Spry Reviews Jaka Coaching
Many of you already know me but for those that do not, I am Jason Spry. I’m one of the founders of the Atlanta Poker Club and I’ve been playing poker for 20+ years.
Earlier this year I decided I wanted to win a WSOP ring, and I want to do it before I’m 50. I need to seriously work on my game, specifically my MTT game because I only have a year and a half before I’m eligible to play in the Seniors event (W.T.F) and I want to do it before then.
With this goal in mind I began researching poker training sites that had an emphasis on multi-table tournaments. Tournaments like we are playing up in Cherokee.
I was not sure which site I should join. I had previously been a member at Upswing Poker and it was pretty good I thought, but what could I be missing out on? What is better out there that I might not know about?
I found RunitOnce and it looked good but was super pricey. Then there is PokerCoaching with Jonathan Little which was a possibility but it seemed “salesy” to me.
I was on the fence on what to do and which training site to sign up with.
The Jaka Coaching welcome page.
I was golfing with my buddy Ladd and we were talking about poker. He reminded me about playing against Faraz Jaka in the WSOP Main Event. Faraz was at his table on day one a couple years back and Ladd talked about how tough and unpredictable Faraz was and how hard it was playing against him.
And I wanted to see what that was all about.
Jaka Coaching Review
In May of this year I joined Jaka Coaching. I have been a student for just over four months and decided it was time to write an in-depth review of the training site, JakaCoaching.com.
I’ll give my opinion on:
- Who JakaPoker is best for
- What kind of things you will learn there
- The methods and techniques used to learn
- The people who you are learning from
- The quantity of material available
- The freshness of the information
- How much it costs
- What you get when you sign up
And I’ll show you a sneak peak of what is behind the paywall. We’ll make sure you sample the goods before you commit to buy.
Let’s get to it.
Jaka Poker – Who Is Jaka Best For?
Faraz Jaka is a Tournament Specialist
Faraz Jaka win a WSOP Bracelet in 2023 Shootout
And tournaments are the focus at JakaPoker. It is a tournament centric poker training school.
If you are actively working on your poker tournament game then Jaka Poker is absolutely one of your very top choices to consider when looking at training or coaching. If you are willing to invest the time, effort and money into something that you can trust will teach you high quality information, then Jaka should be extremely appealing to you.
My advice to you would be to look very closely at this review and consider making the investment in your game.
I’ll cover the details about what you get, how it works, how much it costs and all of that information down below.
Do not worry it is not too expensive, especially relative to what you get in return. Plus, Faraz has given me a promo code (promo code: jason15 ) you can use to get a 15% discount on your initial month.
Why I Chose Jaka Coaching
Spry playing in the WSOP 2023 Main Event
So I need to step up my game in Cherokee, fast. That’s the main reason I joined Jaka in the first place. I wanted to play better in tournaments, specifically WSOP circuit events or similar.
I’ve made a few deep-ish runs in Cherokee, but nothing of significance. I want a ring. Here is my Hendon Mob profile for those of you that care about that. No rings yet and just over 60k in lifetime earnings. Let’s check that next year and see how I’ve done since joining and studying at Jaka.
I have been finding myself short stacked going into the bubble or losing it in the stretch to the final table after the bubble bursts by going card dead. I know that the crushers all experience the same cards we do, so they must be doing something differently fundamentally.
I want to do better more often in the large field big tournaments like the Monster and Main Event in Cherokee.
I need to make sure my tournament game is sharp and on point. I want to know that I am aware and exposed to all of the latest lines of thinking and strategy. I want to understand and be exposed to GTO concepts and theories while also being exploitative.
I want to learn from proven professionals who win poker tournaments similar to the ones I want to win.
These are the reasons I joined the site myself and made the investment in my game. If some of these reasons ring true to you as well, then I can tell you that I believe Jaka fits the bill for what you are looking for.
If you play large field tournaments like the WSOP circuit events and are looking to take your game to the next level then I recommend Jaka.
