Poker Zombie
Royal Flush
Poker school takes place after most of the players have had a chance to get dinner. It takes place on the dining table about 30 minutes before the game begins. Since it is dealt on a dining table and some players may still be eating, we use and old deck of paper cards. It turns out there is a use for paper cards after all.
- Overview. First, tell them a basic overview. "You get 2 cards. There's a round of betting, then 3 community cards are dealt, and then another round of betting. then on more card, a round of betting and the last card with a final round of betting. The winner is the one that can make the best hand from the 5 cards in the middle and their two hole cards."
- Deal cards. We deal a quick hand. 2 cards face down. Poker school students get cards. people that aren't sitting to learn get cards. Empty chairs get cards. You don't want to teach a new player heads up action, you want them to get a feel for full table action. "Those are called your hole cards. You and only you get to see them. We won't look at them right now, because actual hands are not important 1 . The first person to the left of the dealer has to put out some number of chips. The person on their left has to put out chips as well. These are called the blinds - small blind," indicate the player that is the SB "...and the big blind" once again gesturing to the appropriate player. The amount that you have to put out is on this card...
- Explain Blinds "The blinds we use tonight might be different" (I assure you they're probably different - I only have one set of chips that use 5s). "Mike will hand out cards with the actual blinds when you go in the room, plus you will be able to see the current blinds on the monitors. The blinds are required bets, and they increase throughout the night. They make sure we end at a reasonable hour."
- Explain Betting "Since these two have put chips out, the next guy is the first to make a decision. They can Fold and be out of the hand, they can Call and match the bet, or they can Raise. If you raise, you must increase the amount of the previous raise. Right now, the big blind is the only raise on the table, so you would have to at least double that. (2) This is No-Limit Hold'em, so players can bet all-in if they like, putting their tournament at stake. Once everyone has put in the same amount, the chips go into the center of the table."
- Deal a flop "We deal the flop. Now the player that was the small blind has to act first. You can Bet Check or Fold. You probably don't want to fold when there's no bet. To bet, you must bet at least the amount of the big blind for the level. If you check, you pass and the next player has to decide." Motion to the next player "You can Bet Check or Fold" moving forward to the next player "You can Bet Check or Fold" (3)
- Deal a Turn "We deal the next card. Now the player that was the small blind has to act first. You can Bet Check or Fold. To bet, you must bet at least the amount of the big blind for the level. Once someone makes a bet, you can only call fold, or raise. If you raise you must raise by twice the amount of the previous increase." Again going all the way around the table with options for everyone. (4)
- Deal the River "We deal the last card (5). There is one more round of betting... bet-check-fold, bet-check-fold, call-raise-fold, call-raise-fold" once everyone has matched the last bet, we go to a showdown. The last player to raise after the river card must show first, then everyone else in turn can show their cards or fold. We encourage new players to show, just in case you misread your hand, and you actually have the winning hand. We've all done it at some point. Once the cards are up, the best hand wins the pot."
- Ranking of the Hands "winning hands are determined by this," pulling out the 'cheat sheet'.
From here we start from the High card, and explain what each hand is. By the time we reach the flush, we explain tie-breakers "If two people have the same kind of hand, the one with the highest card wins. So if two people have a flush, compare the highest card and work your way down until one player has a higher card. If all 5 cards are the same, the players split the pot. You never count more than 5 cards. There are no three pairs, just 2 pairs with a high card."
- Shuffle Behind "Once the hand is finished, the dealer takes another deck that is already prepared for them and cuts it, and passes it to the player on their left. Then they collect all the cards and shuffle them. Once they are shuffled, set them to your left with a cut card on top, at a 90 degree angle.
- Cut the cards "Now the deck is prepared for the current dealer to cut the deck for the next dealer. You take the cut card and set it on the table, then set half the deck on top of the card, and then put the rest of the deck on top of that. This isn't Blackjack. You don't try to jam the cut card in between the deck and see if the dealer can find it later." Demonstrate the full, correct cutting action, with a proper one-handed cut.
- The Help Card "Since this is your first night, you get a Help Card. It is good for tonight only, and can only be used once. If you are in a tough spot, you can request help from anyone not at this table (if it's a single table event it's one player not in the hand). They will take you into the next room and explain what your best options are given the circumstances, and why they think they would do that.
- Wrap-up "Any questions? There will be other things that will come up at the tables, but this covers just about everything. I will be at your table in case you get stuck and to help you along.
Once players head into the room, they will be handed a cheat sheet - a 4x6 card with the nights blind structures and starting stack/rebuy information on one side, and hand rankings with chip colors on the other. They will be seated at a table with @Mrs Poker Zombie (who actually teaches the school), and she will give them additional instruction at the table, including where to put your bets (don't splash the pot), and some live use of the call-raise-fold / call-raise-fold options. When the player gets into an all-in situation, she will recommend the use of the Help Card, but an amazing number of players choose to fly solo.
This method, with only minor revisions (indicated in the footnotes) has allowed us to teach 47 people how to play No-Limit hold'em. Well, 46 players. One was the dullest spoon in the knife drawer. Seriously, after 2 hours she couldn't remember what her options were (call-raise-fold) and had to ask "what can I do again," every single hand. She did not get invited back. 31 of those players that went through poker school have continued to play. To the best of my knowledge, two have gone on to play in casinos (which is a minimum 3.5 hour drive from our location in Tennessee).
Footnotes:
(1) Do not let players actually look at their hole cards. They become preoccupied with what they're holding, and will grasp less of what you are teaching them. We're all 3rd graders at heart.
(2) No chips are actually put on the table either. Again, we found this to be far too distracting, even when using boring dice chips.
(3) Repetition. We want the bet-check-fold mantra to be something they hear in their sleep.
(4) Call-raise-fold in now a mantra. You should be able to motion to the player and they say call-raise-fold.
(5) Terms like turn and river aren't really necessary, and will be topics they pick up from the table over the course of the night.
