Again in 2016, an enterprising younger man named Tadas Peckaitis reached out to me to ask for some recommendation in regards to the poker business. That preliminary electronic mail became a enterprise relationship and ultimately into a beautiful friendship. As a former skilled poker participant, Tadas initially envisioned his website, MyPokerCoaching.com, as a portal to get college students to enroll in numerous programs that he had put collectively. Because the years progressed, nevertheless, the location’s focus pivoted in direction of providing free poker coaching materials.
During the last decade, I’ve watched with delight as Tadas has labored onerous to transition from being a poker coach to establishing himself on the media aspect of the poker business. Whereas we’re steadily in contact, I assumed it might be enjoyable to “test in” with him, nearly 10 years after he launched his website, to get his reflections on the location’s evolution.
If you first determined to launch the location, what particular targets did you’ve?
After taking part in poker professionally for a few years, in 2015 I began teaching on the aspect. Whereas all of this began with simply giving some recommendation to my mates and serving to them out, it quickly developed right into a part-time gig the place I taught gamers from the two+2 discussion board and launched mypokercoaching as a easy web site to offer my poker teaching companies.
I by no means deliberate this to evolve into something apart from a platform to share my ideas and some occasional articles, however I’m actually glad it did.
What was it that originally made you need to cease taking part in on-line poker professionally and pivot in direction of poker teaching after which poker media?
This was actually an natural transition. My greatest concern with poker was that it wasn’t actually scalable, and I all the time needed to do one thing that will transfer me from exchanging my time for cash. That is in all probability the explanation I used to be all the time concerned in another enterprise endeavours apart of taking part in. In some unspecified time in the future, I made a decision to attempt to mix each of those into one. That is how I began recording video programs.
I figured that if I have been discussing the identical 10 ideas repeatedly with my college students, I might slightly file some movies after which promote them at a a lot cheaper price to a wider viewers, nevertheless it didn’t pan out that approach. I spent a substantial period of time creating these programs again within the day, when solvers weren’t available, and I assumed I had developed extraordinarily high-quality content material.
That stated, many well-known gamers have been launching their very own coaching websites, and I made a decision to create a platform the place I may evaluation their gives, slightly than immediately competing with their programs. Step-by-step, this turned a full-time endeavor over time, so I began to cut back on taking part in poker and touring to focus on constructing the web site to present it an actual shot.
At what level did you determine to redirect the location’s focus in direction of providing free poker coaching materials, and why?
It began with me writing occasional articles. Nevertheless, as quickly as I started selling different coaching websites, corresponding to Upswing and Pokercoaching, I noticed the hole between paid and free content material. I then employed extra writers to assist me construct a helpful technique library that will be accessible to everybody, and we dove into it.
Whereas the imaginative and prescient of how this could look modified a number of occasions over time, I imagine we’re nearing the ultimate iteration with structured content material that helps everybody simply grasp the fundamentals.
What’s your “60-second elevator pitch” for why somebody ought to go to your website? Who would you say is the location’s main target market nowadays?
If you wish to be taught poker fundamentals without spending a dime and in a structured approach, mypokercoaching.com is the one website it’s good to go to. Whereas I perceive the attraction of consuming infinite YouTube content material and studying random articles, that is truly extra a type of leisure, since this can be very onerous to transition it into actionable information.
You want a structured, step-by-step strategy to be taught core ideas. In any other case, you’ll waste a variety of time. That is precisely what we provide to our viewers within the type of a studying path, the place you’ll be able to simply choose which part you need to enhance, and we’ll make it easier to with that.
What have been among the highlights of your time working the location?
Indubitably, that will be the power to fulfill new individuals. This helped me construct many new friendships and have very impactful conversations, each inside and out of doors of poker, which I’m actually grateful for.
You’ve printed a TON of free poker coaching content material over time. Between that and the sort and quantity of content material provided to individuals who pay for premium poker coaching content material, how do you determine what particular forms of coaching content material to proceed publishing in your website, and the way do you propose for the long run in that regard when the sport appears to continually be evolving?
That could be a nice query. I all the time assume from the attitude of the participant, and what can be probably the most helpful and environment friendly method to be taught in right this moment’s setting.
I began publishing basic technique ideas, overlaying primary suggestions and the way to play particular hand teams, which developed into extra particular vary breakdowns detailing precisely the way to play in numerous conditions.
In fact, we additionally write some random, enjoyable articles to make your entire course of extra pleasing and never simply “onerous” work. We additionally must create supporting content material round core subjects to interrupt them down higher and have pages that structurally make sense for Google algorithms, as nicely. Nevertheless, I all the time attempt to consider what sort of content material I would like to eat when studying, and we attempt to go in that route.
A decade in the past, did you assume you’d be the place you’re in your poker journey? How do you see MyPokerCoaching persevering with to evolve over the subsequent few years?
By no stretch of creativeness would I’ve guessed that I might be capable to benefit from the recreation that I like from a distinct angle than simply taking part in. I’ve been extremely lucky to fulfill a large number of fantastic individuals, construct one thing in a distinct segment I like, and have totally loved this course of.
As for the long run, it’s difficult to foretell what new AI alternatives will deliver to the educational house, however I stay optimistic that we’ll discover a method to adapt and provide extra worth to our gamers. Poker isn’t going anyplace.
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