Teaching young people(<18) to play poker

[timex]

What are peoples feelings on this, I have taught several of my friends to play the game when we were underage, and am currently considering teaching my sister(under 18, sorry, no pics) to play. My dad often talks about my poker to co-workers, and one lady was asking him if her son would be able to watch me play, and if I could get him started... he is 10, but has played chess for a few years and is getting somewhat competitive at that.

I guess what I'm sort of wondering about is whether you think it would be detrimental for someone to learn poker at such a young age and what you would do in my situation. I know when I started, I was super risk-adverse and that probably helped me succeed(or at least not fail miserably), and I am wondering whether you think this is a trait that is common among kids, or do you think that kids will generally be less responsible gamblers than adults.

My friends and I have concluded that the "optimal" time to learn poker is once you understand the value of money, but have no real money of your own and no expenses, so that you can focus completely on maximizing EV, and never make poor decisions because the money doesn't mean anything to you.

Its hard to say exactly what I'm asking, but basically, do you recommend getting children started in poker, and if so, around what age do you feel is appropriate?

[Jeffrey Dahmer]

The "age" you described is 78. Younger kids value money 10x more than adults. Think how big of a deal a few dollar allowance once was. Old retired people value it the least, thats why they are always in AC...

[iSTRONG]

I think that poker is a great game but i don't think it is suitable for the very young.
The game is too complex and has too many components for young people to be able to learn in a sound way. The main issue i think will be to make them understand that results should not affect the quality of a decision. It's really difficult to teach this to adults... let alone kids.

However, I think that good poker players have qualities that can be worked on at an early age. Try to develop those characteristics such as analytical mind, emotional control, risk-taking management, self-critism/honesty etc.

Chess is a great game to develop some of these skills and is suitable for kids. Other activities could as well.

Poker will come to them easily at a later age if they've mastered those skills.

[ShipitFMA]

16ish isn't too bad. I was crushing 25nl at 17 and now only playing live due to school (at 18). I think for me 25nl at this age was perfect, losing a buyin did not phase me at all, but crushing the game does add a huge boost to money i can use on going out/drinking/spending money etc

As for the 10 year old kid his mother is just stupid to put it simply. Just looking at the 10 year old kids at my school (im in my final year of high school) i could not imagine them every having the patience to learn poker

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However, I think that good poker players have qualities that can be worked on at an early age. Try to develop those characteristics such as analytical mind, emotional control, risk-taking management, self-critism/honesty etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this sums it up pretty well...I learnt how to play chess when i was 4 and now looking at my nephew who is 4 and a half (very smart kid btw) i just cant imagine myself playing chess at that age...
So ty to my mother for developing my brain

[UnblinkingEye]

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16ish isn't too bad. I was crushing 25nl at 17 and now only playing live due to school (at 18). I think for me 25nl at this age was perfect, losing a buyin did not phase me at all, but crushing the game does add a huge boost to money i can use on going out/drinking/spending money etc

As for the 10 year old kid his mother is just stupid to put it simply. Just looking at the 10 year old kids at my school (im in my final year of high school) i could not imagine them every having the patience to learn poker



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I would disagree. I believe that skills children learn from the ages of 8-12ish they seem to master. Stu Ungar started playing poker around the age of 9. We've all seen children who excel at music/art/sports at that age, and, realistically, the math skills needed to excel in music wouldn't be far off from the math skills needed to excel in poker, and those years (8-12 years) are the years when a childs sense of logic really start to develop, so, I believe it is entirely possible for a child to not only learn poker at that age, but begin to excel at it.

[ShipitFMA]

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16ish isn't too bad. I was crushing 25nl at 17 and now only playing live due to school (at 18). I think for me 25nl at this age was perfect, losing a buyin did not phase me at all, but crushing the game does add a huge boost to money i can use on going out/drinking/spending money etc

As for the 10 year old kid his mother is just stupid to put it simply. Just looking at the 10 year old kids at my school (im in my final year of high school) i could not imagine them every having the patience to learn poker



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I would disagree. I believe that skills children learn from the ages of 8-12ish they seem to master. Stu Ungar started playing poker around the age of 9. We've all seen children who excel at music/art/sports at that age, and, realistically, the math skills needed to excel in music wouldn't be far off from the math skills needed to excel in poker, and those years (8-12 years) are the years when a childs sense of logic really start to develop, so, I believe it is entirely possible for a child to not only learn poker at that age, but begin to excel at it.

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I guess i agree with what they learn/do at this age they may get a good grasp of...
But do you ever spend time with / having contact with kids these age? I just can't see it being that possible for them to become good at a game which does require a fair bit of brain power...Even kids i know who are 17-18 have trouble realising that any royal is not a good starting hand

[VENGEANCE]

from the womb

[timex]

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16ish isn't too bad. I was crushing 25nl at 17 and now only playing live due to school (at 18). I think for me 25nl at this age was perfect, losing a buyin did not phase me at all, but crushing the game does add a huge boost to money i can use on going out/drinking/spending money etc

As for the 10 year old kid his mother is just stupid to put it simply. Just looking at the 10 year old kids at my school (im in my final year of high school) i could not imagine them every having the patience to learn poker



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I would disagree. I believe that skills children learn from the ages of 8-12ish they seem to master. Stu Ungar started playing poker around the age of 9. We've all seen children who excel at music/art/sports at that age, and, realistically, the math skills needed to excel in music wouldn't be far off from the math skills needed to excel in poker, and those years (8-12 years) are the years when a childs sense of logic really start to develop, so, I believe it is entirely possible for a child to not only learn poker at that age, but begin to excel at it.

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I guess i agree with what they learn/do at this age they may get a good grasp of...
But do you ever spend time with / having contact with kids these age? I just can't see it being that possible for them to become good at a game which does require a fair bit of brain power...Even kids i know who are 17-18 have trouble realising that any royal is not a good starting hand

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The closest thing I've ever had to a real job was teaching groups of kids from 4-14 how to play chess(not like how pieces move, but how to play not badly), so I've got a fair bit of experience with teaching games, and its quite impressive how smart some kids are. I agree that the average 8 year old won't be able to excel at this, but the type of 8 year old who plays 2 instruments, reads instead of watching movies and plays chess competitively could probably succeed more easily than the average 25 year old.

[Curse]

Like stated before it depends on the person, I think it could be very beneficial to certain people, fewer the younger they are. If I were to teach someone younger, I would make sure I had a close relationship or could build one with them, I would not teach them what I know, have there mother deposit for them and let them be on there way. Obviously just let them play for fun at first, make it competitive but without money, just see how they handle it for "low stakes".

Edit: I started online at 16, and am very happy I did so now. Of course it could of turned bad, and I guess it still could..

[UnblinkingEye]

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I guess i agree with what they learn/do at this age they may get a good grasp of...
But do you ever spend time with / having contact with kids these age? I just can't see it being that possible for them to become good at a game which does require a fair bit of brain power...Even kids i know who are 17-18 have trouble realising that any royal is not a good starting hand

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I wouldn't say that any young child could. For instance, I wouldn't accept a wager that OP and I take a walk through the halls of his school, he picks any 5th grader, and I can teach them to play a logically sound, intelligent game of poker. However, I do believe that there is a percentage of children this age, say somewhere in the area of 3-5% that could play, at a minimum, an above average game after about 4-6 months of competent training.

~Mike