Real Poker Training was one of the original Poker training sites on the internet; one of the first to realise that watching videos of established internet professionals play online would be very useful to those starting out. The theory is that watching someone’s actions (as they narrate their thought processes), is a better learning tool than reading their words in a book. If you can actually see what they’re doing, so the theory goes, you’ll be in a much better position to emulate them. So, is this true? Could Poker training videos be the key to launching you into profitable poker?

What’s good

Being one of the first online Poker training sites, Real Poker Training has had a lot of time to accumulate videos. At the time of writing there are just under 200 videos, and that number is increasing all the time. That’s a lot of material.

As one of the “old timers” in the poker training industry, RPT has had time to accumulate videos in a wide variety of fields. Every field you might be interested in is covered with many videos, and this is a strength that some other Poker training sites certainly don’t share. Like Sit N’ Gos? - you have 18 videos. Like 5 Card Draw? Well, RPT’s the only site that can provide you with 22 videos! They also have some great speciality lessons (Using an ICM Calculator/Poker Tracker Training/The Power of Position etc). Overall, the variety of the videos is excellent.

What else? Well, they have some written articles for complete beginners which are useful (but nothing groundbreaking), they have the message forums where you can seek advice from fellow members. Again, useful, but nothing you can find for free on the ‘net elsewhere. Oh, and there’s a 5 card draw system on the site too. This is a reasonably robotic system that you can follow (5 card draw is a lot less complicated that Holdem’). Along with the large number of 5 card draw videos, this should pretty much guarantee you becoming a 5 card winner. I didn’t try it personally though.

What’s bad

Nothing is perfect, so where does Real Poker Training fall down? Well, I wasn’t a huge fan of the video size. It was a little small for my liking, and there’s no full screen option. Also, the videos are not downloadable to your hard drive like some other sites.

On some of the videos the audio quality is fairly poor, although on the vast majority it’s perfectly fine. Also, you are treated to a wide variety of background noises. On one video the instructor even insists on watching American Idol at top volume while he plays the last 5 minutes of a Sit N Go. Not ideal!

Some of the instructors are better than others. Some take their time to explain things very well. Others are more brash. One of the guest instructors hardly made any explanation of this plays at all. Overall though, the instruction quality is fine.

It should also be mentioned that updates with new videos on the site do not happen at regular intervals. This can mean that current members who have watched all the existing content are left hanging.

Conclusion

Overall, Real Poker Training is fantastic value for money. A month’s membership is only $24, and there’s no sign-up fee like some other sites. That means you have access to nearly 200 videos for a tiny sum. Despite various minor failings, that fact just can’t be denied. As such, we heartily recommend the site.

Production quality	4
Video Variety	5
Additional Teaching Materials	5
Instructor’s Teaching Ability	4
Value for money	5
Overall	4.5