help me design a poker class for high school

[PantsOnFire]

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Most poker players lose, and find poker entertaining despite that. That is the primary role poker has in our society: Entertainment for people with money to lose. It is easy to get confused about this, and you shouldn't trust high school students who have never had a normal job to exercise good judgement. I'm very careful about what I tell college students, who are actually adults.

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You have a realist's point of view on this and it is quite valid.

My point of view is more towards idealism. Your arguements sound the same as back in the time where educators wanted to introduce content in their classrooms to discuss sex and drugs. Parents then feared that their children would take this "adult" information and go out and become drug addicts or start having sex and getting girls pregnant and spreading STDs.

Perhaps you don't agree with teaching this type of content to high school age students as well, but I do. I see atrong parallel here teaching students about odds and probabilities and using games for the application and for examples. The same fears that parents had with sex education may be the same fears that they have seeing their children potentially being guided towards being "gamblers".

As I have pointed out earlier, and you alluded to as well, why can't we educate those students about negative expectation and show them that games of chance and money should be looked at as entertainment and show them the reason why?

Let's face it, poker is on TV and they are watching. Just like sex is on TV and they are watching.

[king_nothing_]

A poker class at a Catholic school.

Hahahahahahahahaha.

[jay_shark]

You may use poker as an example to motivate students , but math should be the focal point of this type of learning .

I know many teenagers play poker these days and using poker is a great way to motivate students in the classroom . As I said before, it shouldn't be the focal point of the learning experience .

[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

[pzhon]

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Perhaps you don't agree with teaching this type of content to high school age students as well, but I do.

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While it is much easier to attack a straw man argument I never made, that doesn't help anything. I think sex education should be mandatory long before high school. However, I would not support having a class on the finer points of successful prostitution, and I don't think it would be a good career move to try to introduce one in a Catholic high school.

If you want to teach about expected value, risk and rewards, etc. then there are much better ways to do it than by teaching about poker.

[fraac]

pzhon is correct. end of.

[TrvChBoy]

Here is what happens when people try to do this in Utah at the adult Community Education level. I can't imagine what would happen if somone tried to do it at the high school level (death penalty?).

From the Deseret Morning News June 26, 2005:

That Utahns are conflicted over poker was never more evident than last winter, when Utah Valley State College and the Alpine School District teamed up to offer a community education course titled "Texas Hold 'Em: Know When to Hold 'Em/Fold 'Em." After getting their "hands slapped," according to one college employee, the course was canceled.

[ELCowboy]

Why not pick out a few poker books that explain all the essentials like how to play, the rules, the math involved, and bankroll considerations and all that jazz the first half. Then have the second half of the class consist of tournaments or cash games...and have the grade depend on how the players performed. Give the students a play money bankroll and a notebook at the table. They can take notes on the hands they play. You could have their grades based on early quizzes/tests in the learning portion, on the play money profit/loss, and a final paper on what they have learned, how they played certain crucial hands, etc. I would definately taken a class like that in high school!