SNOWBALL138
07-11-2005, 10:11 AM
I'm not sure where this post belongs, but I'm going to crosspost it on the psych and beginners forums and maybe I can get a response.
A friend of mine was telling me that he was thinking of selling drugs on the side to supplement his income, so I'm like "wtf, why don't you just learn to play poker?"
To my surprise, he says "ok, will you teach me?"
Being a good friend, I agree to teach him. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this, because he is a complete beginner. I don't think he's ever even played penny ante or anything resembling poker. I'd be surprised if he's ever placed a bet in his life.
I want to go about this in the right way. I gave him Getting started in hold em by Ed Miller, and told him that anytime he wants to, he can come over to my apartment for free lessons. I thought of the following ways of teaching him. Please feel free to add any suggestions.
I would play just one table, and explain to him everything that is happening. Like explaining the blinds, and the button, and the betting order. I would explain how to identify the nuts, and teach him how to read the board.
After he got a small foundation like that, I would play more tables, and begin to show him some principles of winning play. I'd probably just play .50/1 tables, because those are the tables that he needs to learn to beat first anyway.
After watching me for a while, I would quiz him on what he thinks I should do and why. Finally, I would close every table except for one, and have him play it by himself. I would want him to just play the table on his own, and then I would maybe comment after he was done with the hand.
After we did a session like this, I would use a HH replayer to go over some of the hands we played step by step, and anaylze whats going on in those hands.
After we did a few of these sessions, I would encourage him to open up an account with rakebake, and do some bonuswhoring. I would want him to telephone me when he was having problems.
Have any of you tried to teach one of your friends how to play poker? I really don't want him to learn on his own, and go through what I went through (losing money, playing on bad mega-tilt, trying to recoup losses by playing for higher stakes, playing for too high stakes in general etc.)
OTOH, I'm wondering how much of this is avoidable. I know its inevitable for my friend to be a losing player for some period of time. I just want to minimize this.
A friend of mine was telling me that he was thinking of selling drugs on the side to supplement his income, so I'm like "wtf, why don't you just learn to play poker?"
To my surprise, he says "ok, will you teach me?"
Being a good friend, I agree to teach him. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this, because he is a complete beginner. I don't think he's ever even played penny ante or anything resembling poker. I'd be surprised if he's ever placed a bet in his life.
I want to go about this in the right way. I gave him Getting started in hold em by Ed Miller, and told him that anytime he wants to, he can come over to my apartment for free lessons. I thought of the following ways of teaching him. Please feel free to add any suggestions.
I would play just one table, and explain to him everything that is happening. Like explaining the blinds, and the button, and the betting order. I would explain how to identify the nuts, and teach him how to read the board.
After he got a small foundation like that, I would play more tables, and begin to show him some principles of winning play. I'd probably just play .50/1 tables, because those are the tables that he needs to learn to beat first anyway.
After watching me for a while, I would quiz him on what he thinks I should do and why. Finally, I would close every table except for one, and have him play it by himself. I would want him to just play the table on his own, and then I would maybe comment after he was done with the hand.
After we did a session like this, I would use a HH replayer to go over some of the hands we played step by step, and anaylze whats going on in those hands.
After we did a few of these sessions, I would encourage him to open up an account with rakebake, and do some bonuswhoring. I would want him to telephone me when he was having problems.
Have any of you tried to teach one of your friends how to play poker? I really don't want him to learn on his own, and go through what I went through (losing money, playing on bad mega-tilt, trying to recoup losses by playing for higher stakes, playing for too high stakes in general etc.)
OTOH, I'm wondering how much of this is avoidable. I know its inevitable for my friend to be a losing player for some period of time. I just want to minimize this.