You can get free poker coaching from Poker Skill, GTO Wizard, PokerCoaching and Upswing Poker. We make Poker Skill, which coaches your decisions in its lessons, the Daily Puzzle and full hands against AI opponents. GTO Wizard’s free plan grades 10 Trainer hands a day, PokerCoaching offers free video classes and Upswing’s blog has hundreds of free articles.
Free poker coaching for each kind of player
The four run from coaching on your own decisions to studying how other players think.
Free forever.
Poker Skill.OursLessons, the Daily Puzzle and practice games against AI
Short lessons, each teaching one concept with hands that test it, plus coached Practice vs AI games. Pick this if you want feedback on your own play from your first hand.
Free 10 Trainer hands a day
GTO Wizard.A solver trainer with a free plan
Solver-graded practice, 10 Trainer hands a day on the free plan. Pick this if you know the basics and want to see how your decisions compare with a solver’s.
Free classes
PokerCoaching.Free video classes and hand quizzes from a paid coaching site
Free video classes from Jonathan Little’s coaching team, plus hand quizzes tagged free. Pick this if you learn best by watching a pro talk through hands.
Free blog
Upswing Poker.Free strategy articles and starter charts
Hundreds of free strategy articles and eight starter charts. Pick this if you like to read a topic in depth.
Upswing’s Lab and PokerCoaching’s Premium, the paid plans behind two of these, are weighed against Run It Once and Red Chip Poker in poker training sites compared.
To weigh PokerCoaching on its own, PokerCoaching alternatives sets it beside Upswing Poker and GTO Wizard and says who should pay for Premium.
What each free option coaches
Poker Skill and GTO Wizard are built around grading your own decisions, while PokerCoaching and Upswing lead with videos and articles.
| Option | What you get free | How it coaches | Price | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poker Skill Ours | Every lesson, the Daily Puzzle and one Practice vs AI game a day | A written reason on each answer you give | Free forever. | iPhone, iPad, Android |
| GTO Wizard | 10 Trainer hands, 1 postflop solution and 100 preflop solutions a day | A grade on each practice move, from best move to blunder | Free plan; cash Starter $468 a year | Web |
| PokerCoaching | Video classes, some hand quizzes, e-books, preflop charts and cheat sheets | Pros talking through hands on video, plus hand quizzes | Free classes; Premium $999 a year | Web, iPhone, iPad, Android |
| Upswing Poker | Hundreds of articles and eight starter charts | Articles to read and quizzes to take | Free blog; Lab $699 a year | Web |
Prices and features checked October 2026.
The four free options in detail
Poker Skill
Lessons, the Daily Puzzle and practice games against AI
Free forever.
Best for Players who want their own decisions coached, starting from the rules.
Skip if You want a person to coach you one on one.
Free version Every lesson, the Daily Puzzle and one Practice vs AI game a day. Poker Skill Plus is an optional subscription.
Where it runs iPhone, iPad and Android
We built this app for Texas Hold'em. The Daily Puzzle grades every option, so you see how close your instinct was, and streaks and XP keep the habit going. In Practice vs AI you play full hands against AI opponents, heads-up or three-player, with Coach Max grading each decision. Nothing in the app is played for real money.
GTO Wizard
A solver trainer with a free plan
Free 10 Trainer hands a day
Best for Players who know the basics and want their practice decisions graded against a solver, a few hands a day, before paying for more.
Skip if You are new to poker, since its feedback comes as GTO scores and expected-value losses.
Free version 10 Trainer hands, 1 postflop solution and 100 preflop solutions a day, plus free strategy articles.
Where it runs Web, including phone browsers
GTO Wizard is a browser-based study platform built on its own AI solver. Practice mode deals you spots and grades every move against the solver, sorting each one from best move to blunder with instant GTO and expected-value feedback. For cash games, paid plans start with Starter at $39 a month billed yearly, or $49 month to month, with a 7-day refund guarantee in place of a free trial.
Compared with Poker Skill: GTO Wizard is the pick once solver numbers mean something to you, while Poker Skill coaches new players in plain words.
PokerCoaching
Free video classes and hand quizzes from a paid coaching site
Free classes
Best for Players who learn by watching a pro talk through real hands, in tournaments or cash games.
Skip if You want structured courses, since those come with Premium.
