Going it Alone With Poker

I"m learning a lot about poker from Jonathan Little and other poker pros that I follow and study.  I'm learning so many new things from Little's coaching site that I can't keep up.  Based on what I've learned just in the last couple weeks, I need to make a lot of changes to my game, including defending my blinds more often, and betting more often when a scare card comes, for example, a fourth diamond hitting the board.

There are a lot of plays that I don't make because they seem counterintuitive.  But if you can show me the math that says I'm wrong, I'll change the way I play.

The new things that I'm always learning may be hard to understand or execute, but I'll trust the math and do what needs to be done.  There is, however another problem that might be bigger than I thought, and I don't think that it's solvable.

I hear over and over from a lot of pros that you can't make it in poker all by yourself.  It seems like every time that I watch poker on TV or watch a coaching video, someone is telling me either that it's very important that I go over hands with other players, or that.I have to have a poker coach to get good enough to make real money.

Little said  something like the following (it's not an exact quote but very close):

I had 11 different coaches at various stages of my poker career.  If I spend $200 to a coach and fix one leak, it's worth it.  I've spent 20 thousand dollars on coaching--and it was worth every penny.  If you want to get really good, you need a coach.

As for the poker friend part, maybe it's the introvert in me, but I have no clue how to find one.  I play a lot online and almost no one uses the chat box any more.  The ones that do are usually crying about their bad beats.

I also play live tournaments, though not much lately, but it's really hard to talk to someone during a poker tournament and get to know them.  First, I'm not going to talk strategy at the table.  That's a great way to tell your opponents how much you know (and don't know) about poker.  Nothing good can come of that.  Second, it's almost impossible to talk to someone during the five-minute tournament breaks that come every 90 minutes.  I have five minutes to go to the bathroom and get food, with little time left for conversation.

I don't really believe that there is no way to make money playing poker as a "lone wolf" but a lot of very good poker players believe it.  That scares me, but I'll just have to prove them wrong.