Introducing poker to newbies / how to make a "let's try poker" night not awful (1 Viewer)

[luv2breformed]

Got it. Bring booze, bust out the cash chips, felt 'em.
:

That's not exactly my goal. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the biggest winner thus far. LOL

 

[ekricket]

Got it. Bring booze, bust out the cash chips, felt 'em.
:

Except you can’t beat a drunk. Poker Law #8.

 

[Poker Zombie]

Except you can’t beat a drunk. Poker Law #8.

Wait... there are 7 other poker laws?

 

[ekricket]

Wait... there are 7 other poker laws?

Immutable laws of nature. There are 12 known, and about 4 others theorized but not proven yet.

 

[BGinGA]

Except you can’t beat a drunk. Poker Law #8.

Also commonly known as the @CraigT78 rule.

 

[dmalhi1]

Immutable laws of nature. There are 12 known, and about 4 others theorized but not proven yet.

pray do tell more.

 

[dmalhi1]

also in my own experience i've found that the lower the stakes are the better for cash games or just stick to playing low buy in tourneys and teaching everyone the proper way to bet, raise, fold, etc. i strongly believe that good etiquette makes great players who make it enjoyable to everyone in the long run.

 

[CraigT78]

Also commonly known as the @CraigT78 rule.

I resemble that comment

 

[Frogzilla]

I would teach the mechanics, but NO strategy. Part of the love of poker, for me, is developing and thinking about strategy. That’s where the real love of the game is. It’s complicated enough the first time anyways.

I’d also play an orbit face up with play money to kick it off.

 

[glom]

pray do tell more.

1. All mammals crave salt
2. All pigs bite
3-7 ...
8. You can’t beat a drunk at poker
9-11 ...
12 all employees must wash hands

I’m missing a few in the middle. These are the ones I remember.

 

[dmalhi1]

1. All mammals crave salt
2. All pigs bite
3-7 ...
8. You can’t beat a drunk at poker
9-11 ...
12 all employees must wash hands

I’m missing a few in the middle. These are the ones I remember.

haha... class, the exam will be open book!

 

[Poker Zombie]

I would teach the mechanics, but NO strategy. Part of the love of poker, for me, is developing and thinking about strategy. That’s where the real love of the game is. It’s complicated enough the first time anyways.

I’d also play an orbit face up with play money to kick it off.

That's the beauty of a deep-stack tourney. The first orbit is essentially free.

Once, in one of my earliest games with brand new players, we had a straight flush lose to a higher straight flush on the very first hand of the night. Nobody jammed.

After that, we started "poker school" with a shuffling tutorial.

 

[AWenger]

I’d also play an orbit face up with play money to kick it off.

+1. Very good suggestion. We used to do this at our low stakes game when someone new to the game joined in, but it's been so long, I've even forgotten about it. Could even extend to a couple orbits for teaching purposes, but I think D&D players should catch on quick, and may want to dive right in.

I learned to play poker playing nickle-dime-quarter limit cash games, seven card stud, (2 up + 1 down, then round of betting for every card, last card down), Everyone uses their own cards, only. I think that game may be easier to learn poker than the 'community card' concept of Texas Hold'em. Could do both in the same night, although I'd recommend longer periods than just 1 orbit between games, maybe an hour of 7 Card stud -- hour of Texas Hold em.

 

[glom]

Stud is dead. Skip the stud.

 

[ekricket]

pray do tell more.

First, snatch the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper.

