How can I get my GF to study?
 

My fiance plays mostly .5/1 at Party. She does pretty well with the poker knowledge I've given her plus WLLHE. She has started being a solid bonuswhore lately and is idly considering trying to play poker prefessionally. She is very bright and works incredibly hard at everything except it seems poker. She currently is studying to be an elementary special education teacher and puts in 60+ hours a week at school + teaching dance + volenteering.

What I'm hoping for are some successful strategies that I can implement that would encourage her to read more books, study 2+2, or anything that will improve her game. Thanks for your help,

Krishan

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

This post struck me for a number of reasons. I'm in the exact same boat...and my fiance teaches dance as well.

Anyway, she just browses my poker books from time to time and while she can beat casino low limit and our friendly NL home games featuring a split table of 4-5 really good players and 4-5 really bad ones, online she typically runs her stack up and then makes a few careless plays that knock her back down.

So she has some leaks that I'm sure she could fill just by reading up on certain unique situations that keep sucking her in.

I have no answer. My fiance won't study the game the way I do. It's a shame, I'd be interested to see how much money we could make.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

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She currently is studying to be an elementary special education teacher and puts in 60+ hours a week at school + teaching dance + volenteering.

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Seems to me like she's got better things to do than sitting on her ass in front of a computer clicking Call/Fold/Raise.

Unlike the rest of us [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

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Seems to me like she's got better things to do than sitting on her ass in front of a computer clicking Call/Fold/Raise.

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Hey, I teach high school and am supporting her!! I play poker to finance the wedding.

Krishan

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

[ QUOTE ]


What I'm hoping for are some successful strategies that I can implement that would encourage her to read more books, study 2+2, or anything that will improve her game. Thanks for your help,



[/ QUOTE ]

Have you seen Happy Gilmore?

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

agreed. I don't know why she should be provoked into studying any more than she wants to. It's supposed to be fun....if you are so-inclined to study then GREAT...but she doesn't need to be.


I have an ex who is a special-ed teacher....she doesn't make all the money in the world but she lives a full and rich life.
If that's her calling I suggest you support her towards those goals and forget about trying to make her the next Annie Duke.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Assume that she wants to play poker better but doesn't want to study. I'm not forcing her to do anything. Nor would I ever. And I don't really care if she plays well or not. It's for her sake that I want to encourage her to study more.

Krishan

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

If she's willing to accept coaching from you, sit by while she plays and EXPLAIN why certain plays she is making are wrong. I'm a senior in college and everyone of my roommates that I've lived with didn't play poker when I moved in with them, and play winning poker by the time we move out. True, it's low limit (.50/1 and 1/2 usually) but I find constant talking about different hands and debating the correct move (much like this forum) helps a newbie's game more than anything else.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

My advice is just be happy she likes playing. My girlfriend started playing the Stars and Paradise .5/.10 games.

The first couple weeks we had a couple arguments, because she would level hop (as high as $1/2 w/ a $50 bankroll). Also she was playing about half of her hands. She explained to me that she was just having fun and did not care if she lost money, and that me acting like some sort of professor I was ruining the fun for her.

I finally stopped trying to "help" her and things are going better. Occasionaly she will sit at the CPU with me for an hour or so and ask questions, or debate hands. She has started skimming my books. Also she will sometimes ask my opinion. Her play has improved and she is now beating the .05/.1 and .10/.20 games regualarly. Even though she still does a bunch of weird crap.

Let her decide to study on her own. Her reasons for playing may be different from yours. Just be excited that she enjoys something that you enjoy.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

I'm happy when shes playing. I'm happy when she is knitting. I'm happy when she is stitching. I'm happy when she is reading. I'm not trying to turn her into a pro.

I guess my motives don't make sense. I'm trying to help someone who wants to make money at poker but ignores some of the obvious tools of the trade.

Maybe the answer is once she gets more serious about it, she'll figure it out on her own.

Krishan

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Good post. I do this once in a while and have fun doing it. Thanks,

Krishan

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

I waas just thinking about making the same post. My gf plays allll the time, but she's not really that great. She's gotten a lot better with my help but she still makes very loose calls preflop (and plays NL online, so this turns into a big problem). She'll go through huge swings, but overall I think she's a slight loser. The problem is that she'll be up quite a bit over a few days and she blames a lot on luck.

The worst part, for me at least, is that she's graduating with a math degree, yet says things like "I shouldn't have played today, I told you I was having an unlucky day" and attributes other things to luck. I'm trying really hard to get her to understand the math behind it and it's very frustrating because she IS a math major. She glances through my books every now and then but doesn't do any real studying. Personally I don't care if she's good or not because she's using her money, but when she complains to me about players makign dumb calls I can't get her to understand that she wants them to make terrible calls, like calling her flopped straight all in with only top pair.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

You can't get anyone to do anything. I'd make sure that idea was seared into your consciousness before I got hitched.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

no lovin until she raises her BB/100 by 1 big bet [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

My post title was dumb. Pretend it's, "How can I encourage my GF to study as a very +EV way to improve her game... soley because she wants to become a better player... not because I want her to make tons of money or become the next WSOP champion."

