Teens Playing Poker

I let my high School Boy and his friends have their little poker nights and such. I am embarassed and proud at the same time to say that he is much better than I am. I read many books as does he. SSHE among other good ones. I can regularly bring in a few grand a month in earnings. My son however, does not have friends who can put in the good kind of money, but he brings in about 500-1000 dollars a month in just off 20-50 dollar buy in tournaments held in friends basements. Do you think it is wrong that I am letting him play? Do you have any underage players that you believe could do some damage against good opponents? Let the bragging begin.

[Python49]

Don't let him become so occupied with gambling that his school work suffers and he forms other bad habits. Other than that.... I don't see anything wrong with it. When I played in high school my friends and I weren't "degenerates", alot of them got straight A's and full rides to college, one of them was the prom king, etc... so we had other things going on besides poker which should be the case here.

[SoftcoreRevolt]

There's nothing wrong with him playing. Hell he's probably a lot better off playing in High school with a father who understands the game than some of the people on this forum who discover online poker and let it distract from their studies.

Especially those with majors that unlike mine require actual work.

[orange]

As a former high school student who played alot of poker (I'm a freshman in college this year), I can tell you that playing often should be fine given slight restrictions.

If your son is a senior in HS, where schoolwork isn't as important as say, junior year (and senioritis kicks in), then it should be fine. And once he gets accepted into college, it's all downhill from there.

When I was playing 5 times a week with friends, I found that my school work somewhat suffered. My parents had mixed feelings over my poker playing- I was making money, but I was also neglecting schoolwork, and they also felt poker wasn't a 'good way to make money'. As long as you make sure your son is doing well in school, along with not having poker take up his ENTIRE life (your control over this is minimal), then it shouldn't be a problem.

I think it's great that you support your son- my parents, while allow me to play, look down upon it.

"Do you have any underage players that you believe could do some damage against good opponents?"

Yes, I think experience is what matters. As long as you have 2+2/books/lots of playing, any player can succeed.

[TheBlueMonster]

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As long as you have 2+2/books/lots of playing, any player can succeed.

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not all the time. There are some people beyond any help.

[orange]

Edit: and a psychologically stable person with a fairly good sense of morals and family base. Maybe I'm missing more, but thats a topic of another discussion /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[TheBlueMonster]

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Edit: and a psychologically stable person with a fairly good sense of morals and family base.

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/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I come from a poker family myself which started me off at the home games when I was 10yo. While I was never in a similar situation having so many other friends to play poker with and have tourneys, I did play a lot and learn.
I think its fine, like others are saying, as long as its mostly a good natured hobby. If it starts leaning towards making school work, home life suffer, and getting him into seedy situations with drugs and alcohol of course that's not good. Do what any parent would do with a child's hobby. Nurture and take a part in it. Hold the tourneys at your house where you can supervise and keep an eye on his schoolwork.