 

[TroyMan]

I'd do low stakes limit hold'em with 3 raise cap.
- Everyone will get to see a lot of flops and get a feel for how their various starting hands play out
- No one will bust out early and have to sit on the sidelines

 

[guyfleegman]

We just did this last night with 3 new players. We started out playing .25/.50 NLHE.
One of the rookies ended up getting it all in on his first hand with a bad beat. Trips losing to nut flush on the river. You could see the fun wash off of his face. Before he came over he mentioned being worried because he had only played a couple times before etc..
The other two rookies were a mixed bag. One ended up even on the night after he got some luck following a swift rebuy. The other guy lost his buy in after 30 minutes but stayed a few hours to enjoy the company.
We switched it up and broke out the nickles and played some silly games like “F K your neighbor” and “357”. The new players really liked this part of the night.
If I could do it all over again I would’ve started here and then moved in to NLHE.
I also like the idea of playing super low stakes LIMIT with new players.
A rack of nickles is only five dollars, There will be a lot of action and a lot of hands shown. The other great thing is tons and tons and tons of chips witch are fun.
We just used my $5’s as nickles and used $100’s as value chips. It worked out great..

 

[Nex]

So, this is actually happening this Friday. 8 people committed (including me), so a great number for a single table game. Will create materials for the pre-tournament crash course over the next few days. I'll be bringing the real nice chips and hopefully (if table is big enough) my big table topper as well for a nice environment.

My colleague's 13yo son will be in as well, so cash games or any halfway significant tournament buy-ins are in a very distant future, if at all.

Discussed the issue with playing for no money at all with her today and she does understand it - they sometimes play Schafkopf too, and they chose to play for money for the same reasons, although with such low wagers that the whole evening max win/loss is just a handful euros usually.

Maybe we'll be able to negotiate a €2 tournament buy-in for starters

 

[Poker Zombie]

Poker should be played for stakes that make it interesting, but not high enough to make it hurt.

If the kid has an "allowance", then play for some fraction of that. Freerolling is OK, but it will take away the fun - mostly because there will be no reason to fold. Even a $5 (€4) tourney offers $30 (€24) to the winner and $10 (€4) for second, and that will keep people interested.

I suspect all will be understanding that the stakes are low for the benefit of the kid.

 

[Nex]

Poker should be played for stakes that make it interesting, but not high enough to make it hurt.

Exactly my opinion as well.

I'm absolutely sure everyone will understand that we have to find the lowest common denominator in stakes for everyone participating, as they certainly won't want to risk particularly much while they're still new and inexperienced anyway.

I think even 5 bucks for the whole night won't hurt the kid too much (they are considering rotating in one poker night every two months, so he'd only need to set aside half of it per month) but we'll see.

Do you think such a top-heavy top2 payout for 8 players total is good for the very first game, or was that just an example for the stakes and prize pool? I was thinking of a top3, or even top4 with 4th merely getting their buy-in back, but not sure at all if that's optimal.

Since there will be anything between 2 and 3 hours for the tournament on that evening, I'll have to condense your blind structure a little bit, and I'd pick up that one suggestion to give each player one free re-buy until half of the total planned playtime is over. I'd do 45 minute blocks of play between breaks so I'd end up with a break exactly in the middle. Would keep the first 45 minutes on very low blinds and then gradually up them to your max spread over the following two and a half blocks, and the last two blind levels with a brutal rise to finish the game in time.

 

[BGinGA]

I'd pay 3 for 8 players in your situation (3rd = entry).

 

[Poker Zombie]

Do you think such a top-heavy top2 payout for 8 players total is good for the very first game, or was that just an example for the stakes and prize pool?

It was just a quick example. In most of my tournaments, 8 players (with rebuys) would pay the top 3.

 

[Nex]

Here's my take on adjusting @Poker Zombie's structure for the constraints given.

8 players confirmed, maybe one more joins in. A 10th is possible but very unlikely.
Soft end target is 2h 30m in, hard end target at 3h 00m in.
One free rebuy until end of 2nd break (may surrender any remaining chips, but cannot not add on).
10 min blinds.

