Giving a friend poker lessons - topics?

[mythrilfox]

Hey all, I'm giving a friend some poker lessons tonight and I'm having trouble figuring out where to start or what's the best course of action for him. The thing I'm most concerned about is that when you start out playing poker you are generally just advised to play tight, because playing tight works best against opponents at the lower stakes. But as you move up and start to expand your game, and are able to adapt to all sorts of players, you begin to truly understand the underlying wisdom of that reason. You play tight in those low-stakes situations because you know it's the best, and not because you're told it's the best.

So my question is this, should I pamper him for higher stakes play from the outset and try to go the extra mile and make him understand the deeper significance of those situations, or just give this blanket "play tight" advice?

Also, what sorta topics should I start with? First I'm going to talk about position and then pot control. And then some various things like bluff induction, implied odds, semi-bluffing, etc. What kinda hands do you all think would be most instructive?

Lastly, when we start playing online some, should I ramp him up at full ring or 6-max?

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

[beginnersluck13]

I think you should stick with the tight approach to play, specifically preflop because he is just starting out, give him a set of good starting hands from positions. (Jones WLLH has a great section for this). Then go on to discuss the topics you mentioned, but don't get him too confused from the beginning as it can be a lot to handle. I think starting off in the ring game would be best, have him watch how other people are playing his hands, also it gives you time to critique each hand he plays in more detail. The one problem with this and beginners is a lot of time the tight guidelines for preflop play are ignored due to boredom, so watch for that. The only other thing I would suggest is reading homework.

[deepdowntruth]

The first thing I teach friends is the idea of expected value. Maybe kind of a strange thing to start with, but I make it work.

I start out by playing a dice game where he pays me $1 any time a 1 or a 2 lands, and I pay him $1 when a 3, 4, 5, or 6 lands. After about 5-10 minutes, he ends up with all or most of the chips. Then I tell him that the essence of making money at poker is forcing your opponents to make the wrong end of as many of these bets as you can. The best and easiest way for a beginner to do this is to only play cards that are most likely to be better than those of one's opponents.

This demonstration is more convincing than merely dictating "play tight". It also shows them, in a visceral and compelling way, that is more important to get worse hands to put money in the pot than to shut them out from making bad bets.

And then I go from there. They seem to get it. And they start right out with an idea of what they are trying to do in the big picture.

I dunno. It works for me.

[eagletmr]

I like deepdowntruth's advice. As for what worked with my friend:

I gave him a chart for preflop play, and we talked about the REASON behind the guidelines, and what situations it is ok to deviate from them.

Also I would DEFINITELY start him out in full ring rather than six max. Easy to play super tight and still win a little while getting a feel for the game.

[BZ_Zorro]

1. E.V. Chart with real data - so he can see for a fact what loses and what doesn't.
2. A tutorial on sucker hands and -EV situations. If he knows what a big hand is and what a danger hand is, he'll go a long way.

Regarding priming him for higher stakes from the beginning, read Different Stages in a Player's Life by Ray Zee.

BZ