Teach an old man how to be as marginally -EV as possible in a 5k buyin

[LuckyLloyd]

Make sure he plays live at least once before it begins - so that it cuts out some of the initial intimidation factor of handling chips and cards.

Bond's advice is topclass. I am unsure how much time all of that might take though...

If you could drill the fundamentals of position and relative hand values into his head before he sits down that would be a very good start. Most beginners spew off chips calling in the hope of hitting with speculative hands. If he never made a bad call of a raise OOP; and he never limp - called from early position for the duration he is in the tournament - he would be doing well.

[NoahSD]

I think what bond said was very good.

Please let us know what you do and how it works out.

[Ruy Lopez]

If it were my pop I'd send him to the lowest stakes cash game the casino is spreading. Let him blow a few buy-ins learning both live poker and ABC technique. Just drill tightness and position into him and he'll do o.k. Don't know how aggressive you can make him in two days...

[Pudge714]

I would get him to play online sngs. So he can learn pushbotting and just standard tag full ring play.

[Pudge714]

[ QUOTE ]
Timex i really recommend number 2. Always explain what certain actions are attempting to accomplish. There are several various concepts people never told me and just assumed i knew and i stayed bad for years.

Get into things like:
1. Pot odds calls.
2. Betting for value as opposed to betting as a bluff.
3. Pot control and why its necessary.
4. Stack sizes and what is appropriate for which stack sizes. ~10 BB's is an open shove, 14-20 is bad for open raising most hands that can't call a 3 bet, 22 or more is bad for restealing all in for most spots, stuff like that.
5. DON'T CALL RAISES OUT OF POSITION!!
6. How to take advantage of players who are VERY tight or VERY loose.
7. Get pokerstove out and give him an idea of how hands match up equity wise.


Give him that much and he'll be like top 10%.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think you are really underestimating how hard it is for most people to learn and apply one of these.

[ValarMorghulis]

I been thinking about this as well because there's this low-ish buyin deep stacked tournament on and a few of my friends were thinking of playing but weren't very experienced.

This was the plan in my head.

Go through:
1. absolute value of hands, versus blind/stacksizes.
a. earlier rounds don't go broke without set/flushes etc. AA/KK preflop
b. Later rounds don't fold AQ/88+ preflop (except against nits), don't fold toppair postflop.

2. Be tight calling raises. Think about how much of your effective stack you are calling off and how often you hit your hand (AK hits top-pair 1 in 3 times pocket pair hits set 1 in 8 times). Fold A rag at every opportunity.

3. Watch your opponents. Classify as:
a) nits. Everything other than AK,JJ+ are trash
b) loose donks. Wants to see flop. Calls or limps if their hand is pretty. Postflop, generally folds unless they hit a pair/draw.
c) good players. Raises to steal blinds. cbets against loose donks.
d) some mixture of above

4. Position
a. Fold AJ UTG, raise 76 on the button if it's folded to you.
b. Be aware that the good players are also doing this. So give more respect to an UTG raise.

5. Blindstealing. (This is probably very important in making a -EV player, +EV. Especially if they play tight early.)
a) Be aware of your M. When you get into the 5-10 range be aware that you should be pushing once or twice an orbit.
b) When pushing, only push good hands in early position, often push any two cards in Late postion.
c) Look out for the players that are stealing and those that aren't and try to adjust.

I guess a general (but boring) strategy would be to setmine and play big paint, big pairs early. (But try not to go broke with one pair.) Later, steal the blinds when your stack is low and the situation presents itself.

[-moe-]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey, I accidentally won my dad a seat to the Aruba Poker Classic, we're here right now, hes playing on Wednesday,

[/ QUOTE ]

2 days? Wow. How about running to the bookstore and buying a copy of Sklansky's "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players" (hey, wait, don't laugh), and go through the chapter called "The System".

There, Sklansky describes a system he worked out for maximizing the chances of going deep in an MTT with a slow structure for someone who's hardly ever played poker.

Also: I haven't read it yet, but isn't "Kill Phil" by Lee Nelson and Blair Rodman targeting the novice who wants to maximize his chances when playing in a tough field?

[tedtodd]

Just watch the pokerxfactor HH's in the player.

[NHFunkii]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey, I accidentally won my dad a seat to the Aruba Poker Classic

[/ QUOTE ]

lol.

[plzleenowhammy]

stake him, obv. he'll run like god and win with no coaching at all.