If you find yourself building a stack early but being short stacked going into the bubble then this should be right up your alley.
If you’ve wanted to learn how to play more aggressive and challenging to play against then this is for you. If you want to become one of the toughest players at the table, then this is for you.
If you want to be that loose guy who always seems to build up that huge stack even though it looks like they are playing crazy then this will show you how it is being done.
Who is Jaka NOT the best choice for?
This training school is not going to be for everyone. If you are brand new to the game or if you only play poker casually then this is not for you.
If you are a cash game centric player then honestly this is not for you either.
Cash Grinders – If you are a cash game specific player then Jaka is not the best choice for you. You have cash centric poker schooling options. As a matter of fact there is not a single piece of cash game specific content on the site that I am aware of.
Virtually 100% of the content on Jaka.Poker is tournament focused with a few pieces of content on general game play or opponent specific game play. If you want cash game (ring game) content then there are plenty of other cash game centric poker schools available like Crush Live Poker or Upswing you can look at.
Newbie – If you are brand new to poker then this is probably not the training site for you, yet.
Instead you should take a few months of playing (join us for poker games in Ga and online) and watching free basic strategy information you can find on youtube. You are not likely ready to jump into the concepts and information you’ll get here quite yet.
I believe your time and money is better spent on getting some table time experience and some intermediate knowledge of the game. Play a while first and watch streamers or free content on youtube. Once you are a little more experienced and ready to move your game up another level then you will start to find value in learning the strategies and theories presented within Jaka.
Casual – if you are not actively working on improving your game and just play poker to get lucky and have fun then this is not for you. It’s comprehensive study that takes time and effort to watch, retain and utilize the information in the real world.
Sign Up Now
If you are ready to check it out, visit Jakacoaching and create your account. For the rest of us, lets look deeper into the Jaka poker coaching site.
What Is Jaka Poker?
In short, Jaka.poker is a poker tournament focused training school consisting of videos, notes, quizzes and live training sessions.
A look at some of the lessons / videos.
They create and organize a growing a collection of videos from a small group of professional poker players, led by Faraz Jaka (twitter), Jeremy Menard and a handful of others (listed below).
Here is what you will find inside once you join and sign in:
Learning Paths
Learning paths are videos grouped and arranged in logical collections aka “Learning Paths”.
Example Learning Path Videos: Maneuvering a Short Stack
Strategy videos in this collection
- Short Stack Crash Course – 10-25bb Play
- Crush Your Reshoves
- Calling Reshoves
- Open Limping Strategy Pre and Postflop
- Opening Pre + Postflop Play as a Short Stack
The above videos are over 7 hours in total combined. Each video is at least an hour or so. These are in-depth and thorough. They are not just 10-20 minute videos you’ve found on youtube. The video on open limping strategy is almost 2 hours long by itself. Very in-depth and very comprehensive.
Once you consume them all you can take a quiz to see how much you retained from the lessons.
Currently there are nine different learning paths consisting of over 66 videos. Here are the learning paths:
- MTT Crash Course (11 videos)
- Playing MTT Large Fields (12 videos)
- Postflop Play in 3 Bet Pots (8 videos)
- Maneuvering Short Stacks (5 videos)
- Final Table ICM Strategy (8 videos)
- Multiway Pots Postflop (3 videos)
- Mastering Flop Play (4 videos)
- Mastering Turn Play (5 videos)
- WSOP Prep Series (12 videos)
And these learning paths do not encompass every video available either. There are a ton of videos available. They also live stream sessions when they are playing online and you can watch and learn, hand history reviews and all sorts of topics covered.
Live Training Sessions
On a very regular schedule (weekly or every other week) one of the pro’s on Jaka will host a live video training session that you can join, watch and participate in in real time.
You interact with the pro’s as they teach, answering their questions and asking questions and have direct access. I’ve taken a couple of these lessons myself and it is the most personalized coaching I have ever taken part of. It’s interactive and a more personalized experience than watching a video and not being able to ask questions or interact.
