able to increase his $/h 20% each month. For the sake of simplicity let the increase in income occur in the end of each month. These are very standard player types and the increases in incomes are very likely to occur as such in correlation with time and money spent on studying, in the beginning usually much more in the favor of those who study. We'll leave variance out also, in the long run it works out this way.
After one month player A has made $500 (100hX$5/h=500), player B makes $450 and player C (60h X 5$/h X 0,8)= $240, the 0,8 in the end signifies the 20% spent on studying. The difference is hugely in favor of the players who study and invest less. In third month the monthly net incomes are as follows: Player A (100h x $5$/h x 1,05ˇ2)=$551,25, Player B (90h x $5/h x 1,1ˇ2)=$544,5 and for Player C (60h X $5/h x 1,2ˇ2 X 0,8)=$345,6. Still the difference is significant.
The sevent month after 6 increases in income the net incomes are as follows: Player A $670, Player B 797,2 and Player C $716,6. The $/h for each of these players per time played is Player A: $6,7; Player B: $8,86 and Player C: $14,93. Although the net incomes are relatively similar by this time the $/h varies already by very significant amounts hugely in favor of those who study and invest diligently.
Net incomes for 9th month and after 8 increases are as follows: $670 for Player A (due to not studing stays the same), Player B $878,7, Player C $1032 and hourlys are Player A still $6,7; Player B $9,77 and Player C $21,5. And finally, after 12 months and 11 increases the incomes are Player A still at $670, Player B 1017,2 and Player C $1783,2. Player's $/h are as follows: Player A $6,7; Player B $11,3 and Player C $37,15! If Player C decided not to learn and invest for a month he would be able to make by now $3715! That is 5,54 times more than player A! The difference can be way more pronounced in the future months.
Note that all net incomes for players B and C were adjusted with lower playing hours and in case of C also with money invested into learning. Also there are plenty of examles where players who put in the same much time or maybe more were able to increase their earnings per month to around $10k/month within first year but these are pretty rare. I may have also underestimated slightly the possible growth in incomes of players of Player B type of learning but that is not the point here.
The point is, that if a player sets aside a certain amount of time and a certain % of income to invest in itself, learning poker can be one of the best investment ideas out there. Nothing is 100% certain as in case of any investment but for those who have taken studying seriously it has in very many cases paid off very nicely. The beginning is harder as in any other areas of life when you really want to work hard to become somebody but the results will be very rewarding and in comparison to other areas of life one can reach them very fast. Some of the other benefits of studying continously are that it increases your winrate and helps avoid going bust as well as that it helps you play your A game a lot more often but these are already besides the point of this post.
I had played a lot in lower stakes and been a marginal winner before I started to think this way. Since I started to take the game and studying more seriously and to invest in myself I have have improved by leaps and bounds, I've seen the merit of it and will continue to do so. I hope it helps some of you (but not too many :D) to do the same.
Hey! Don't let yourself get distracted by my lack of posts here, I've been around for a while. I am long due an educational post in an Estonian poker forum but I decided to write it in here and in English as I think it might be helpful for all of you guys whether taking your first steps becoming a poker player or being already an established player in lower/medium stakes. There are probably several posts of this kind in this forum and I'm not saying anything revolutionary here. My aim in writing this is to explain it once again why investing in studying of poker is one of the best investment ideas out there and to prove it with numbers. I hope it helps!
Coaching as investment
I've seen a lot of people who consider coaching and and all other sorts of studying methods of poker as too expensive. At first glance it really does seem so, for a player that makes less than $10/h it does seem indeed too expensive to pay +$50/h for coaching or to pay +$100 for montly subscriptions to various video sites, the same applies to players of low stakes unwilling to pay ~$100/h for coaching etc.
This is clearly a mistake and in the long run a very costly one as they view the expenses occurred only as costs. But the cost of educating oneselves is never just a cost, it is investment, investment in yourself. And in almost all cases a very profitable one as well in the long run. In most cases the cost of videos, books, coaching hours pays back in only one or two months, which makes the ROI of investing in yourself 500-1000% ROI per year! Compare it with putting your money in a bank deposit earning 2-3% per year or into stock market for long run 10% ROI (there are some possibilities in getting +100% ROI's in startup businesses but very few of us are able to pull this through). The difference is HUGE, its 200-300 times more profitable than deposits and 50-100 times more profitable than stocks. The players who put money to invest in any other option than themselves for reasons of getting a second income or diversification are clearly making a very costly mistake that in economic terms makes no sense at all and is just plain stupid.
