Alex “Assassinato” Fitzgerald
Over $3.7 million in tournament earnings. 5 poker books. 1,000+ students in 60 countries. The most prolific tournament poker coach alive — and he’ll tell you himself he was never the most talented player in the room.
There are poker coaches who talk about winning. And then there is Alex Fitzgerald — a coach who has documented every step of his journey from running away from home as a teenager to accumulating over $3.7 million in live and online tournament cashes, coaching more than a thousand professional players across six continents, and writing five poker books that have become essential reading for serious students of the game.
If you’ve landed on this page, you’re likely evaluating whether his courses are worth your money. This profile gives you the full picture — who he is, how he thinks, what makes his coaching different, and where to find his complete course library at the best prices available anywhere online.
Browse the full collection at ElitePokerGuide.io — all Alex Fitzgerald poker courses available with a FOREVER LICENSE and up to 97% off retail price.
The Story: From Commercial Fisherman to $3.7M Poker Pro
Alex Fitzgerald’s path into poker is unlike almost anyone else in the coaching world. After leaving home during high school, he worked as a commercial fisherman and security guard before discovering poker — a game that would eventually take him to final tables at the EPT, multiple WCOPs and FTOPs events, and practically every major online tournament series running.
What makes his story compelling isn’t just the results — it’s the honesty about how he got there. Fitzgerald has openly described himself as a player of average intelligence who succeeded through systems, deliberate practice, and relentless study. His philosophy is built on a core belief that runs through every course he has ever produced: poker talent is a myth. The players who win consistently are the ones who study correctly, not the ones who were born with an innate gift.
💡 The Fitzgerald Philosophy: “Understanding the why behind your plays is the only thing that transfers across formats, stake levels, and field types. Rote memorization fails. Systematic thinking wins.” — Alex Fitzgerald, as discussed on the Chasing Poker Greatness podcast.
Coaching Credentials: The Numbers That Matter
$3.7M+
Live & online tournament earnings
1,000+
Professional students in 60 countries
29+
Video course titles produced
5
Poker books authored
His consulting firm, PokerHeadRush, has served over a thousand professional poker players worldwide — a client list that spans every stake level from small-stakes grinders looking for their first consistent winrate to established pros refining specific leaks in high-stakes play. The breadth of that client base is part of what makes his content work for such a wide range of players: he has seen every common mistake, at every level, in every format, thousands of times.
What Makes Fitzgerald Different as a Coach
Exploitative Over Dogmatic GTO
Fitzgerald was one of the earliest and most vocal proponents of exploitative poker in the coaching world. His position — refined in multiple books and courses — is not that GTO is wrong, but that most players apply it incorrectly in fields where their opponents are not playing anywhere near GTO themselves. His Why Pessagno is Right course is the most direct articulation of this argument and remains one of the most intellectually honest treatments of the GTO vs. exploitative debate available anywhere. See it at ElitePokerGuide.io →
The Moneyball Approach to Poker Analysis
Fitzgerald’s analytical framework was directly inspired by Billy Beane’s Moneyball system — identifying undervalued edges in opponent tendencies rather than chasing marginal improvements in already-optimal spots. His coaching content consistently focuses on population-level tendencies: what the average player at your stake does wrong, how often they do it, and exactly how to structure your game to capture maximum value from those tendencies. This data-driven, human-focused approach is what separates him from coaches who teach in a theoretical vacuum.
Tournament Volume & Field Expertise
Fitzgerald is not a cash game coach who occasionally comments on tournament play. He is a career MTT specialist with documented deep runs at the EPT, WCOPs, FTOPs, and major online guarantees. His tournament catalogue covers every format from hyper-turbos to deep-stacked Sunday Millions — drawn directly from hands he has played, spots he has faced, and adjustments he has made in real time at real tables. That field experience is present in every lesson.
Published Works: 5 Books That Have Shaped the Coaching World
Alex Fitzgerald is one of the most published authors in poker coaching history. His five books — including Exploitative Play in Live Poker, The Myth of Poker Talent, and the 2024 co-authored Improve Your Poker Now! — represent a systematic documentation of his coaching methodology developed over two decades. The books are used as reference texts by coaches, training sites, and serious students worldwide.
His most recent work, Improve Your Poker Now! (co-authored with Topher Goggin), covers the intersection of exploitative thinking and modern GTO-informed ranges — making it arguably his most complete synthesis of the two schools of thought. Discussed in depth on the Smart Poker Study podcast, the book has already become required reading in serious study groups.
Signature Courses — The Ones That Define His Legacy
Fitzgerald has produced over 29 video course titles available through ElitePokerGuide.io. Below are the courses that best represent his coaching philosophy in action:
Poker Without Fear 2024
His most comprehensive tournament training system — 48 modules covering the complete lifecycle of a tournament hand. The 2024 update incorporates modern solver data while retaining the exploitative framework that made the original essential. The flagship of the entire catalogue.
Live Poker 101
70 video modules dedicated exclusively to live casino poker — physical tells, bet sizing in cardroom environments, table selection, and the unique metagame dynamics that separate live play from online. Nothing else at this depth exists in the coaching market.
The Myth of Poker Talent
The course companion to his most famous book — a systematic dismantling of the idea that poker success requires innate ability. Fitzgerald’s own journey from average amateur to $3.7M pro is the proof of concept. Essential for any player who has ever doubted whether they can genuinely improve.
How to Destroy Progressive Knockout Tournaments
34 modules covering the most profitable tournament format of the last five years. Fitzgerald breaks down PKO-specific ICM, bounty valuation, adjusted aggression frequencies, and every critical deviation from standard MTT play required to run deep consistently in bounty fields.
Master Small Stakes Cash Games in One Class
54 modules targeting the systematic leaks of $1/$2–$2/$5 regulars. Fitzgerald’s population-level analysis of small-stakes cash game tendencies is precisely what his Moneyball-inspired methodology was built for. Highest-ROI course for anyone transitioning from MTTs to cash or grinding small-stakes live games.
Alex Fitzgerald vs. Other Top Poker Coaches
| Attribute | Alex Fitzgerald | Jonathan Little | Phil Galfond |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary format | MTT + Live + Cash | MTT | High-Stakes Cash |
| Teaching philosophy | Exploitative + population reads | GTO fundamentals | GTO-forward |
| Private clients coached | 1,000+ in 60 countries | Hundreds | Limited private coaching |
| Books authored | 5 | 7+ | 0 |
| Courses at EPG (FOREVER LICENSE) | 29 titles | Available via Run It Once | Run It Once only |
For comparison shopping across the broader training market, see our complete guide to the BBZ Poker coaching catalogue and the full Upswing Poker course library.
Is Alex Fitzgerald the Right Coach for You?
The answer is almost certainly yes if any of the following applies to you:
- You play MTTs — online or live — at any stake level
- You believe you’re a losing or marginal winner and can’t identify exactly why
- You’ve tried GTO-heavy content and found it difficult to apply at the tables in real time
- You play live poker and want systematic, field-specific coaching from someone who has lived it
- You want a coach with a documented track record of improving real students, not just a famous name on a course thumbnail
The answer is less obvious if you’re already a high-volume GTO grinder at stakes above $500NL or high-major MTTs — Fitzgerald’s exploitative methodology is most powerful against fields with systematic tendencies, which describes the vast majority of poker fields globally but not the highest-level regs.
Study With Alex Fitzgerald — FOREVER LICENSE
All 29 Alex Fitzgerald courses available at ElitePokerGuide.io — up to 97% off retail, instant delivery, permanent access. Active discount codes always available.
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