The live training classes separate these guys from the competition.
These are small group training sessions with you and 5-10 other students and the teaching pro. If you interact and ask questions and give answers in the chat during the session, the instructors answer and discuss things with you.
Sneak peak at some of the information shared. Anyone want to guess what words are behind his video overlay??
If you miss the live class it will be available on replay shortly after the live stream ends. A decent number of their videos are generated via the live class format. If you are available to attend the live session, it is like you and a small handful of other students working directly with the instructor.
Quizzes
At the end of each learning path series of lessons are quizzes.
I’ve taken many of these quizzes and they are pretty damn tough to be honest. They are multiple choice scenarios and you can pick as many answers as you want. They are not easy but are really good judges of how well you retained the information from the lesson and if you can apply it correctly. I have still yet to score 90% or higher! Not easy at all.
Here is an example question and answers from the Quiz.
Multiple choice, answer as many as you think are correct.
Here are my answers – what do you think?
The correct answers.
Like I said, these quizzes are tough. At least for me. But I think they are a good test of the information you’ve learned so far.
If you want to know why those answers are the ones that should be C-bet at least 50% of the time and not AA or some of the others, well then you are going to have to join Jaka and watch the lessons.
Discord Group
You can chat directly with instructors as well as other Jaka coaching members in their discord. They have daily hand quizzes there you can participate in as well as discuss hands, strategies and questions with a group focused on MTT poker.
Joining the discord is optional but it does give you a more personalized experience as you can ask questions, chat with the pro’s and go over hand histories with the instructors. They organize meetups and discuss live event happenings in there as well.
Who are the Coaches?
Along with head coach Faraz, his stable consists of a handful of other poker pro’s. Here they are:
- Faraz Jaka – Head coach and face of the school is Faraz himself. On the site he’s linked his personal about page. Faraz has been a professional player for nearly 20 years and won over 7 million tracked by the HM.
- Jeremy Menard – aka SoAppalled on ACR. I took his live course covering playing from the big blind once the small blind limps and you raise and it was eye opening to say the least. I really like his content and ability to explain things in ways that make sense
- Dara O’Kearney – ICM, Final Table ICM, satellite expert. I really, really liked his satellite strategy video.
- Thomas Boivin – my personal favorite coach with killer lessons on post flop play – you will fear my checks as much as my bets.
- Fausto Valdez – I have enjoyed his lesson on adjusting against different player types as well as when to turn hands into bluffs.
- Lachezar Petkov – I do not know much about this coach either as he only has a couple of lessons so far published.
How Much Does it Cost?
Joining the training site comes with a cost of:
- 1 month – $129/mo
- Yearly – $99/mo
- **New – Free Trial for 7 Days Risk Free**
Use this link and discount code jason15 to get 15% off your first month
One of the things that I really love is the fact that once you pay your monthly dues, you get access to 100% of the content. There are no upsells that cost hundreds or thousands of additional dollars to access. You pay your tuition and everything is available, unlike many of the other training sites which package and sell each individual course.
Who is the Competition?
No real review is very worthwhile without information about competitors. I’ll only provide general information on these as I have only been a paying member of some of them in the past.
Upswing Poker – Doug Polk leads this team of poker pro’s with one of the largest training schools on the web. I have been a member here in times past and I certainly learned plenty here. They offer a wide range of products, courses and classes. I certainly recommend this training school as well as Jaka, especially if you want some cash centric strategy as well as tourneys.
Run it Once – Phil Galfond is a class act and his course is arguably the best or one of the best pieces of content you can find on PLO.
Crush Live Poker – Bart Hanson focuses on live poker games and mostly cash games.
Chip Leader Coaching – coaching from Chance Kornuth and Alex Foxen that includes an advertised AI driven platform that reacts to your game and teaches you what you need to work on the most. Looks pretty interesting.
Poker Coaching – Jonathan Little created this content rich poker training school. I think it is really good for many players to start here and instantly improve your game.
