Nowadays, the technical aspect of poker has developed so much that players can study on their own at home, using solvers and study videos. However, there is a human aspect of poker that, until now, has been irreplaceable: performance and mindset coaching. Yes, a solver can tell you what the correct line was in a play, but only a coach with years of experience can give you an extra push to discover the leaks and strengths of your game… or at least that’s what we thought.
In his latest book, the author Paul Gibbons analyzes the relationship between artificial intelligence and medicine. More specifically, in the field of mental health. In the first chapter of the book, which may be interesting for poker players, the author wonders if AI can be good as a therapist.
Many people are skeptical that AI can help someone resolve psychological issues. However, the data published by Gibbons indicates that, indeed, it is an exploitable field. In 2025, a team from Dartmouth conducted a test that was published in the medicine section of the New England Journal.
Among 210 adults with depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, patients who were treated by talking to AI bots saw their symptoms decrease between 25% and 50%. Patients even rated AI as almost as good as a person.
AI Therapy Must Be Supervised By Professionals To Ensure It Works
Although therapy is not coaching, it takes many more years of preparation to become a psychologist or psychiatrist than to obtain a coaching certification (and we are not even talking about specific poker coaching). Therefore, Gibbons’ argument was “if AI can do a job that takes years of preparation, it should be able to handle the other”.
A large part of a coach’s job is to disagree with their client, to make them see why a bluff was bad even though it worked or when a result is due to variance and when it is due to their skills. The goal of this is for discomfort to make the player seek positive change.
The obstacle to using AI as a coach is that chatbots are usually set up to be extremely compliant and condescending. That is why, although according to Gibbons it can be used for these purposes, it needs to be trained a bit.
To use AI as a coach, we must instruct it to always see things from a different perspective than ours, to look for flaws and not successes, to find things you would have overlooked when alone. We don’t need AI to praise us for our excellent work, but to criticize us and make us change our approach with the goal of improving.
A poker coach costs hundreds of dollars, while a premium version of a decent AI costs around US$20. It probably isn’t the same, but it could be a good starting point for those looking to make a change in their game without having to invest too much.
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