Teaching NL to someone who has never played poker before

[Yeti]

How would you go about this?

I once tried to teach it to my girlfriend and didn't have much success. Once you start talking you realise how much there is to say, and it's tons to take in.

My friend is keen to play to make some money. He is a very smart kid and I'm confident that with the right guidance he could tear through the limits.

Where to start though? Are there any good books that could do the majority of the ground work for me?

Is it worth giving him a very basic idea of limit first and then moving to NL? Do I start on full tables or 6-max?

[mcb]

i learned a lot from just watching better players play, w/o them explaining anything. if he watches you and you explain your reasoning behind what you are doing im sure he will catch on quick as hell. he will also see your cards and understand position and starting hands.

http://www.liveatthebike.com/

Cheap online Sit N Go's are a fun way to learn too...

Always start with limit.
Also, you're on a Sklansky-sponsored website and asking this question:
"Where to start though? Are there any good books that could do the majority of the ground work for me?"
Sklansky's Hold 'Em Poker and Theory of Poker are the two most solid books in terms of understanding the fundamentals and starting out playing right. Go to Caro's book of tells for fundamental live game help.
Combine that with some on the felt (online makes this so easy) tutorials and starting hand criteria, which I would simplify from Sklansky's hand buckets to start.
Also, multi-table tournaments are better playing education than cash due to premiums placed on not busting and the limited downside aspect.

[ML4L]

Hey Yeti,

[ QUOTE ]
How would you go about this?

I once tried to teach it to my girlfriend and didn't have much success. Once you start talking you realise how much there is to say, and it's tons to take in.

My friend is keen to play to make some money. He is a very smart kid and I'm confident that with the right guidance he could tear through the limits.

Where to start though? Are there any good books that could do the majority of the ground work for me?

Is it worth giving him a very basic idea of limit first and then moving to NL? Do I start on full tables or 6-max?

[/ QUOTE ]

Whatever you do, don't teach him limit first.

Also, full ring is probably better than 6-max because as he learns he'll probably want to start out playing a tight style until he gets a good feel for relative hand values, fundamental concepts, how to read hands, etc.

Good luck.

ML4L

[IHateCats]

I'd start him off with the basics using Sklansky's theory of poker for the fundamentals, pot odds, outs, etc on some basic limit tables. Once he's shown he understands the fundamentals then move him to NL and have him read Ciaffone & Rueben, that's the best NL primer I know of.

[Yeti]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, you're on a Sklansky-sponsored website and asking this question:
"Where to start though? Are there any good books that could do the majority of the ground work for me?"
Sklansky's Hold 'Em Poker and Theory of Poker are the two most solid books in terms of understanding the fundamentals and starting out playing right.

[/ QUOTE ]

IMO these are far from ideal books to teach an absolute beginner how to play NL.

[AZK]

I'm trying to teach my dad to play. Not much of a gamer but intelligent and eager to learn. I started off having him read GSIH the section for NL, I think it will help him understand some of the general concepts/terminology. You don't realize how much you know how complicated everything is until you start trying to teach someone from scratch. Very difficult. I load up 4 tables to get excessive hands at a low limit of full ring and then we play together, people can learn a lot from wtching you play as long as you say why you do what you do on every street. For example I tell him why I muck AJo out of position to a raise, why Ax is a bad hand, etc... this doesn't last long as people get information overload, afterwards we go over some ideas that I want him to know. I started off with the basic the two most important things in this game are position and stack size idea. So we talk a lot about stack size, and how it affects your decision. I think you should start with hand rankings and relative strength, and then go to stack size ideas. There is a program that people can download where it deals you 5 hands and a board and asks you what you think is the strongest hand and then shows you what happens on each street. I had him use that for a while. Once people realize how much work is involved (though it doesn't feel like work for us, but it is) a lot of them are no longer eager to learn. Right now we are "on break" from learning poker which I have a feeling will last forever. Most people will just see the money you win/lose and then think it's easy to learn, I think this is what happened with my dad...

[Ulysses]

Play tight and play hands that can flop huge. Go from there.

[Leptyne]

I recommend Poker School Online for real beginners. They will do all the beginner stuff for you so they can learn to speak the language and understand what you're talking about.

I've also got a starting hand guide that puts you at about 15% VP$IP which good for beginners that have no post flop skills. If you're not familiar with PSO check 'em out. Fossilman played there.