Materials – What You Get & Freshness
With membership you get access to everything within the site. There are no up-sells or additional material that costs extra. Many of the other sites will charge for access and then have a higher price point bit of material that you still have to pay for.
With Jaka you get access to all of their existing videos AND invited to the upcoming live sessions that they run on a weekly or near weekly basis.
- Lessons – videos focused on specific topics, such as “Postflop Play after 3-Betting from the Big Blind.” Focused topics covered in-depth via video instruction
- Learning Paths – these are multiple videos covering complex topics in full. Usually these videos follow in a certain order and progress you through a logical start and finish of the topic. Example includes “Master Postflop Play in 3 Bet Pots
- Live Interactive Lessons – scheduled weekly, one of the pro’s goes live with a lesson and interacts with students in real time. I’ve done these as my schedule has allowed and it really is interactive and I feel I retain the information better when I am actively involved. Along with the quality of the content being very high, the live lessons are a main differentiating factor you get with membership at Jaka. If you want to ask the pro’s a question in real time and work with them to understand things then this is your chance. The lessons I’ve been involved with have had myself and a handful (like 8-12 others) participating live. Small group coaching.
- Quizzes – these are tough quizzes multiple-choice style with multiple answers being correct. Not easy but good tests of how well you apply the information covered in the lessons
- Notes – shared notes with bullet points and information from within the lessons
- Discord Access – join the discord and discuss poker with other students and pros. You can discuss hands, strategy and reach out to coaches directly
Deep stack betting strategies.
The videos consists of theory (GTO and explotative), hand examples, GTO solver discussion, bullet points and live ‘ride along’s’ where you watch one of the coaches play and hear their thoughts while they discuss why they are doing what they are doing.
One notable thing that is not provided is pre-flop charts or many charts in general. I know they are working on these but in general they like to make sure we understand the why’s behind what a chart might tell us to do and give us more insight and understanding as all situations in poker tournaments are unique. If you are a memorize a chart kind of learner then you are not going to find what you are looking for. However what I really love is that you are not told to go memorize charts and play like a robot. Instead you learn the why of things and apply them to your game because all situations are different.
Is Jaka Poker Worth It?
In my opinion, yes. I am so glad I joined. I feel without a doubt my game is improving and I am becoming tougher and tougher to play against while plugging leaks in my game.
These results are from the very small sample size as I have not played much more than this but I took 20th in a Venetian Deepstack in Vegas that had 860 or so players, I ran to day three and a half in my first ever WSOP main event and had a small cash in the Monster in Cherokee, bubbling day 2. It’s a small sample size of poker tournaments but I’ve only played a very small number of tournaments. I am feeling good about the direction my game is going and I think it is well worth the monthly fee.
If you are actively working on your tournament poker game then yes absolutely JakaPoker is worth the cost of membership.
The material is current and fresh. It is informative and top tier information from proven professionals. When you compare what you get vs what it costs and then compare that to the prices the competition charges I think you’ll find that Jaka is a fantastic value.
Start Winning More Tournaments – Join Jaka Today!
Look, if you are serious about your poker game and want to get better fast then strongly consider making the relatively small investment and see what it is all about. Use discount code jason15 and save 15% on your first month.
Get started with the links below:
- JakaCoaching.com = official website
- $129 per month (save 15% off first month with promo code: jason15)
- Check out a free sample video called “Check Raising From The Big Blind”
- Put your new skills to the test at an APC game tonight (see our schedule)
- FREE 7 DAY TRIAL CLICK HERE
P.S.
I hope you all enjoyed my in-depth review of this extremely high quality poker training site at Jakacoaching. Special shout out to Faraz himself for approving me as one of their small number of affiliates. I firmly believe had I not been an on-going student who was actively using and studying the material that I would not have gotten the go-ahead to do the review. If any of you all decide to join, please let me know what you think once studying some of the videos. I think you will find them quite eye opening like I have!
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Spry