One other reason why this happens is that paying for coaching takes at first a significant amount of your earnings while adding insignificant growth to income in first months. In fact, the net income for those who take a definite amount of time and a definite % of their income to study is actually lower in the first months! After half a year the difference may be there there but still not so significant as to be able to say with certainty that coaching makes financial sence for the player. The real difference comes out in the end of the year, where the players who do opt to study persistently and invest in themselves growing amounts of money will make several times more than the ones who think only playing works for them.
Let me prove it with numbers.
There are three players, player A, player B, player C. All the players start from the same startingpoint, everyone has a $500 bankroll, is able to earn $5/h, can use 100 hours per month on poker for both playing and studying and all players are with the same mental and physical abilities when it comes to poker. It is of no difference which format of the game they play. The difference comes in when it comes to studying. Player A **** in insignificant time to study, is able to increase his income by 5% per month for the first six months and then reaches a stagnant level in his earnings. Player B **** in 10% of poker time to study but close to zero investment, just reading forums, reading books and watching a few videos downloaded from torrents occasionally chipping in a monthly subscription to a videosite (investing 0% of income). He is able to increase his earnings by 10%/month for 6 months and 5% after that for the rest of the year. Player C takes the studying part of the game very seriously, spends 40% of time studying and spending every month 20% of poker income on books, videos, coaching etc. He is able to increase his $/h 20% each month. For the sake of simplicity let the increase in income occur in the end of each month. These are very standard player types and the increases in incomes are very likely to occur as such in correlation with time and money spent on studying, in the beginning usually much more in the favor of those who study. We'll leave variance out also, in the long run it works out this way.
After one month player A has made $500 (100hX$5/h=500), player B makes $450 and player C (60h X 5$/h X 0,8)= $240, the 0,8 in the end signifies the 20% spent on studying. The difference is hugely in favor of the players who study and invest less. In third month the monthly net incomes are as follows: Player A (100h x $5$/h x 1,05ˇ2)=$551,25, Player B (90h x $5/h x 1,1ˇ2)=$544,5 and for Player C (60h X $5/h x 1,2ˇ2 X 0,8)=$345,6. Still the difference is significant.
The sevent month after 6 increases in income the net incomes are as follows: Player A $670, Player B 797,2 and Player C $716,6. The $/h for each of these players per time played is Player A: $6,7; Player B: $8,86 and Player C: $14,93. Although the net incomes are relatively similar by this time the $/h varies already by very significant amounts hugely in favor of those who study and invest diligently.
Net incomes for 9th month and after 8 increases are as follows: $670 for Player A (due to not studing stays the same), Player B $878,7, Player C $1032 and hourlys are Player A still $6,7; Player B $9,77 and Player C $21,5. And finally, after 12 months and 11 increases the incomes are Player A still at $670, Player B 1017,2 and Player C $1783,2. Player's $/h are as follows: Player A $6,7; Player B $11,3 and Player C $37,15! If Player C decided not to learn and invest for a month he would be able to make by now $3715! That is 5,54 times more than player A! The difference can be way more pronounced in the future months.
Note that all net incomes for players B and C were adjusted with lower playing hours and in case of C also with money invested into learning. Also there are plenty of examles where players who put in the same much time or maybe more were able to increase their earnings per month to around $10k/month within first year but these are pretty rare. I may have also underestimated slightly the possible growth in incomes of players of Player B type of learning but that is not the point here.
The point is, that if a player sets aside a certain amount of time and a certain % of income to invest in itself, learning poker can be one of the best investment ideas out there. Nothing is 100% certain as in case of any investment but for those who have taken studying seriously it has in very many cases paid off very nicely. The beginning is harder as in any other areas of life when you really want to work hard to become somebody but the results will be very rewarding and in comparison to other areas of life one can reach them very fast. Some of the other benefits of studying continously are that it increases your winrate and helps avoid going bust as well as that it helps you play your A game a lot more often but these are already besides the point of this post.
I had played a lot in lower stakes and been a marginal winner before I started to think this way. Since I started to take the game and studying more seriously and to invest in myself I have have improved by leaps and bounds, I've seen the merit of it and will continue to do so. I hope it helps some of you (but not too many :D) to do the same.