Hey guys!
First post ever on twoplustwo, woo.

Anyways, I'm trying to teach a friend how to play poker from scratch.
I've played mid-high stakes MTT's and live cash for the last 3 years with decent success, however has recently found coaching to be tougher than grinding the games.

The said student has almost no poker experience, he has a very solid maths background however and is an extremely logical individual.

I've decided to start him on $1&$1.5 45-180man turbo SNG's
Have immediately decided to explode his brain with a massive overload of information on day 1.

An example of what I tried to conceptually explain on day 1a.
- Constructing preflop ranges
- Shoving ranges for 1-15bb for no ante/10%/20% adjusted
- Ev calcs - using pokerstove
- reshoving ranges
- steals
- bubble play
- introducing icm
+ a multitude of other things that randomly crossed my mind as being "CRITICALLY ESSENTIAL" at the time.

SO as you can see I have already F*%'d up in a big way and probably scared him away from playing poker ever again.

(may or may not have called him an idiot. twice?)

I understand that MUCH more patience is needed on my behalf.

So, my questions are:

How should I go about teaching him?

Whats the best way for him to learn on his own?

Are there any good (also free) training sites? be it articles/vids whatever

What are the priorities when it comes to theory?


Any other advice on the matter would be greatly appreciated also!

I assume he understands hand rankings and what blinds are?

start by telling him why people raise preflop...what's the goal of that?

next explain about position, tilt, bankroll

show him pokerstove and take screen shots of a few "sample" opening / calling ranges...but explain to him there are no rules and this is just to get him started and he'll develop his own ranges eventually based on various factors.

then set him loose on $1 sit n gos. how bad can it be?

oh I'd give him a hud with PFR/VPIP/3BET/hands...just to get him started / used to the idea of it. I'm pretty sure that was my first hud that I stole from Brian Townsend.

after he plays like 100 or so have him join one of the training sites for a month and start with beginner vids...then some of the videos will make more sense. They are ridiculously cheap...like what $30 a month or something? that's like a movie, popcorn, soda, and a hotdog

I think after that it sounds like you'd be more effective at teaching if he is still interested and into it.

I dunno...i'm not a coach though...just an idea.

Just sweat him and make notes as he plays on what you want to talk to him about. Jot down trends and leaks you see that he could fix. Playing really is the best way to learn imo, but with an experienced player there to explain why he shouldn't call with A high, he should learn pretty quickly. GL sir, teaching poker is tough in my experience.

I'd say the less they have to learn the better.

Once you get a feel for the game you can then try expand your theoretical knowledge. I read so many books and watched so many videos and result was that I got lost in my own thoughts.

To really learn how to beat poker, you need to know how to adjust and exploit individual opponents.

He should play HU sngs or cash at the lowest stake he possibly can for as long as he can until he naturally becomes a winner through human trial and error with no input aside from the absolute basics (hand rankings chart, position). At low stakes it won't take long and also being HU it saves 5-10times as much time as 6max or FR to get an intuitive feel for ranges.

After that, simply read Dynamic Full Ring Poker which is a detailed book on FULL RING, and a lot of the 'theory' which will have been wandering around in his mind ineloquently will suddenly become solid and lucid and 'ah-ha, that's why I felt that was correct' moments will likely follow.

Then play more. That's my opinion.

Also, as far as I'm concerned to be honest, a lot of poker books are a rehash of another in the style of language which only the author really understands... then a portion of the public relate to that tone and big it up. I am guilty of that with regards to Dynamic Full Ring Poker, as I really enjoy deep, logical, well written work.

Keep him interested and motivated at first, show interesting hands and focus on strong fundamentals. Go from simple to more complicated at the pace your friend is comfortable with.

I do not agree with "watch him play" approach. If I were to start someone if poker, I would make sure they have sound foundation before they start playing.

It's kind of same as learning martial arts. First, kids watch movies or competition with fighters doing some amazing things and get interested. Then they start their coaching, but no one lets them fight - they start with fundamentals, physical training and basic techniques. Sparring is introduced gradually, and in controlled and safe environment.

If you lose in poker you usually don't break limbs though. This is all up to personal interpretation, but I prefer to let someone play online and watch them, explaining why to fold A8s UTG and why to play 67s OTB (in unraised pots with the right dynamics obv). You really can't teach someone who doesn't have a deep interest in poker though, from what I've seen, someone has to have a desire to get better and be interested in the game before it really matters what you do.

Hi,

im playing since a few days poker maybe i can help you a bit.

Teaching or learning poker without overloading the brain is impossible.

(pretty dont know if this is the right way)

First i started to get an overview about the card rankings, and about "slanskys hand holdings" to get an overview what cards i can play.

Seconds was i going on pokerstars an cash in 10€ to play at the lowest micro stakes, and play. And always read post/blogs/forums and more... its hard to understand and here comes your part you can help your friend to understand these things.
When i read something i stuck in nearly every sentence and google about all the different meanings from these words and think for myself "hey if anybody would explain you this than this would be 100 times easier to understand"

And played with HUD is extremely hard for me, i read it many many times get it its good but i hate it. Personally i think its hard to understand all the different things i your an noob. Maybe its better to get it when you have more knowledge about poker at all.
And maybe its only an language problem for me, english arent my main languages and i write/speak it very badly...


Thats from my side maybe it help you a bit.

^this I definately agree with,

Thanks for all the ideas guys,

Decided the best course of action to start with is to find ways to ignite his passion for the game.

Took him to a casino to play some low stakes cash games vs some old grannies and such, which he did well (won 1.5 buy ins) not bad for his first cash game experience ever.

Seemed to take slightly more interest in the game after that.
Willingness to improve and learn also grew obviously.

Winning helps a person's interest obv, but you need to explain variance and that even the best "run bad". Also explain how to not be results oriented (if he loses a big pot he needs to learn from it, not get down about it), how making the correct (+EV) decision at that moment is all that counts. GL to you both. Getting him on 2+2 never hurt either.

it is ESSENTIAL that the person you are teaching actually enjoys poker and doesn't just view it as an exam or something that he has to pass in order to make some money. If he's looking at it as a pure $ making job, he will fail...hard. I've had several IRL friends try online poker, thinking they could motivate themselves to learn/study/etc...but at their core and at the end of the day, they didn't really enjoy poker and all of them failed.

This.

Other than hand rankings, board texture (i.e. what are top 3 hands possible atm on that flop), position, betting.....variance.

sbarnhouse said it all

I would go much more basic.

Spend the first session specifically going over the Early stages of a SNG. Obviously you can expand lots just on this subject matter with you previous hand histories.

2nd sessions middle stages moving onto Bubble play, ITM play and finally HU play.

Everything you want to pass forwad will then come over in a structured way without overloading him.

After all that HUDS and ranges will be much easier to explain.

GL

Sorry to revive an older thread, but I am also very new to poker. I played very casually with friends and online for a bit back around 2005, but I was never very good and lost interest. I am now in a position where I have a lot of free time and have access to a few books which I am slowly picking through.

I have Sklansky's Theory of Poker and his NL book. I understand these are probably not the easiest reads but I am taking it slowly.

I saw mention in this thread of some teaching sites that feature videos though, which is why I am posting. Can anyone recommend one to me? Or a particular video series that would be suited to someone who knows the basic rules and not much else?