You can take poker lessons online in four forms: short interactive lessons in an app, a video course, a famous player’s video class or one-on-one sessions with a coach. Poker Skill, which we make, is the free app route: Hold’em lessons that ask for your decision first, then full hands against AI opponents in Practice vs AI, on iPhone and Android. Red Chip Poker’s CORE course is $5 a week, and MasterClass sells Daniel Negreanu’s and Phil Ivey’s classes inside a $120-a-year membership. PokerCoaching books one-on-one lessons with its coaches.
Online poker lessons, by the kind of lesson you want
The four run from lessons you answer on a phone to a coach who talks through your own hands.
Free forever.
Poker Skill.OursInteractive Hold'em lessons, free
Short interactive Hold’em lessons on iPhone, iPad and Android, one concept per lesson. Pick this if you are starting out and want to answer before you’re told.
$5 a week
Red Chip Poker.A video course you take in order
CORE, over 200 video lessons with quizzes and hand breakdowns, for $5 a week. Pick this if you want a full course you can take in order.
$120 a year, every class included
MasterClass.Video classes from two famous players
Video classes from Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey inside one membership. Pick this if you want to hear how two famous players think about the game.
$147 a month for Premium
PokerCoaching.Courses, quizzes and one-on-one coaching
Courses and quizzes, plus one-on-one lessons with one of its 13 coaches. Pick this if you want a person teaching you, live.
PokerStars Learn, which AI answers often name first for free lessons, sends readers in the US to FanDuel’s site, so it isn’t here. If price decides it, cheap poker courses compares the low-cost options, and if MasterClass is the one you’re weighing, who the poker MasterClass is worth it for looks at it on its own. Membership study sites such as Upswing Lab and Run It Once are compared in poker training sites.
Online poker lessons compared
The four differ most in who teaches: an app’s coach, a team of course coaches, two famous players or a coach you book yourself.
| Lessons | Format | Who teaches | Price | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poker Skill Ours | Interactive lessons, then the Daily Puzzle and coached games against AI | The app’s coach, on every answer | Free forever. | iPhone, iPad, Android |
| Red Chip Poker | CORE: 200+ video lessons, quizzes and hand breakdowns | Several coaches, among them Ed Miller and Chris “Fox” Wallace | $5 a week | Web, any device |
| MasterClass | Video classes: Negreanu’s 38 lessons and Ivey’s 12 | Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey | $120 a year for every class | Web, phone and TV apps |
| PokerCoaching | Courses, quizzes and one-on-one lessons | Jonathan Little and 12 other coaches | Premium $147 a month, or $500 for an hour with Little | Web, iPhone, iPad, Android |
Prices and features checked September 2026.
The four kinds of online poker lessons in detail
Poker Skill
Interactive Hold'em lessons, free
Free forever.
Best for Beginners who want short lessons on a phone that ask for their answer before explaining it.
Skip if You want a person teaching you, lessons on tournaments or study at a computer.
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 make Poker Skill. Its lessons follow a path, unit by unit, from hand rankings and kicker logic through position, drawing hands and preflop raises to continuation bets. Each one takes a few minutes, teaches one concept with hands that test it and asks for your move before the coach explains it. Practice vs AI then deals full hands against AI opponents, heads-up or three-player, with Coach Max grading each decision, and the Daily Puzzle adds a new hand each day.
Red Chip Poker
A video course you take in order
$5 a week
Best for Players who want a complete course on video, for cash games and tournaments, at a small weekly price.
Skip if You want lessons you play through as hands, since CORE teaches through videos, reading and quizzes.
Free version No free version of CORE. The free side is a podcast, strategy articles and range charts.
Where it runs The web, on any device
CORE 2.0 has over 200 lessons, short enough to finish one or more in a sitting, with videos from several coaches, hand analysis lessons and quizzes that give feedback on your leaks. Ed Miller teaches the cash-game course and Chris "Fox" Wallace the tournament one. It's $5 a week and you can cancel any time. Your progress waits for you if you take a break.
