I haven’t really talked much about this, but I decided to take on one student this year as my 2010 project.  Some of you may remember in 2008 I took on Matt Bolt (mbolt1) as a student and I started with him as a micro stakes grinder and by year end he had a 6 figure month and has made about a million dollars since I began working with him.  I have worked with a few others as well who have done well, but Mbolt1 was the only person I have really spent a lot of time working with.

While I don’t expect everyone I work with to necessarily go on to crush the games the way Mbolt1 has, I decided to take on one more student this year and hopefully we can have some success together.  His name is Michael Skelton and he holds the distinction of watching more training videos than anyone alive, I would be willing to wager.  Michael produced virtually every single Stoxpoker.com video and was as loyal of an employee as you could find.  His tremendous work ethic and unprecedented level of understanding of the “away from the table” stuff like rakeback, which software programs to use etc. is what made me decide to take him on as my 2010 protége.’

I have some high hopes for Michael or skelm as he is known to the community and skelmr on FullTilT.  He is developing a tremendous understanding of the game of poker and already has shown some tremendous progress over our time working together.  Here is a before and after shot:

Before:   <a href=”http://rolledontheriver.com/images/Coaching/PreCoaching.png”>Pre-Coaching</a>

After:    <a href=”http://rolledontheriver.com/images/Coaching/PostCoaching.png”>Post-Coaching</a>

As you can see, Michael lost a lot of money when the pot did not go to showdown before we began working together.  Our work together took care of his falling red line and turned him into a winner when the pot does not go to showdown. While I don’t think it is as essential as most people think to have a positive red line, it is always nice to improve your red line when your showdown line remains relatively unaffected.

I look forward to seeing if I can continue to have some success coaching Michael.  Ultimately, even if he goes onto great success, Michael is going to be the one primarily responsible for his own success, as was Mbolt1, but I suppose I would be lying if I didn’t say it feels good to know your coaching may have played a role in that.

I feel Michael has a ton of potential and seems to grasp concepts quickly and effectively put them into action.  He is not afraid to make changes to his game the moment he realizes he will be better off for them.  That is actually a big thing he has going for him because many people will try things, but if they don’t have success with them they abandon the changes right away, when in reality it was probably just bad luck that kept the changes from working.  It is huge in this game not to let some bad luck deter you from making the correct adjustments in your game.  That is one of the biggest problems amongst amateurs in my opinion.  They are too quick to abandon winning plays just because they don’t have success with them right away.

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