What to do with a Child who plays SNG's?

[junkmail3]

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I say sell him.

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I was thinking something along the same lines as well.

Something for profit and exploitation for sure.

American Idol
Chess
Spelling Bees

[bones]

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I say sell him.

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I'll buy him.* I've been meaning to invest some of my poker winnings.



*Sale contingent on him being able to at least 4 table.

Playing that young is illegal isn't it? Or is that being picky?

[ChoicestHops]

I think this is awesome. As long as you give him guidance I don't see why he would get addicted. It's just a game to him, and you have to set limits. Obviously he should not be allowed to play by himself until a long time.

Of course you could teach him chess, but poker can teach him money management and investing skills. It could do him good in the future to learn these things now. However, don't let it consume physical activities he should be doing as a kid. You have to be in control of the situation.

Even so, if your wife doesn't agree you may have to give it up until he gets older. You would lose in a custody battle (if for some reason you got a divorce). If she has the train of thought that gambling, even at a responsible level, is bad then she won't realize the good in it.

[Mr_J]

Jesus, let the kid keep playing for as long as he enjoys it (although limit how much time he can spend playing each day, he needs to do regular kid stuff too). Encourage him to invest most of the profits he doesn't need for his BR (ie don't let him spend too much). That chunk of cash can grow to a pretty nice amount over the years.

"She thinks playing poker for money for a nine year old is unhealthy and is afraid that he is going to become addicted to gambling?"

Rubbish. I used to play cards for lunch money when I was a kid, and I don't have any gambling problems. My problem is getting myself to actually PLAY.

"She's afraid that he will lose interest in activities that nine years old normally participate in, ie, baseball, soccor, riding a bicycle etc. although that has not happened."

This is important. He sounds fine, but just make sure poker stays casual. As good as it'd be for him to make a decent amount of money, it's much more important to be a 9yr old.

[bruce]

We have made multiple trips to the bank to deposit money into his college or car fund. Even though he would like the money himself and do what he pleases he's happy that the money is being put away for him for future endeavors.
I will not allow him direct access to the money.

Twenty games a week may sound like a lot, but he's a kid whose bouncing a basketball or hitting a baseball a good portion of the time, so I don't see this interfering with other activities. He's a very good athlete and he love's to fish. He really doesn't like to play video games at
all. He finds it boring. So from my perspective I don't
see this affecting his development. His math skills have gotten a whole lot better as a result of poker. He can
multiply and divide big numbers and he understands percentages. He still doesn't quite understand pot odds but we're working on it.

He began playing gin about four years ago and he used to beat his grandparents for a quarter a game religiously. They refuse to play him now because they lose almost everytime.

I will not let him play unless I'm around and I am always in the room with him either reading or watching sports and I'm always sitting next to him so I'm not using poker as a substitute for parenting.

Thanks for the feedback.

Bruce

[Mr_J]

BTW your child sitting in front of video games all day is something to worry about alot more. At least what he's doing is productive. The only thing video games can do is give someone good multitabling skills. I'm glad my Ps never bought me a nintendo or mega drive (had to save for a n64 myself).

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mega drive

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WTF is that?

Sounds like you ought to invite a couple of his friends and their dads (or moms) over for poker night.

[Mr_J]

And to the people who said this should be college money, rubbish. This is where his investments should start. Dad should still pay for college (better play those sngs [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]) so the son can develop a good financial base at an early age.

BTW, does anyone else think this is funny that we have an 8 and 9 yo in this thread that beat adults in poker [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Wonder what they'd all say when they found out our guys aren't even into double digits. I love it...