Teaching a friend Hold'em 101 & Basic SnG Strategy from scratch.

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There is no way someone who has as little understanding of poker as you say he does could possibly, possibly get anything out of HOH, much less HEFAP which is about an entirely different game. Less reading, more playing, more coaching. Your friend has a better plan than you, but the an even better plan is to start him off watching you guys, then coach him in some playmoney games, then coach him in some $1s or $3s or whatever the lowest level that people try to win in, then finally giving him some books. There is no way that someone who thinks Q2 can make a straight will be able to understand HEFAP, much less apply the appropriate limit cash game strategies to no limit tourney play.

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Agreed. ^^^

[Woolygimp]

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There is no way someone who has as little understanding of poker as you say he does could possibly, possibly get anything out of HOH, much less HEFAP which is about an entirely different game. Less reading, more playing, more coaching. Your friend has a better plan than you, but the an even better plan is to start him off watching you guys, then coach him in some playmoney games, then coach him in some $1s or $3s or whatever the lowest level that people try to win in, then finally giving him some books. There is no way that someone who thinks Q2 can make a straight will be able to understand HEFAP, much less apply the appropriate limit cash game strategies to no limit tourney play.

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Agreed. ^^^

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The reason I wanted him to read HEFAP is because i want to build a foundation for him. I want to teach him to think for himself and understand the concepts behind Holdem. HEFAP should be one of the latter books he reads, but he needs to understand the concepts within it. I am a NL player (played alot of NL games with a very high PTBB/100 and I find HEFAP one of the best books out there (even for NL play).

I think playing with your friend in a small homegame would be an excellent way to teach him the basics such as position, starting hand requirements, the gap concept, etc. Then you could have him read some of the more advanced text that you suggest. But I think the following link provides a ton of SnG specific literature that is just not found in most hold'em books.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...&PHPSESSID=

[Shilly]

I think you're expecting wayyyyyy too much out of him too fast. It's easy for players like us that have a lot of experience to underestimate the value of that experience, because even complex situations are basically hardwired into our brains and become automatic--while even the most mundane spots, like holding Q2o UTG, are a thought-provoking situation for a novice. Trying to jam tons of information into his brain isn't going to work at all, and he must understand that becoming a winning player isn't going to happen overnight. Give him a beginner's book (I haven't read it, but I'm sure GSIH is perfect) and let him fool around a bit on his own so that he can get a feel for the game before you start to teach him the more advanced concepts.

[an even better plan is to start him off watching you guys, then coach him in some playmoney games, then coach him in some $1s or $3s or whatever the lowest level that people try to win in, then finally giving him some books.

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I don't know about other people, but I learn by doing. I think your friend needs to jump into some play money tables with you over his shoulder before he reads anything. Let him play some games, make mistakes, then walk through his thought process and add information along the way.

Give him two weeks of playing around before starting him on a beginner's book. It will help him visualize the concepts. Then have him both read and play every day while you continue to coach.

Good luck. You might end up being very frustrated, though.

[downtown]

I am also starting coaching one of my friends. He is intelligent, likes to play, has played a bunch of 2/4 in Vegas, and has the right mindset.

The only problem is, he said he has a hard time telling when a possible straight is out. [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

I sent him back to the play money tables to practice reading the board *before* I even gave him his first book. I think as experienced players we take this skill for granted, whereas in reality it probably took tens of thousands of hands before you could automatically recognize every situation.

I would start him off watching maybe 10-20 of your games, have him read Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller just to learn the basics about HE in general. I started off with that book and I think it really dumbs it down for the total newbs. Then let him lose his first 5-10 SNGs trying to apply those strategies before he realizes it doesn't work. And THEN let him watch another 20 or 30 of your games. Another good thing to do is go over to www.tightpoker.com and download the replayer. The guy also posted something like 40-50 $11 SNGs (in the HH Download section) where his play is almost flawless. Have him watch those also. Have him then read HOH1, play some more, watch more, read more, and he should be set after about 100 or so SNGs. Just tell him not to rush it in the beginning or he'll find himself out of money really fast.

[microbet]

One of the things that made sure I didn't miss possible hands was my home game in high school where we played if someone said they had one hand, but really had a better one, it was what they said that counted, until after the hand when the money went somewhere else and then all of us made fun of them for about a year.

[11t]

Why would you have him read hold em for advanced players if he doesn't know how to play poker?

Start off with Harrington on Holdem 1, 2 then go to TPFAP, then Super System 2 and TTOP

[benfranklin]

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If you had a friend who wanted to learn SnG's which method would you use to teach them, and if you don't like the ones above which way would you go with?

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Everything in this post is a road map to disaster. Your friend is soon going to be unemployed and broke and living off you two and then you can kick him out.

I would tell a friend to keep his job and learn to play poker. Read GSHE and start playing micro limit games. Read GSHE again. Play some more. Read SSHE. Play a lot more. Read SSHE again. Don't even think about NL until he can consistently beat $1/2 limit at Party. Then start with coaching in ABC SnG strategy, and the lowest buy-in SnGs you can find. He is not going to be ready for HPFAAP, HOH, etc., until he reaches this point.