Teaching a SNG "class." How do these topics look?

[zac777]

I've been kicking around the idea of a SNG class with a few of my friends for a while, and I've decided to go ahead with it. I think it will give me a chance to solidify my understanding of the game and give them a chance to improve and possibly pick up a nice side income.

The "students" will be 3-5 players of varying levels, from almost pure beginner to winning 30+3 player. Here is the outline I've come up with so far, but I'd love to hear any suggestions, especially from people just starting out (what you'd want to see if you were taking a class like this) and others who have coached/taught before.

Assumptions about the student
- Knows the ranks of hands and rules of the game
- Has at least $300 of disposable income (skipping the 5s)
- Has a desire to learn and make money (without this I don't think the class is worth teaching)
- Anything else?

Lesson One - Before the cards are dealt
- Variance
- Bankroll
- The long term and +EV decisions
- Psychology (bad beats, staying calm, etc)
- Payout structure (Should I save this for a later section?)

The fundamentals
- Early game (Tight/take advantage of opponents' mistakes)
- Late game (Blind to stack ratio and aggression, opening vs. calling all in)

Basic topics
- Position
- Pot odds and drawing
- The 5-10 rule for pocket pairs
- The 10x rule for raising all-in
- This section could use a couple more items I think

Starting hand selection

A road map by blind level
- I want to give them a solid base to play from when they run into something they're not familiar with. They will eventually be required to think through the plays they're making.

Sample game Not sure what I want to do here. These are the options:

a) I play a 10+1 and explain my reasoning as I go along
b) I have the them play a 10+1 as a team, with my input
c) I show them a recorded game that I know has a good mix early/mid/late game play
d) I have them all start games simultaneously and I answer questions when they have them

Basically I want to get them comfotable with the structure of the party SNGs as fast as possible

-- Possible break here, maybe call this the end of class 1? --

Possible "homework"
- Play X SNGs this week and report back
- In your next SNG, write down 3 hands that you were unsure about and post them on 2+2
- Trade hand histories with one of the other students and analyze each other's play

Intermediate topics
- Value betting vs. inducing bluffs
- Implied odds
- The gap concept (hopefully they have an idea of this from the earlier topics)
- Fold equity and the importance of maintaining it
- Classifying opponents and note-taking

Advanced topics
- Some very aggressive late game plays
- ICM analysis
- Table and seat selection (I call it advanced because they won't need it for a while)

The road to bigger and better things
- Metrics (ROI and ITM)
- Sample size
- Moving up
- Adding tables

Tools
- Poker Tracker
- Playerview
- SNG power tools
- Pokerstove
- Hand history replayer

Books
- Theory of Poker
- Harrington 1 & 2
- Any others?

2+2 Posts
- FAQ
- The Shadow's compilation

So there it is. I think it should be a blast to watch them improve and (hopefully) start climbing the SNG ladder. Of course there are a million other things for them to learn, but I mainly want to start them off as winning players and give them all the tools to improve their game for themselves. I'm probably missing important topics and/or presenting things out of order, so I'd love to hear any input, whether it's about a particular section, an overall opinion, or both.

Zac

[nate_king1]

All this stuff I anybody can learn just on 2+2 forums... If I was taking a class on SNGs I would want to learn advance topics from professionals. Probably would want to watch how they play...

I would probably pay money to see professionals grind out the 55s and up.

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
All this stuff I anybody can learn just on 2+2 forums...

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree in principle, but...

It takes a certain kind of personality to not mind wading through mountains of chitchat, "humor", dubious advice, and all the rest of the not-so-great stuff on internet forums to find all the good stuff that is indeed there.

I would venture to say most people would rather have even a semi-systematic presentation, rather than a jumble of a billion posts to decipher.

eastbay

[vabogee]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
All this stuff I anybody can learn just on 2+2 forums...

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree in principle, but...

It takes a certain kind of personality to not mind wading through mountains of chitchat, "humor", dubious advice, and all the rest of the not-so-great stuff on internet forums to find all the good stuff that is indeed there.

I would venture to say most people would rather have even a semi-systematic presentation, rather than a jumble of a billion posts to decipher.

eastbay

[/ QUOTE ]

agreed. i would've taken this class before i did all of the above.

[nate_king1]

[ QUOTE ]

I would venture to say most people would rather have even a semi-systematic presentation, rather than a jumble of a billion posts to decipher.

eastbay

[/ QUOTE ] But Would you pay for this sng class?

I'd rather pay to watch people like Raptor, or ZeeJustin grind the higher level SNGs... I would probably pick up a lot more..

But would you pay

[ewing55]

Wow, eastbay, great idea. Maybe you should do some lessons. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

---------Jeff

PS. Just some friendly ribbing!

[Shilly]

I don't think he's charging anything.

P.S. -- I think this is a great idea.

[nate_king1]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think he's charging anything.

P.S. -- I think this is a great idea.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not charging!!! I'll sign-up...PM if you offer this class in Nor CAL.

[zac777]

I'm trying to tailor the class to my audience.. I don't think the watching me play my usual level would help as much as going over the basics and getting them started on the right foot. I agree that someone who's already comfortable with poker/SNGs would benefit more from what you describe.

Also, I'm definitely not accepting any payment for this other than a beer or two when/if they move up to the 22's.

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I would venture to say most people would rather have even a semi-systematic presentation, rather than a jumble of a billion posts to decipher.

eastbay

[/ QUOTE ] But Would you pay for this sng class?


[/ QUOTE ]

No, but I'm not the target audience for this guy at all.

It also happens not to fit my personality or learning style. I'm the guy who never went to class in college, and taught himself everything from the textbook. That's just how I learn. Sitting through a lecture is torture to me. From my short stint as a teacher, I learned most people aren't like me at all in the way that they learn best. They'd rather have the structured presentation rather than a pile of reference material, some relevant, some not.

eastbay