Teaching NL to someone who has never played poker before

[fsuplayer]

as much as it gets ragged, hellmuth's book would be good for a beginner for NL.

top ten hands chart and such, good way to start. worked for me.

[lapoker17]

I second the "do Not start with limiit" sentiment. Whenever I see a known limit player sit down in my game, my mouth waters.

[Heimdal]

I’m teaching my brother how to play. I borrowed him some books. He didn’t like TOP and PL & NL Poker. I think they are too complicated at this stage. But he thinks he learned a lot from HOH I. But he also finds tournaments more exciting than cash game.

I got some one started with pretty much this advice:

With AA/KK/QQ/AK raise pot every chance you get preflop

Call with JJ-22 preflop if it's less than 10% of the smaller stack

Fold every other hand preflop

Postflop, if you have TPTK or better bet pot every chance you get, if not, check/fold

This is definatly +EV at low limits, and forces them to learn discipline, and let's them cope with their first bad beats and tilt without having to think to hard

edit: oh, and strictly 10-handed

[HoldEmKillah]

[ QUOTE ]
Whenever I see a known limit player sit down in my game, my mouth waters.

[/ QUOTE ]

They see WAY too many showdowns and just adore draws...both of which get costly in NL.

[troymclur]

Sklansky's books are way beyond a beggininers level. And don't even touch Hellmuth's. Hand him a copy of HHOH Vol. 1. Many of those principals can be applied to cash games.

Gather five or six more friends that know how to play and play a free tourney. After each hand, have everybody flip up thier hands and explain why they did what they did. THe single best way to learn is through actual play.

[Sponger15SB]

Just have him watch you play for a while and explain everything to him. That is what I'm doing with my roomate who is a kinda bad player but I'm hoping to turn him into a winning $10nl or $25nl 6-max player.

[edge]

I started with SNGs. The one-table tourney forum had a good FAQ and I followed it pretty much to the letter. I realize now that the OTT forum is bad and often has terrible advice, but it's still better than what a beginner would think by himself.

[JMP300z]

I sat with a friend and tried to explain NL poker to him...he had no idea of terminology, rules etc...he had played in home games a few times.

Ideas I tried to get across to him:

Position, Aim for the opponents stacks (win big pots, play hands that flop big), dont slowplay (ie cant always expect your opponents to bet for you), play better starting hands than your opponents will give you an inherent edge, winning or losing on a single session or week or month or whatever is nothing compared to making correct decisions. Making the correct decisoin often requires off table analysis and has absolutely nothing to do w/ winning or losing the pot or what hand your opponent turned over.

-JP

[Vish]

This thread is very encouraging. I'm glad it's not easy for other people to learn this game. Maybe all the naysayers claiming poker won't last are wrong.