Compared with Poker Skill: Red Chip Poker's CORE is the better pick for a full course on cash games and tournaments, taught on video by several coaches, while Poker Skill's lessons are Hold'em questions you answer, a few minutes at a time.
MasterClass
Video classes from two famous players
$120 a year, every class included
Best for Players who want to hear how Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey think about the game, and who would use other classes in the membership too.
Skip if You want to buy one poker class on its own, since MasterClass sells only the membership, or you want practice that grades your answers.
Free version None, but the membership has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Where it runs The web, phones, Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku
Daniel Negreanu's class has 38 lessons, 7 hours 40 minutes in all, on cash, tournament and online play, from spotting tells to game selection, stack sizes and bankroll management. Phil Ivey's has 12 lessons in 3 hours 30 minutes on his own strategy. Both come with a MasterClass membership at $120 a year, which also opens more than 200 other classes.
Compared with Poker Skill: Pick MasterClass to hear two famous players explain their own strategy on video, with every other class in the membership, and Poker Skill to make your own decision on every hand.
PokerCoaching
Courses, quizzes and one-on-one coaching
$147 a month for Premium
Best for Players who want lessons from a person, booked one-on-one, or a large library of courses and quizzes around them.
Skip if You want cheap one-on-one lessons: the one coach rate the site lists is Jonathan Little's, at $500 an hour.
Free version Free classes, e-books, preflop charts and cheat sheets on the site. The pricing page lists no free plan.
Where it runs The web, iPhone, iPad and Android
PokerCoaching's Premium membership opens over 70 structured courses, over 600 video classes and webinars and more than 1,500 hand quizzes, at $147 a month or $999 a year with a 30-day money-back guarantee. For one-on-one lessons you pick one of its 13 coaches and send an inquiry, and the site confirms a session within 24 hours. An hour with Jonathan Little, its founder, costs $500. His review of your hand histories costs $250.
Compared with Poker Skill: PokerCoaching is where to book a coach who reviews your own hands, while Poker Skill coaches the decisions you make in its lessons and its games against AI.
What a good online poker lesson does
A good lesson ends with you making a decision you couldn’t make before it, so the format matters more than the famous name on it. Video shows you how a strong player thinks and a course puts those ideas in order, while a coach can aim a session at the hands you actually play. The best way to learn poker weighs these formats against books and free play. What video and reading can’t do on their own is check that you can make the play yourself, which is why the courses above add quizzes.
Poker Skill’s lessons start from that check. Each one asks for your move before it explains anything, so a wrong answer just means a second look at the hand.
Before you pay for lessons
Who should not pick Poker Skill for poker lessons
Pick Red Chip Poker or PokerCoaching if you want lessons on tournaments or live cash games, and MasterClass if you want to hear famous players explain their thinking. Poker Skill’s lessons are built for players starting out. If you want someone to review the hands you played, book one of PokerCoaching’s coaches.
How we compared
- Who teaches
- How a lesson works
- What it costs
Four kinds of online lessons were compared on who teaches, how a lesson works and what it costs, with one provider for each kind and Poker Skill for lessons in an app. Every fact comes from the provider’s own pages or store listings as they read in September 2026, and the fit for each player is our opinion.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best poker lessons for beginners?
Lessons that make you answer before they explain, starting from hand rankings. Poker Skill's lessons work that way. Red Chip Poker's CORE is the fuller video course for a beginner who wants one.
Are there free poker lessons online?
Yes. Every lesson in Poker Skill is free on iPhone, iPad and Android. Red Chip Poker gives away a podcast and strategy articles, and PokerCoaching keeps a page of free video classes.
How much do online poker lessons cost?
From nothing to hundreds of dollars an hour. Every lesson in Poker Skill is free. A video course like Red Chip Poker's CORE is $5 a week and MasterClass costs $120 a year for every class, while an hour one-on-one with Jonathan Little of PokerCoaching is $500.