Krishan

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

It's amazing how difficult it is to dismiss these misconceptions.

Krishan

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Hi guys...
My wife and I play alot of poker, we host home games 1-2 nights a week. Sometimes I think she is more hooked than I am! Anyway, I am working hard to improve my game, while she started out just playing for fun. I don't see her sitting down and reading my books for a while, but there is something that has improved her game A LOT. We bought one of those WPT TV controllers games, because we like to play heads up together a fair bit, and with a 3 month old baby, it isn't always viable to break out the table and chips, just for a short session. On the WPT game, we each have our own career set up, as well as a combined career. While she can beat me heads up about as much as I beat her, once she saw that my career bank roll was steadily going up, while hers had some decent swings, thats when we decided to make a shared career, and this is where we play against computer opponants, and discuss each hand, and what I look at before making any bets, and it has not taken long for that to kind of decision making to work its way into her game. This way, we are playing/studying/spending 'quality' time together, all the time having fun!
And another thing... There are better things to play for than money...ie> Who ever wins a heads up game gets 10 minutes of oral sex or back rub, or what ever!
This really makes her think hard about her game!!

word!
[img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

ha, just lost heads up to the wife....
she picks the movie tonight!!
And a message after!!
oh well....

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

I really like this idea. Can you find a link or give me a name/manufacturer of the product you bought? Thanks,

Krishan

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

This is a self-correcting problem. When she moves up and suffers a -150 BB downswing, she will realized that the learning is not over, and the she needs to study. Or else she will be, at best, a winning microlimit player.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Sure...
It is a pretty fun game....
Picked it up at Walwart.
WPT Game

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Withhold sex. That is what I do when I can't get my wife to do what I want.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Well, for starters, women tend to be extremely competitive, so you could mention (casually, many times), how she'll never be able to beat you consistently if she doesn't study poker more.

I'm sure I could think of better ideas, but it's 4:40am.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Watch, you'll get your wish and then you'll be back here telling us how you had to break up with her because you couldn't stand it when she kicked your ass at poker all the time! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

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Sit by while she plays and EXPLAIN why certain plays she is making are wrong.

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ROFL!!!!!!! Yeah, that'll work.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

She's a human being, poker is a hobby - let her do what she enjoys doing.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Let her have an outlet aftera hard day's work. Not everybody wants to be a winning player. She thinks it's more fun to play loose, and it sounds like she's not that bad at it, so quit ruining her fun. It's probably cheaper (and easier) than taking her out. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Slim

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Hit her.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

i agree with most of them, let her be, just tell her if she wants to succeed like that, then she has to study. also be glad you have a girlfriend who plays poker. mine is horribly opposed to gambling, especially me wagering any decent amount of money on it. come home from a bad night and get the whole "thats what you get for gambling, idiot" kinda thing.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Svar till:</font><hr />
Hit her.

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I seldom laugh out loud when alone and reading. Thank you.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

My GF started out playing my bankroll in SnG NL tournaments for a long time. I'd win 20-30 bucks then she'd go and play two $5 SnGs. It never bothered me, she was happy, the bankroll was still climbing, etc. Then I started to notice that when I came back, my bankroll would be highier than when I left, sometimes by alot. She'd started winning these low buy in SnGs on a regular basis.

She now 3 tables FL ring games and plays a SnG at the same time and wins more than I often do. She still hasn't ever read a poker book or anything else on the game. I've suggested that she could improve her ring game (which is honestly not very good) if she read a book or two.

She might some day, she likes reading her romance novels alot more (seriously, three or four a week) than reading number books. I leave it at that, we talk about our hands and what I've read and what she's noticed. She often wins much more than I do when we play our homegames, but I can't convince her to go with me to the card room acroos the state line. She would own, but she's intimidated by the whole thing. Hopefully the twice a week homegame we've recently started going to will help.

Anyway, my point is that everyone learns the game differantly. While I agree that studying the game from books and online disscussion is important, it may not be the first practical step for someone else. I read a poker book in elementary school and have always used books to further my understanding of the game. She likes to talk about hands alot more. I find it nice that I can talk to someone about a hand that hasn't read all the books I have and play the same way, very enlightening.

One thing she does that I could never do is write down all of her hole cards and take little notes on every hand. This is when she plays online, not live. We have stacks of these papers with little cryptic notes and card suits drawn all over them.

I'm just happy my GF shares an interest in poker.

Re: How can I get my GF to study?
 

Sounds like you are trying to convert a socialist into a capitalist. If there is such a thing as luck you are going to need it.