When Your Family Members Want In On This 'Poker Thing'

Currently I am playing poker to save up $20k to go on a backpacking trip around the world, and so I felt I kind of had to tell my family my plan. Of course they keep pestering me about my progess, and although I should really not tell them my week to week results, I cave in like a little girl and tell them.

So now both my sisters, who are stay-at-home-mums, have told me they would like to learn the game so they could possibly make money in their spare time...

What do you guys tell them?

I pretty much went along the lines of this:

It's not a question of whether or not you can beat the game, I know you can beat the game, but for how much? Maybe you will max out at $1/hour, maybe $300/hour. It will take you a significant amount of time before you can make any real money, if you do at all, like maybe a year or so. In the neighborhood of 200K hands (NL if it matters)

Also, if you don't enjoy playing poker, definatly don't do it. And be prepared for the fact that you may never end up making any real money, there is a huge amound of variance. Not just the standard variance of playing hand to hand with a fixed EV, but the variance of what your maximum winrate will be.

[Harv72b]

I stopped giving my family regular updates on my poker earnings, simply because I don't think that they have the capacity to understand the inevitable swings that come along. While my parents know that I play poker regularly and do well at it overall, I'm pretty sure they'd freak if they ever knew that I lost $2000 in a day (I have) or played break-even poker for almost two months (again, I have). When I first started playing I'd tell them every time I talked to them how I had done, but that was when I was playing .25/.50 LHE and a terrible day meant losing $15.

None of my family members have expressed any interest in taking up poker (my sister does play some home games with friends, but has turned down my offers to coach her on how to actually play--she just enjoys gambling for pennies over a few drinks). Several of my friends have hinted that they'd like to give it a shot, and I always do the same thing: give them a speech similar to what you said in the OP, and if they're still interested, recommend a couple books to read and offer to help them out with any of the finer points that they don't understand. None of them have actually taken the plunge into real money games yet, though.

Yeah, I forgot about the books. IMO that's killing two birds with one stone, because it will show how serious they are without wasting your time, and it helps them.

[element00]

I've tried teaching my friends poker(when I used to play limit, something i could actually beat for awhile.) I've bankrolled 3 friends $50. One has started to make a nice side income off of it building his roll to $1k+ while paying bills n random stuff with it. Other friend, busted, other friend too lazy to play. I've taught 2 others, they got their rolls to $500 and cashed out and are stuck at the .50/1 limit running around like chickens with their heads cut off, my opinion on teaching others? Waste of time they rarely put in the effort it takes to do it unless you pester them, they can't handle the swings they look at the money in a different light than chips(maybe this right here would help me teach them more.) they won't buy the books, if they do they don't read them. This is just my experience though, i hang out with lazy stoners [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] and not grinders.

My opinion, if they ask you what to do constantly tell them to get books, read them, go to www.twoplustwo.com and start absorbing all the information like a sponge and don't stop learning even after a good day. books are crucial coz if they can spend time reading that boring content they can do just bout anything hehe.

If they're not already interested in poker, there's no sense in trying to play it for money unless they actually enjoy the game. There are easier ways to make money. FWIW, I'm a stay-at-home-mom that plays for profit. I spend a great deal of time studying the game and wouldn't even bother doing this for money unless I loved it.

Your sisters need to consider that this is not an easy game to play during the day, depending on their time zone and how many children are crawling up their legs while they're trying to multi-table. Also, I'm assuming they stayed home like I did in order to take optimum care of the children and family. With the amount of random things they need to take care of during the day, they're not going to be able to get in a lot of hands. It's a mistake for them to think they'll be able to concentrate and put 6 hours a day into poker.

Most of my play (okay, I fleece the 6-max tables around lunch time) is done at night EST. I probably get in as much play as someone with a full-time job and a non-poker playing spouse bitching at me to watch movies instead of hitting the tables. Can your sisters make money at this? Sure, but there is a big learning curve. If they're not willing to put in the study time, it's simply not worth it.

On the plus side, if they enjoy it and are willing to put in a couple months of study and patient work, they'll be able to buy those extra things that are difficult for a one-income family to afford.

[Allinlife]

first introduce them to the game, and let them play some play money / small home games to get the taste for it.

if they really like it and you can see that they want to improve their game, then teach them the basics, provide them with the knowledge, get them the Books/DVDs and get their feet wet with micro stakes online and see how they do and build from there.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]

I pretty much went along the lines of this:

It's not a question of whether or not you can beat the game, I know you can beat the game

[/ QUOTE ]


How do you know they can beat the game??



Tell them they HAVE to read GSIH and SSHE in their entirety to even have a CHANCE of not losing their shirts...and that if they aren't willing to study A LOT they shouldn't be doing it because it's just too dangerous.

For the most part, that should get them off your back and hopefully keep them from getting into too much trouble.
It is likely that they will be unwilling to read the books.

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
How do you know they can beat the game??

[/ QUOTE ]

I assumed he meant this more along the lines of, "I know it's possible to beat the game."

[ QUOTE ]

Tell them they HAVE to read GSIH and SSHE in their entirety to even have a CHANCE of not losing their shirts...


[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps you were thinking of strip poker??

[Terry]

My sister and her three twenty-something sons all once in a while say “I’ll be over for some poker lessons.” About five (or is it six already) years ago I gave them each a copy of HFAP and told them reading it was Lesson One.

Sissy said she didn’t finish it because “The plot was hard to follow and it has poor character development.” The nephews haven’t mentioned the book again, but still occasionally mention wanting to learn to play.

A year or so ago I met a friend of my nephews at a party. The subject of poker came up and I mentioned the books and PartyPoker to him. I haven’t seen the guy since, but they tell me he has quit his $60k/year job and is playing poker for a living.

/shrug