[guy4565]

I think too many people are not answering your question, just giving their opinion on if you should teach a class of this type. Why don't you lean more towards the "life lessons" approach, pick up some of the books on the lifestyles of a few such as the crash and burn career of Stuey, pick up the Ace On The River book, see how one of the top pro's has been over a million in debt, look at how Doyle lost his whole bankroll on a golf bet, my bet "no pun intended, ok a little bit", is that if you approach the topic this way especially in a Catholic school you can also include in your curriculum the rest of what you really sound like you want to teach, game theory, odds, hands, but you'd be doing your students an injustice if you did not include the pitfalls of the lifestyle, at least in my humble opinion. Btw, at this moment I am sending two people money just to get back from vegas, they each went down for the world series this year and were going to take a shot at being a pro, one lost by taking his 10k stack and just playing low limit where you get called by everyone every time, the other lost his 40k bankroll, and also his business here along with his family, not a good trade. Teach them that many of the "pros" now days make much of their money with endorsements, not poker. "The Magician" recently said, I don't do much anymore but the t.v. thing, don't play poker alot in regular games. I think your school would allow you to teach if you presented it in a way that taught the game but showed that for a lifestyle it is not very desirable. That being said, I love the game and would like nothing else than to spend every day playing it, but I put my wife and kids first. I think I am a better player for it. Steve