[Catt]

No formal coaching or teaching poker experience before, but I was a bit surprised to see your dismissal of books and a rote teaching approach as an appropriate -- or at least not an inappropriate -- first step to the game. I was imagining DD's response before I read it -- but his is well-articulated and actually based upon prior experience, so it is much more worthwhile than I could have done. I think it bears repeating.

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Speaking from experience teaching smart but completely new to poker people, I think you are making a big mistake dismissing the books. He needs to learn fundamentals, the proper terminology and lingo just to discuss poker with you, and he needs to figure out on his own if he enjoys the game. If he is smart as you say he will learn the rote book strategy and eventually challenge it.

What I have done with everyone is say "you need to learn the basics on your own and then I will help you" and give them SSH and set them up on UB to play 1c/2c full ring limit and learn the mechanics. If they can't beat that game before coming to me for more help I'd have serious doubts about their commitment or ability.

__1__'s idea is also a good one, I've never taken a complete novice and thrown them into videos before, I think it would probably work faster than the books but the learning curve would be sickly steep at the beginning. Obviously I'd recommend one video site above others - it rhymes with MoosesPacked.com. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

-DeathDonkey

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