L 1 +0:00 5 / 10
L 2 +0:10 10 / 20
L 3 +0:20 15 / 30
- Break 10 min, Color Up T5 -
L 4 +0:40 25 / 50
L 5 +0:50 50 / 100
L 6 +1:00 75 / 150
L 7 +1:10 100 / 200
L 8 +1:20 125 / 250
- Break 10 min, Color Up T25 -
L 9 +1:40 200 / 400
L10 +1:50 300 / 600
L11 +2:00 400 / 800
L12 +2:10 500 / 1,000
L13 +2:20 800 / 1,600
- Break 5 min, Color Up T100 -
L14 +2:35 1,500 / 3,000
L15 +2:45 3,000 / 6,000
L16 +2:55 5,000 / 10,000

Payouts at €5 buy-in:
- 8 players: €22 / €12 / €6 (55%/30%/15%)
- 9 players: €25 / €15 / €5 (55%/33%/11%) - easier to pay out than 26/14/5, all multiples of €5 bills
- 10 players: €20 / €15 / €10 / €5 (40%/30%/20%/10%) - easier payout, all multiples of €5 bills

Payouts at €2 buy-in:
- 8 players: €8 / €5 / €3 (50%/31%/18%)
- 9 players: €10 / €5 / €3 (55%/27%/16%)
- 10 players: €9 / €6 / €3 / €2 (45%/30%/15%/10%)

Comments?

 

[Nex]

Additional notes...

For the pre-tournament crash course, I plan to play a couple of hands face-up; significantly less than an orbit probably to get both explanation and demo wrapped up within 15-30 minutes.

To keep the demo visually separate from the tournament, I'd use the Paradise cash set for that part; and while I'd love to show off the $25, I figure bringing such high denoms and then saying that set was made for cash game might rather intimidate them, so I'd bring the lowest I can - NL10 stacks.

What are your thoughts about decks when playing with newbies? Should I bring my Copag 4-color setup or stick to my 2-color Fourniers? (Both jumbo index of course)

 

[Coyote]

I 've just used 4-color, 4-index (jumbo) Copags in a similar night and newbies loved them, unlike some of my regulars who find the blue on diamonds confusing and similar to black, when peeped.
I think it's anyway softer on the brain for suits to all be different colors.

 

[SeanGecko]

These are D&D players? Why is this even a concern?



If they get hooked, or even intrigued, they can find tournament poker on TV. WSOP, WPT and some other "high roller" events on Fox Sports channels. Cash games aren't as easy to find. I don't know if televised poker in Germany is the same as it is here, tho.

You can find cash games all over in YouTube.

 

[Poker Zombie]

@Mrs Poker Zombie teaches our "poker school", so she may be able to chime in with more wisdom on the pre-game crash course, but I do know that some time ago, she stopped allowing players to look at their cards during the crash course. Students immediately become preoccupied with "what they have". It's like giving a room full of students a toy, then expecting the teacher to be able to teach the class.

As for decks, I've always used 2-color decks. Everyone is familiar with a standard 2-color deck. I don't think there is any benefit to going to 4-color, unless visual acuity is a concern.

You may stun them initially with plastic cards, as they will be "slippery" (there will be comments), but everyone gets over it.

 

[Nex]

Well I have a brick of Bicycle paper cards somewhere too, but the plastics shuffle so much better (and there's much less opportunity for newbies to damage them e.g. when peeking at their hole cards I guess)

Probably going to stick to the 2-color Fourniers. Still unsure about what to do with cards during crash course.

 

[Poker Zombie]

Yeah, I would stick with the plastic cards too. Paper is best used in a roll next to a toilet. Just sayin, they will be stunned by plastic cards. Don't expect them to notice the chips.

 

[Nex]

I like the feel of paper, and especially the beautiful design options available. But the limited amount of use you get out of a deck due to fast wear is a dealbreaker for me. If it wasn't for that, I'd play with designer paper cards.

I'll keep my giving info about the chips very short, basically just a word of warning in advance that they are very high end and hence very expensive (maybe throw in a figure of $3/chip avg), and asking them to not throw, rub or try chip tricks with them as that will make them wear down much faster than normal usage.

Considering bringing a barrel of beat up Paulson Horseshoes (or maybe some plastic bombers) if someone wants to shuffle - although I believe the noise would quickly annoy everyone else at the table anyway.