December 19, 2006
She Wants To Learn
by Luckbox
I haven't been playing much poker lately. I'm up about 12 bucks for the month playing in just a few WWdN's, a Mookie and a CC's Thursday Night Bash. I haven't sat at a live poker table since the middle of October.
The reason is simple, and many of you already know it. I have a rather welcome distraction in my life and it's taking up my weekends. But don't worry... I'm not giving up on poker and I'm not done sucking out on all of you.
The key is getting Lady Luck into poker. A couple that plays together, stays together, right? Here's where you come in.
Who's got some advice?
I figure breaking out the deck of cards during foreplay is a bad idea.
The good news is that she's not a complete novice. She's played cards, she enjoys games... has even played a little poker here or there in her past.
It's the whole Texas Hold 'Em thing she's worried about. She says she tried it once and couldn't quite grasp it. I explained it was probably the easiest of the poker games to learn.
The bad news is that she'd be learning from me. Frankly, I'm not sure there's a real sound way of teaching my way of playing poker. In one of my favorite all-time posts (The Legend of the Luckbox), I laid out just a few rules of sucking out. But, really, is that a skill that can be taught?
Can Michael Jordan teach you to fly?
You see where my dilemma lies, right? I suppose it makes sense to just start with a little ABC poker. But you only learn by doing. Maybe I'll buy her into the Bad Blood New Years Invitational. Frankly, watching her lay a bad beat on GRob would make my 2007.
Hey CJ, I have read this blog for a long time. Teaching your girl to play is not that difficult. Dont try to teach her your style or it wont work. Teach 2 things. 1. Dont be a calling station. 2. Get yer checks in with the best of it. Let her develop her own style. The girl I taught is far better than me now. Good luck
"Any two will do, yes, any two will do".
"Remember if you hold two different suits you can make two different flushes!"
And that if you have 10-5 offsuit, you can make EVERY straight AND two flushes! That makes it the most powerful starting hand in poker!
Barring that, just convince her to never, ever call - bet, raise or fold. That'll put her way ahead of most folks.
CJ,
I tried getting my wife into poker a couple years back and ran into a few problems.
First off, make sure that your girlfriend doesn't mind losing. It's pretty easy to pick someone apart heads-up when they have no idea what they're doing.
Second, if you play too aggressively, be prepared to sleep on the couch. Constantly raising her blinds will only lead to you sleeping with one eye open for fear of retribution.
Third, trash talking is a big no-no! For example, busting your girlfriend's AA with your 53s is bad; however, doing so while yelling "Nice hand, fish! Ship it." is much, much worse.
Finally, don't push all-in on the river with the nut full house while telling your girlfriend that you don't think she has the flush (which you know she does). When she calls and sees that you suckered her in, you're getting your nipples twisted for sure.
Sit with her online and get a lot of reps in with the limit ring games...teach her position and what are calling. I would teach her simple math...you have three callers to your suited connectors you can call...blah!blah! Sit with her in those games and 1-2 limit games and just go over hands with her. At the end of her session make sure and pay her what she earned in a new account with her own account....am I hearing a Mrs. Luckbox screen name?
You know, when she (I am pretty sure it was her based on the stars chat) turned over Q4 pre-flop, I definitely had that not-so-good, here it comes feeling that my tens were toast - that I flopped a set as she flopped the OESD just made me shake my head in anticipation of the forthcoming beat
(all of which serves me right for not showing up earlier to avoid getting chipped down and having to push in the first place...)
Start with Limit instead of the ubiquitous NL. She can't lose her stack in one hand and she's guaranteed hours of play in a tourney. Ups the "fun" factor and she'll feel safer. Once confidence builds and you get questions like, "How can I force them to fold?" then you know she may be ready for NL.
It worked for my wife. :)
I think introducing poker AS foreplay is a great idea. You can play "Strip Hold Em". It is a easy and fun way to play. It might even take the pressure off, her from having to learn and you from having to be the teacher. Once she or you are naked the last hand can be played for winner's choice. Besides, can you think of a more fun way to play poker? Well, I can but not something I am comfortable sharing....
The best of luck on your attempts.....I hope you have many happy nights!
My now-ex taught me how to play poker. (The poker playing had nothing to do with the now-ex part!) I watched him play online for a while to learn the game, and he made up a song to help me memorize the hand rankings and would quiz me at random times... at dinner, while shopping, etc. While we did have the occasional fight about poker (usually due to one of us getting mad that the other was "playing differently" against the other because we were together) - the competition between us was generally a good thing. Be prepared, though, for her to either love the game as much as you or to play better than you! hehe. I think my ex resented me for that... I wouldn't have had it any other way, and I hope the next guy I date plays poker :)
I started learning on Wilson Software http://www.wilsonsw.com/ . It's a very non-threatening introduction and has some really nice tracking features and player options. I, of course, became addicted. We can only hope the same happens to her:)
My wife started playing recently. She already had a basic idea on how to play. We talked alot about starting hands. I never pushed her on style, I let her build her own style. She played on Mansion Poker for a few months and once she started complaining about the Donkey free poker crap, I knew she was ready for a cash account.
CJ . . .
If you figure out a way that works let me know .. I'd love for Laurie to play. . .
I suspect that Miss Texans is interested in learning and Laurie isn't .. and that makes all the difference. . .
I do know from my limited table play that couples that play together seem to have more fun when they are not playing at the same table. . .
I like joaquinochoa's advice to sit with her as she plays online . . . seems like a good way to get her started . . .
or you could bring her home to meet the family and host a friendly game and let her learn from the combined wisdom of your family and friends. . . and whenever you crack her AA a family member can tell an embarassing story from your childhood. . .
The twin articles in Bluff last year by Jen and Phil show both sides of this issue.
I love my wife has no plans to learn poker. I like to be able to say, "I am going to play poker with guys, see you later." Then again I don't like hearing, "We are renting The Notebook."
She knows enough just to bust me with A-2. She is a luckbox too. I hate playing against her. She wins with junk. It seems every person I teach that happens. The student beats the teacher every time.
