So my wife asked me what I wanted for my 40th birthday coming up and I mentioned possibly wanting to go to some Poker boot camp or another. Has anyone gone to these? Can anyone recommend one? What did you get out of the experience and is it worth the cash to attend? Thanks....

I've wanted to do one for a while and if I had to choose one, I would pick the WSOP academy. If you can learn even 2-3 significant things or fill a leak or two, then it'd definitely be worth the money for you.

I've always been interested in one of these as well. $1800 or $2000 seems like a hell of an outlay, but what you learn is probably worth 10:1...

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I don't think these things are worth the money. Getting a good book or DVD and studying it will IMO get you a far better ROI. If you want some sort of poker gift for your birthday, I recommend first sharpening up your game with a book/DVD/training site and then spending the money you would have spent on the training academy to go on a poker vacation to Vegas.

I guess it would really have to depend on the individual boot camp. Although I didn't have to pay for it, I experienced a part of Clonie Gowan's camp last year as she brought her class out to a room on the strip for live "training." Take it with a grain of salt since I only experienced 4-5 hours out of her entire camp, but in no way did I think it was worth $2,000.

These things are gimmicky and generally taught by "TV pros" who are neither particularly good at poker or particularly good at teaching.

I personally think most of these learning tools are overpriced using the exact logic people here are using..."If it finds leaks and makes me $x then its well worth it". That said...if you are going to spend money get Cardrunners(for cash) or 'insert tournament training site here'.

Cardrunners is a little expensive to me, but plenty of useful information can be found there and the players teaching you whatever game you want to learn will be players who are big winners and know what they are talking about.

If you want to take it a step further(and have money to spend)...go to 2p2(or elsewhere) and find yourself a good coach for whatever you want to learn. This probably isn't necessary unless you are a solid player who is already winning at that game and are looking to improve your winrate and move up...otherwise its just a waste of your money and the coaches time.

Obviously 1 on 1 coaching by someone who beats the hell out of the game you'd like to play is clearly the most effective.

the more I keep thinking about it, the more I think I'd rather play in a WSOP event for the same money and spend the next year sharpening my tournament play at local card rooms...

I like the coaching idea that TheJacob brought up, especially if you could get something reasonable

I would actually be kind of embarrassed to show up at one of those things. I have always been a good player. I am not a great player, and I accept that. For me, it is because I take it seriously but not seriously enough. One of those things won't change me much, after 20 years of playing.

I would like to hear some more about these here, especially some success stories. Hell, even Tiger Woods has a coach.

I'm probably older than most of you but I was a losing poker player for 30+ years. I just couldn't get the game. Then came poker on TV (good training films), poker boot camps and all the good poker books. I attended one of the camps a few years ago and paid less than asking price by waiting until the day before it was supposed to start and called them up and made them an offer. They had a couple of seats open and let me attend the camp for just over half price.

I learned a lot!! It also helped me understand the poker books better. It changed my tournament style and it helped immediately. Within two weeks I took first in a tournament and won $ 1700, almoust doubling my buy-in for the camp. My last trip to Las Vegas brought me $ 3000 in two cashed tournaments at the noon Venetian tournament. I have have cashed numerous times and finished just out of the money more times than I want to think about. It definitely helped me become a winnning tournament player.

Is this for everyone? I'm sure not but it can help some people. It gave me some insight and confidence to play. If you are already a winner then you don't need it but for me at least it was a great help.