The World Poker Tour announced Monday an initiative that sounds like it came straight out of a decade ago: a poker education site called LearnWPT.com.
LearnWPT.com is trying to differentiate itself from other poker training sites by “focusing on clarity of instruction,” which makes sense. The sites that have been/were around during the last decade essentially boiled down to online pros providing running commentary on their poker sessions with varying degrees of intelligibility. The videos have typically been geared toward experienced players who can follow the action like it was second nature. They would often be next to impossible for novice players to understand; I can imagine beginners thinking the pro instructors sounding like millennial auctioneers.
Nick Binger has been highlighted as the lead instructor on LearnWPT.com. Also a WPT Boot Camp instructor, Binger was once known more as the brother of Michael Binger, who finished third in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event. Nick quickly became a poker success of his own and has earned $2.3 million in live tournaments, including about $400,000 from his WSOP bracelet win in 2011.
“I love teaching poker,” Binger said in a WPT press release. “I’ve been doing it for seven years now, and it’s become so important to me that I wanted to find a way to make learning poker easier. I want to share my love and passion for this game with the world, and partnering with the World Poker Tour allows LearnWPT.com to leverage the vast archive of televised and live-streamed WPT content in addition to the WPT’s impressive global footprint.”
As mentioned, it sounds like the LearnWPT.com venture is going to be more than just a site containing a bunch of videos and blog entries. Of course, the main teaching tool will be videos, as there is only so much someone can absorb from reading articles, but it does sound like they will be carefully constructed to really try to hold new players’ hands and not just assume they already are relatively advanced at poker.
According to the LearnWPT.com website, which is fairly barebones at the moment, the pro instructors such as Binger will produce weekly strategy episodes, two of which will be delivered to subscribers each week. Episodes include things such as “Ask a Pro” in which players can actually check with the pros to see if they played a hand correctly and analysis of broadcast hands from WPT events.
Subscribers will also be given a “Winning Blueprint” that includes specific strategy videos and e-mails that will supposedly help players make noticeable improvements within 30 days. This is included in the site’s introductory promotion of 30 days for five bucks.
LearnWPT.com is currently hosting two free strategy videos: “Preflop Size Raising” and “Board Texture.”
