Poker Friends (Advising New Players)

[lehighguy]

So I have lots of friends I live with in the dorm. They see me win at poker and naturally they want to bring home paychecks each week too. When they ask wether they should play or not I am torn between two instincts:

1) You'll just be one of these fish I take money from.
2) Yeah with training and disciplin they can do it too.

SO I don't know what to say to them. I try to say its hard and takes work. I show them my poker tracker and playerview to show them what thier up against. Still many start playing.

Then when they ask me for specific advice i once again don't know what to do. After all, should I really let them read SSHE without first playing 10,000 hands or something. I mean they have some fairly advanced concepts in there that you need experience to understand.

Also, my poker isn't perfect. My VPIP is 12% for gosh sakes. yeah I've been winning, but I still have to work on my game everyday and I have a lot more work to do to win at a respectable rate.

Keep in mind these people watch WSOP and we played home games like 3 nights a week for over a year so they aren't totally clueless noobs.

[Bodhi]

If they're really your friends then you shouldn't have to ask. Let them borrow SSHE; your claim that you have to play 10k hands before you can understand it is false. Anyone intelligent enough to pass a course in statistics should be able to learn a lot about HE even if they've only played 50 hands or so. Also, insist that they use PT if they play online.

That alone should be enough to get them started on the right track, and leave you with a clear conscience.

[AceHigh]

Tell them they should play poker online because they enjoy it. If they don't enjoy it, they will lose interest long before they start making any kind of money.

And then tell them to read Lou Krieger and Phil Helmuth books, lol /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[aflaba]

For advice I tell people to read LLHE by Lee Jones. And I tell them to play tight. Plus that they should play micro stakes.

First I hated when people started playing because they had seen me winning. A few months (or was it weeks) I was all about not telling anyone that I had won anything. Felt kind of responsible when they threw their money away.

Not I don't care much. It's their responsability to take care of them selves.

To the few persons I think would never gamble their money away and who I think would be able to kick ass if they started playing I say they should go for it. I have even encouraged one person to start, by nagging :-)

To most people I say it's hard, and takes dicipline, and boring, and huge swing, and nerv wrecking, and lonesome, and...

[aflaba]

Not always true though.

I really hated playing poker when I started. I felt it was an utter waste of time and that I would rather want to work at McDonalds (if it payed *10). I still made it to winning player fortunatly. I wanted money.

People get good at a lot of professions they don't enjoy. It's the same thing with poker, it's just another profession.

Nowadays I think it's ok. (but still some of all the things I wrote in my previus post, especialy to solitary.) But I do enjoy the mental challange. I want to know how good I can get. I enjoy improving.

[deacsoft]

I've had a similar dilemma. I came to the decision that this is what I would do.

1) I'd help them in any way I could, but for a price. The time I spen helping them out is time I'm not making money. They understand this and are okay with the hourly fee.

2)They are my friends and there are plenty of fish in the sea. I'm sure that you will be able to find plenty of players around you campus that would be thrilled to play and donate their money to you and your now well trained friends.

3) If they're not taking your advice and teachings seriously; tell them they're on their own. I won't waste my time with someone who is not willing to put in the work.

4)Ahhh, I think you get the idea. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[lehighguy]

Thanks ofr the ideas. The reason I say is because my stupid former roomate sucks at poker and dropped $10,000 playing that he didn't have. Then the debt collectors came. Granted, I told ihm every step of the way he didn't know what he was doing and should stop, but he wouldnt listen. I have other friends that have some potential, but also need a lot of work.

Thanks for your thoughts.