What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

Hey--

On Friday, one of my bosses wants me to teach a few fellow traders as well as himself how to become a good poker player. I'm somewhat intimidated by this request because I feel like he has unrealistic expectations, but whatever. I'm hoping you guys can help me out.

What concepts do you think are most helpful for a beginning player?

What are the most difficult parts of the game for you guys?

I plan to cover:

1. Bankroll Management
2. Pot Odds/Implied Odds, Position n such
3. Tilt Control
4. Betting (hand protection, value bets, bluffs, etc)
5. Balancing Your Game
6. Forget Everything Poker Announcers Tell You (eg- The Hollywood Effect)

Dunno, I'd appreciate any advice you might have for me--everything is a blur so it's hard for me to remember when i was first starting out. I think my biggest problem was bankroll management...not sure about this other stuff.

Also, I can try to answer some questions you might have if that'd be helpful. But ya, any ideas on teaching new players would be good too.

Edit-- Woah, I just noticed a thread about ppl's leaks...ha sry, I'll read through that too.

Re: What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

huh? Your boss is teaching you poker?

Everything you need to know is on this site.

EDIT--- i can't read! sorry.

Re: What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

What? I'm teaching them?

Re: What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

aha sorry.

Anyways..starting hands, pot odds, position, the concept of EV. That's pretty much the basis of poker anyways

Re: What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

[ QUOTE ]
aha sorry.

Anyways..starting hands, pot odds, position, the concept of EV. That's pretty much the basis of poker anyways

[/ QUOTE ]

Ohhh ya, Expected Value is a good thing to add. Starting hands? What do you mean? I feel I should teach them to balance their game right from the start. Do you think i should give them a list of hands to play?

Re: What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

Wow, I would think that this would be a hard task. I think that you probably have most of the main ideas down, but make sure you tell them to aboserve the other players traids and patterens in betting.

Really, the best way to teach them to be good players is to make them play 25k hands!!! Make them all bring their laptops into the conference room and have them put $100 onto a site and then make them play, while you float around and talk them through key concepts.

Re: What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

Show them Hellmuth videos [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Re: What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

I think you should teach them to fold pf and to bet their hands. Use examples of what to do and what not to do regarding this. Also br management and discipline seems like good topics to hammer in to a beginner audience. Don´t try to cover too much, if you can prevent them from ever limping Q5 UTG I think you have done a good job.

Re: What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

Well being traders, I'd stick it to them trader style.

I assume they know about handranking and such, so teaching a trader I'd do it like this.


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1. Equity (Value, protection, etc ... draws vs made hands, and finally touch on folding equity being the consequence of uncertainty in hand(range estimation) with reverse implied odds being the driving force.

2. Approach: Targeting the blinds, speculating in implied odds, targeting the weak.

3. Mixed Strategies ... in other words balance. (Postflop play, betting as a bluff, for deception purposes (balance), for protection and for value.


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And there you have it ... that is imho formulated in trader language, then do a quick bit about variance and bankroll management at the end [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: What Poker Concepts Hold You Back From Becoming Good?
 

You didnt say how much experience they have. Are they all total newbies? I think it is important to think about how much they can learn in a single session. What you have listed above is a lot for even intelligent people to understand. If you only have one session you might want to stick to the basics.

1.preflop starting standards
2. bet when you have something, don't bet when you don't
3. position is good.


If they have played in home games for a while, then I think 2 and 4 are the most important from your list.