Poker 101

So its kind of strange to think of myself as a "Poker Player" I know many, i've played many and I regularly interact and share ideas with people I respect. It's nice then, when someone see's what you're doing and asks for you to show them how to do it too. It must be a sign you're doing something right. Either that or they just wonder what the hell I do ALL day!

Having recently been asked by house mates to teach them how to play has given me a fresher perspective, and probably helped me to take stock of my own game in certain areas.

Reading a post last night brought a few things home to me. This is an excellent Blog post on how not to Level yourself.

I've just spent a good hour watching the housemates play 50Fifty SnG's whilst doing everything I could not to scream at them for doing "the WRONG thing". Even after a good few hours coaching, and leaving them to play for a few weeks it's hard to get across the basic fundamentals of position, hand strengths, pre and post-flop play. That's without getting into the minutia of SnG strategy, ICM, bubble play etc. Watching and learning how a complete novices mind works is an invigorating (and frustrating) experience but showed me quite a few things.

1. If someone wants to start playing and asks you for help, give it, give it willingly and openly. These people are good for the game, but moreover they are good for you. You will learn as much about yourself as you try to instill good habits for friends as they will. Every new player has to start somewhere and they will be bringing money to the game.

2. As the other article says, it's very easy to Level yourself out of the correct decision. Just because someone doesn't play advanced theoretical poker does not make them the spawn of Satan, it just means they aren't very good. This is what you want. You can't always range people onto specific hands because a lot of the time, they simply don't know what they're supposed to be doing.

3 There will always be things to learn. Reading, reviewing and conversing about the game is good for your game. Writing this for me is cathartic at times but helps me think clearer about things. Helping new players, doing things for them like, writing out hand percentages, what starting hands should be in your range from what position takes you back to basics. Everyone needs it from time to time. We end up tweaking our games so much according to what we read and what we hear, there can be times when it gets over loaded and our play becomes messy. Thats when a simple session with a total novice could actually be the better for us. Clearing the mind, and building from a stronger foundation.