Teaching poker

[Shaman]

Who would make the ideal student? Can you give us his profile? How old? How intelligent? What gaming background? Etc.

[Prowler]

I may not be the "ideal student" but atleast I was available. I am just going to very briefly post who I am, why I am doing this and my feelings so far.

First of the mundane and irrelevant, I am a 25 yr. old male. I have an above average intelligence even though to be fair it hasn't been assessed by any standard measure in years. I am not strong mathematically but fairly competent. I have been playing and looking at poker seriously for about 3 months. While I have done a lot of reading and a lot of playing I had managed to eek out a profit but am far from comforatable with my level of play. I believe that with dedication and effort I have what it takes to be a top competitor.

In my original disscussion wtih Jwg152 I gave him some more background on myself and he asked a number of "what if" questions. At the end he said he really didn't agree with most of my answers and we would begin this experiment.

We began at the begining, what are ones options for playing the number 1 hadn in the number 1 position in the number 1 round of an SnG. What i found very helpful was that he stressed understanding and conceptualizing the reasons behind what one does as well as just the mechanics of it. Despite having read many posts, a nuber of books and a variety of sources I hadn't done this. I believed I had and just hadn't reaqched a level high enough for it to become innate but I hadn't. The process we followed today was truly a collaborative way to learn - Here's a situation, here's what I do. Here's why, what are the strengths and pitfalls, how is it similar/different from other situations we've been over. I was suprised at the number of basic concepts I knew that i didn't understand, and simply through disscussion of starting hands and the scenarios they could create some of these became clearer.

Following all of this I played a $10 SnG on party while Jwg watched. One of the first hands we had disscussed and on which we decided my strategy was floored was dealt to me on the 2nd hand. I made the play and low and behold it went exactly as predicted. Now I know this won't happen everytime but talk about positive re-affirmation. Finished the SnG placing 2nd and then we disscussed a couple of hands. He noted a potential leak in my game and I gave a very detailed explanation of my actions and why it was right. He said the logic was sound but... and gave a very detailed explanation of how he would look at the situation. I agreed.

We disscussed in broad strokes some short handed concepts and that was the end of the 1st day.

I am suprised at how much that I "knew" that just hadn't "clicked" or sunk in. Through long conversations (and many typos!) I know that I have a much firmer grasp on the game today than ever before. I was excited by the opportunity this presented at the outset, now I am excited by the process as well.

I would also like to thank JwgG for all of his help so far, he has been very generous with his time and knowledge and for that I can only say Kudos.

So everyone wish us luck and stay tuned!

[2ndGoat]

Let's see what it takes to clear 1k a week:
Let's be generous and say he's willing to play 40 hours. Let's not be fatuous and assume he'll play more than that.

So we need him at $25/hr. I don't think we can plop down our newbie in a 15/30 game and expect him to do anything but lose money, and I don't think we can have him 4-table either.

Really I think the best 99% of students could hope for right out of the gates is 1 BB/100 at two tables of 3/6. That's what, $6/hr in rakeback/whoring and about $8/hr in play, right? The other 1% may be able to handle 4 tables, or beat 10/20, or take 3/6 for 2.5 BB/100, but after teaching some people myself, I just don't see it as possible except if someone's got a rare natural talent.

I consider my intellect and temperment perfectly suited to poker and I lost money at it for 3 months after I started studying. I didn't have a tutor to bring me along, but regardless.. for the vast majority, I think starting out is tougher than us "seasoned" types remember.

Now if the test is "Can the newbie maintain 1k/week over 20 weeks?" then the chances skyrocket. After 2 months there are a lot of people that are going to be able to 4-table low limits and pass 1k/week by enough to catch up on whatever EV was missing in the beginning.

The other wrinkle is if you're sitting there "coaching" him for a significant portion of his play, then a lot of the decisions are coming from an outside source... the earth will shudder off its axis and a man in San Jose will turn into a lemur.

I wrote a post containing about 5 different thoughts, with no regard to organization, flow, or even coherency. Yay.

2nd