Poker Training has become a big business since the first time we made a list of the top sites in 2009. Every year when we update this list, we find that new training sites have popped up online, and others have gone away. Once again in 2018, we have taken the time to review all these sites, and compile a comprehensive list of sites that offer the best training materials for your buck.
We would like to emphasize that these are the honest opinions of the TestYourPoker.com team on these sites. The list is not necessarily in order, as different sites have different strengths.
1. Advanced Poker Training – This site is completely different from the others; it provides an online poker training software program that enables users to play up to 500 hands an hour against intelligent computerized opponents, receiving advice at each play. It also features in-depth training reports and a weekly poker training plan that shows you exactly where you should be targeting your efforts. Their unique “Beat the Pro” Challenges pit you against big-name pros – Mike Caro, Jonathan Little, Scott Clements, Ed Miller, and more. There is an active member forum, a variety of training games and materials, a new podcast (Steamin’ Steve’s Hand Review), and instructional material from Scott Blumstein and Qui Nguyen, the last two WSOP Main Event Champions. It’s truly the most fun of all the poker training sites because you are actually playing poker instead of watching videos. Also, their rates are lower than most other sites.
2. Deuces Cracked – This is an online training site that has a group or “community” training feel to it – like a poker education. Another long-established site with over 3000 videos, podcasts, blogs, and regular updates. Tons of 6-max videos, but plenty of 9-max and MTT videos as well. They also have a forum, and have videos that can be played anywhere with no DRM (digital rights) issues.
3. Poker Tracker – So this isn’t technically a training site, but as an online poker player it’s one you can’t live without. Every online poker pro has PokerTracker 4, and you should too. It tracks every hand of poker you play, and lets you look at your win rates with various hands, and every other statistic under the sun. Plus, using the “Heads Up Display” (HUD) plug-in lets you get information on your opponents, while you’re playing against them.
4. Tournament Poker Edge – This site is known for the depth of its Multi-Table Tournament (MTT) training content. The focus is on watching videos of successful players (over 800 videos), but they also have podcasts and a forum, and a “TPE University” feature with multiple courses.
5. Heads Up Sit-n-Go (HUSNG)– This training site is specifically for people wanting to win at sit-n-go tourneys, and it is probably the best site for this area. They recently acquired Sit-N-Go Grinders, another sit-n-go training site, so they aren’t just for Heads-Up SNGs any more. It’s a little tough to navigate the site, but they sell video packs for $40 to over $200.
6. Red Chip Poker – This site has been rapidly evolving over the past two years and has recently launched “CORE” a series of guided poker lessons, videos and quizzes. Red Chip Poker have several wonderful coaches: Ed Miller, author of 8 poker books; James “SplitSuit” Sweeney, who has done private coaching for nearly 500 students; and Doug Hull, author of the unique tactical playbook “Poker Plays you can Use”.
7. PokerNerve– This MTT training site run by Kelvin “Acesup” Beattie offers three series of training videos. There is a free MTT training option, Basic MTT training, and Premium MTT training. The premium “Road to Success Course” is a comprehensive video series which takes you all the way from beginning MTT concepts to advanced topics such as donk betting and check raising. The premium course covers over 90 hours of video training.
8. Jonathan Little Poker – Jonathan Little has become increasingly prominent in the poker world across the past few years. He has written multiple strategy books, produces a weekly poker strategy podcast, has become a poker commentator for a number of live tournaments, coaches, and writes a blog. His site features a wide array of training videos ranging from $47 to $997.
9. Ivey League – Yet another video training site, but with names like Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius behind it, they set themselves apart from the others. Ivey also purchased Leggo Poker which had a lot of poker training content already, so they are quite the behemoth now.
10. Test Your Poker – A shameless plug, but our method is different from any other poker training site. Through our huge database of member hands and the ability to get hand by hand feedback, you can improve your full ring cash game using our unique professional replays. We are one of the few non-video poker training sites, and more than 300,000 players have taken our test.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and there are some decent training sites left off the list. Instead of wasting your time checking out the many training sites out there, take a look at the above list, and get ready to win big!
I have used both Advanced Poker Training and Deuces Cracked to work on my 6-max game. I would recommend both sites. They are very different and help me with different aspects of my game.
I agree with many sites on this list. I train with advanced poker training now and it is efficient for me and I find it fun and a good value. Card runners has so many videos that there is no way to watch them all that is a good thing. I did not like Poker VT – not enough content for the money. I will try out tournament poker edge.
Advanced poker training is a good site. Red chip poker and float the turn with Johnathon little are worth while. Splitsuit Sweeney has a lot of good vidoes on you tube.
Thanks for your post – some poker training sites that I haven’t come across before. I have used Tournament Poker Edge and Ivey League before, but may have to trial a few others. Increasingly finding there is plenty of free YouTube content that is equally as helpful now 🙂