Kinda OT: How to teach a total novice poker

[josie_wales]

I think that Lee Jone's
'winning small stakes poker' was probably the biggest help to me once I knew the basics.

[LearnedfromTV]

One way to cover "a basic concepts" starting hand guideline without handing a chart is to say, after going over hand rankings (what beats what):

"Quads and straight flush are like impossible, so don't worry about them.

Full House, straight, flush, and three of a kind are tough to make and very strong when you do. There's a group of hands (pocket pairs and suited connectors) that make these hands more often than any others. Playing those hands when it's cheap or a lot of people in the pot is good. If you hit, play very aggressively.

One pair and two pair are the most common hands; what matters most with these, especially one pair, is how high your pair is and what your kicker is. So hands that can make overpairs and top pair top kicker, like AA, AK, KK, AQ are much better than hands that can't, like KJ. Generally you want to play these hands with as few people and for as much $ preflop as you can."

And then say something about position being extremely important, but that he'll have to learn that as he plays (and always point out position stuff as he watches you, you watch him...)

[skier_5]

I just remember, you should def get him to read Getting started in Holdem by Ed Miller. It explains the rules, hand rankings, etc, etc. It's a limit book for the most part but explains a lot of basic concepts like pot odds pretty well. It also includes some tournament and shortstack nlhe strategy.

[Yuv]

He doesn't need to know ICM calculations by heart to play micro stakes SNGs.

The thing about getting started is not learning how to be a winning player the quickest way possible. It's about getting hooked on the game enough in order to eventually put in the hours you need to get better.

MTTs and SNGs have something that probably 90% of the people love - a winner. It has some sort of define result. It's a set competition, with a limited time frame.

I might not be the greatest example, since I suck in general, but I think its really hard for most to start with cash games. It takes a lot more self control (knowing when to stop, when to keep playing) and can make people hate the game way too soon.

He doesn't need to memorize calling ranges on the bubble. Just teach him basic preflop poker, and let him have fun with the game a bit. Once he'll have some idea of what this game is about, you can move him to micro stakes MTTs and try teach him some basic post flop concepts.

Eventually, get him to cash, when he has a better idea of what to do.

[NHFunkii]

[ QUOTE ]
He doesn't need to know ICM calculations by heart to play micro stakes SNGs.

The thing about getting started is not learning how to be a winning player the quickest way possible. It's about getting hooked on the game enough in order to eventually put in the hours you need to get better.

MTTs and SNGs have something that probably 90% of the people love - a winner. It has some sort of define result. It's a set competition, with a limited time frame.

I might not be the greatest example, since I suck in general, but I think its really hard for most to start with cash games. It takes a lot more self control (knowing when to stop, when to keep playing) and can make people hate the game way too soon.

He doesn't need to memorize calling ranges on the bubble. Just teach him basic preflop poker, and let him have fun with the game a bit. Once he'll have some idea of what this game is about, you can move him to micro stakes MTTs and try teach him some basic post flop concepts.

Eventually, get him to cash, when he has a better idea of what to do.

[/ QUOTE ]

agreed

[furyshade]

given that i only started learning a year ago, i can give you a good list from the perspective of a learner, you can ask gobbo about the other side of my learning

1) DO NOT tell to read theory of poker, he will so lost that he will probably play worse
2) start him on micro MTT's, the concept of robusto is common to everyone, the idea one winning a $3 mtt at his level will be an awesome motivator
3) explicitly write down the ranges of hands he should be playing from each position, the one on SSNL is kind of missleading
4)don't mix in % of times you should be raising, give him a concrete list of hands that he will always raise or always fold, its really hard to grasp raising sometimes and folding others
5)watch him and extrapolate on a concept once you see he understands the basics, like why you raise small pocket pairs(something new people HATE to do) and stealing blinds
6)try to switch off between watching him play and him watching you, it will be easier given that you guys will be in the same room
7)just answer the questions, you will get a lot of "should i raise KQ?" over and over again, the good thing about tournaments is you will not have to worry about postflop play really which makes it a lot easier to learn, i think the fact that i started on MTTs made it a lot easier since i only really had to worry about preflop pay and didnt have to worry about doing something later on, you can move him to cash once he gets a br/some confidence etc.