teaching the wife how to play..

[mike l.]

3-6 party poker and she has AcQc utg. she says what should i do and i say what do you think you should do and she says raise and i say ok yeah good idea. the next guy 3 bets, sb calls, her turn i say you can either reraise or call. she calls.

the flop is Q84 two diamonds. i say ok what do you want to do, she says well what should i do. i say well you have top pair top kicker but that guy reraised preflop. you could bet into him or you could check and hope he bets and then checkraise. she checks, he bets, sb calls, she checkraises, he 3 bets, sb calls. she says "ok i dont like that at all." i say "call." she calls.

the turn is a 4. she checks to the raiser who bets, sb calls, she says "can i fold?" i say "NO! you should call! call!" she says "but..but,...i dont like this..ok.." and calls.

the river is a T. im explaining and waving my arms and saying how it doesnt matter look at that pot, he could have KQ, he could have the same thing, you need to get used to paying off sometimes. sb folds out of turn, she checks, he bets, she says "oh i dont like the look of this..can we fold now?" i scream "NO DONT BE RIDICULOUS YOU HAVE TOP PAIR TOP KICKER YOU NEED TO PAY OFF, NO DONT FOLD. CALL!"

she calls. he shows KK.

[Clarkmeister]

Welcome to hell.











To elaborate, since I'm sure you will show your wife this, here is what I mean. My girlfriend started learning a while ago. I gave her a sheet of rules. One page, real simple. It's lying around these forums somewhere. She wouldn't even follow those basic rules. She wants to do it all her way. She'd build up a bankroll at .50-1.00, get mad at the fish ("I play tight just so they can suck out on me, i hate them"), move up (won't get sucked out on so much), go broke. Rinse, lather, repeat. Still won't listen to me though. Ever. It got to the point where I couldn't even play at the same live 4-8 table with her because I'd get so livid at her making simple errors and ignoring simple rules (e.g. never coldcall preflop). I no longer try to help her. I can't even watch her play. She plays .50-1.00 because she beats it, and she promises to never step up and to ensure that, she cashes out at the end of each month to keep her online account small enough that she doesn't get bored.

Anyways, be warned that it could be frustrating for both of you. Make sure she's not doing anything super bad and let her learn the rest on her own.

[schroedy]

She will now use this as evidence that you know nothing about poker.

I KNOW !

[mike l.]

"She plays .50-1.00 because she beats it, and she promises to never step up and to ensure that, she cashes out at the end of each month to keep her online account small enough that she doesn't get bored."

nice. i used to do that like 5 years ago. i think ill start doing that again. and sending my wife up to commerce.

"Anyways, be warned that it could be frustrating for both of you. Make sure she's not doing anything super bad and let her learn the rest on her own."

i just gave her ed's book and said "here read this 100 times and do everything it says and you will win." she already plays better than me. i hate this game. i want to raise the kids and do housework and play .50-$1 online and watch soap operas.

anyway yeah after that hand i decided i will not sweat her anymore.

[Michael Davis]

Of course you can't fold, but I think it's close enough to a fold that capital letters were unnecessary and sometimes I think if I actually start folding here I'd be better off but then some jackoff shows 22 and the next four guys get paid off.

I really can't believe the caps. I'm disappointed.

-Michael

[Doubling12]

I went through this, standing behind her, mocking her, etc. - finally, one day, she said "look, I play my way because it's fun for me." Wait, this game is supposed to be fun? It hit me how unreasonable I was being.

Anyway, she is now quite an asset at the table when we play live - she picks up tells on me that others might not see right away, but eventually would. I enjoy living vicariously through her, watching her take a pot down with K9o to the groans of others. It has become a shared hobby, increasing the time I can spend on it. And, there are examples like mike l's above, where you can learn something too.

[Noo Yawk]

Clark started to teach his girlfriend. He asked for advice from the board, and mine was to pretty simple....ABC poker, nothing fancy blah blah. Clark replied he had her basically playing 10-J and up plus all pairs or something like that as a starting point. I tried to teach my girlfriend along the same lines.
Guess what....
IT DOESN'T WORK!!! I swear I can't play any game without her driving me up a wall, so I just stopped and things are great!! Sorry Mike, I wish I could tell you it ends well, and I was hoping Clark would post his success story, but life just isn't that kind. Good luck!

PS: Those kings will have her playing a nice snug weak tight style for quite a while, with constant reminders of the last time you told her to call. It's actually alot funnier from the sidelines!!!

[craze9]

Hilarious post.

[mike l.]

"Clark replied he had her basically playing 10-J and up plus all pairs or something like that as a starting point"

but im having the other problem. im having trouble selling her on the value of hands like AJ and 88. same difference i guess. she doesnt think it's very fun, her idea of fun has nothing to do with sitting at a card table w/ a bunch degenerate gamblers, but she does want their money. we figure that if i can do it she can do even better as she's much smarter and more patient. she just wants money to go spend at pier one.

more and more when she has a question i tell her to just look in ed's magic book. besides i dont have the right answer most of the time anyway.

[brick]

At least she has some motivation for playing well.
This should help. Really help.

Based on your description I think she'll be pretty good someday.

And hopefully she'll have "it", like you do.