Poker training sites

So how do we advance our poker training. Are the "paid for" sites worth it. My brother and friends in the poker world suggest there is enough information available online and in books that there is no need to pay for a training site.

However after my recent run of bubbles (just missing the money) I wanted to improve. I looked at various different sites but finally settled on:

http://www.pokerxfactor.com

This site is run by users 'JohnnyBax' and 'sheets' and mostly features videos/hand-history playbacks of tournaments they have entered and hit the money (often winning). There are also several guest pros with video commentaries showing how they play cash and tournament games. So far I have been a member for a week or so.

So what do I think. First I noticed several areas where I play differently to the pros in the videos. Then I listened to commentaries where they explain some of the biggest leaks in peoples games some of which correspond to my play. I tried watching a range of videos (different pros talking about different games) but one thing I immediately noticed is some contradiction on how different pros play and how different types of games play. This probably just made me more confused and made my game worse. So being a smart guy, I changed my approach and watched just one of the many pros and all of his videos relating to ONE type of game. I chose single table SnG games and watched the videos posted by 'sheets'.

There is no doubt this has made me a better player at single table SnG and this has been proved in my results. It has also taught me how to play the bubble in a much more effective way. I am very pleased about the improvements in my game this week.

Of coure there is a flip side. My MTT (multi-table tournament) play has got worse and where before I was cashing occassionally in 90 and 180 player SnG MTT tournaments now I am missing by a mile. This is probably because I have taken some of the single table SnG strategy and it is no good for multi-table. So I will have to spend more time watching the other videos and try to figure out the difference.

I will let you know more about the training as and if my results get better (which I really hope they do).