Free version Video classes, hand quizzes tagged free, e-books, preflop charts, cheat sheets and an odds calculator.
Where it runs Web, iPhone, iPad and Android
PokerCoaching is the training site Jonathan Little founded. Its free classes page collects tournament hand reviews and deep-stack cash lessons from its coaches, and Little writes that many of his students started on his free YouTube channel. Premium costs $999 a year or $147 a month for courses, the full quiz library and more than 600 video classes and webinars, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. One-on-one coaching is booked separately.
Compared with Poker Skill: If you want a person to coach you, PokerCoaching sells one-on-one sessions, while Poker Skill's coaching is built into the app and answers the decisions you make there.
Upswing Poker
Free strategy articles and starter charts
Free blog
Best for Players who like to read, with free articles sorted from introductory to advanced.
Skip if You want to practice full hands, since the free side is articles, quizzes and charts.
Free version The whole blog, with new articles each week, and eight free preflop charts for beginners.
Where it runs Web
Upswing Poker's blog files its free articles by level and format, hundreds of articles in all, and new ones arrive each week. Beginners also get eight free preflop charts. The paid Upswing Lab costs $99 a month, $399 for six months or $699 a year. There is no free trial, and first-time Lab members get a 30-day Fair Play guarantee.
Compared with Poker Skill: Upswing Poker is the better pick if you learn by reading, while Poker Skill has you make your move and then shows you why.
Cheap alternatives to a poker coach
An hour of one-on-one coaching with Jonathan Little, PokerCoaching’s founder, costs $500. Little’s review of your hand histories costs $250. That money buys a person looking at your own hands and answering your questions. Poker Skill grades your decisions with software instead: its AI poker coach, Coach Max, scores them against the strategy of Showdown AI, the engine behind Practice vs AI. A year of a training site costs about as much as one or two hours with Little: GTO Wizard’s cash-game Starter plan is $468 billed yearly, Upswing’s Lab $699 and PokerCoaching’s Premium $999.
How many months of Upswing's Lab does one hour with Jonathan Little cover?
Seven. The $399 six-month plan plus one $99 month comes to $498, so one $500 hour with Jonathan Little pays for seven months of the Lab with $2 left over. His $250 hand history review covers two months at the $99 monthly price, with $52 to spare.
Who should not pick Poker Skill for free coaching
Pick a human coach instead if you want someone to review your own hands and talk through your questions. Poker Skill’s coaching is built into the app, so it answers the decisions you make there. PokerCoaching sells one-on-one sessions with its coaches, and free human feedback exists too, in poker forums and Discord study groups where other players reply to hands you post. AI coaches that review hands you played elsewhere are compared in AI poker coach apps. If you already play and keep making the same mistakes, the best app to get better at poker compares four apps by the mistake each one fixes.
How we compared
- What the free version coaches
- Whether it responds to your own decisions
- What the paid step costs
Three questions decided each verdict: what the free version coaches, whether it responds to your own decisions and what the paid step costs. Competitor prices and features came from each maker’s own site or store listing, and Poker Skill’s from its store listings, its site and the app itself, all read in October 2026. The verdicts on fit are our judgment.
Frequently asked questions
Is poker coaching free?
Some of it is. Feedback on your own decisions comes free: Poker Skill's lessons ask for your move before the coach shows why it wins or loses over time, and GTO Wizard's free plan grades 10 Trainer hands a day against a solver. Video classes and strategy articles are free too, while one-on-one coaching costs money: an hour with Jonathan Little of PokerCoaching is $500.
Is a poker coach worth it?
It can be, because a coach works from your own hands and questions: reviewing your hand histories, the coach critiques your decisions and explains the reasoning. Videos and articles teach the game in general, while a coach's hour is spent on your game alone.
Where can I watch free poker coaching videos?
PokerCoaching collects its free classes on one page, with tournament hand reviews and deep-stack cash lessons from its coaches. Jonathan Little also writes that many of his students started on his free YouTube channel.
How does poker coaching work?
A coach reviews your hands, finds the leaks you repeat and works through them with you, in one-on-one sessions or hand history reviews. At PokerCoaching you pick one of 13 coaches, send a short inquiry and get scheduling details within 24 hours. In a forum, you post a hand and other players reply.