General Discussion Poker Forums

Hey everyone,

This is the deal. I have a friend in law school who is amazing at games. I met her because she was better than me at minesweeper, meaning top 20 in the world. She's the only person I've ever met who beats me at boggle and she holds her own at scrabble vs. me at well. We have gone on Foxwoods trips twice with some others and she is terrible but loves the game. And she is a games genius.

She is a 3rd year law student this year and she doesn't have a job next year because she is a G and was planning on writing a novel. She has some capital to devote to the game (living expenses) and would prefer learning poker to writing some fiction crap. Drunkenly tonight I told her she should be my poker protege. She was really into it and so was I and we both got excited together. I reallly feel like if we figured this out together, she's smart enough/adept enough at game strategy to be amazing in 1-2 years. And I DON'T say that lightly.

This is my question: what should she do to start? I'm looking for anything from books to read to video series to start. Basically, I know that in 5-6 months time, she'll be at a high enough level that working with me, she will soon become amazing. I'm confident enough and for some reason I really want to try to make it happen. But I have NO idea how to get her to that point.

I don't know whether I'm trying to make her into a cash game or tournament aficionado. Prolly cash to start since I think that's how you own poker is starting there. So where do I begin? Those of you that came up in the era of video poker - any series that were formative? Others of you, books, or other suggestions? What else was important?

I don't know why besides that I like the girl a lot, but this seems important to me. I am confident that once she beats 2-5NL live, I will mold her into a 50-100NL crusher. The question is, what's the best way to get her there? I would very much appreciate ANY suggestions you have.

Indebtedly,
Vanessa Duck

Very cool Vanessa. I would have to say any of the low limit cash videos on the site here would be great for her to watch. I would have her watch them on her own and take some notes and and then ask you any and all questions she has as you two re-watch them together. The Theory of Poker would be the only book I would recommend, and let the rest of it come to her in her own time and develop into her own personal style. Just my thoughts anyway, GL!

This sounds like some freaky uber-girl version of me...

I would definitely recommend all the beginner series that came out like 1-2 years ago here on DC. That is pretty much where the foundation of all my knowledge about 3bets/position etc came from. By now its obviously just in my head, but I would be so lost if I didn't watch those early videos by Baluga etc.

If she's that good with minesweeper and word games (and I'm assuming she killed her LSAT's), she will likely pick up the math really quickly. It takes a mathematical brain to be good at logic type games like minesweeper/LSAT's.

I would also start her at something like 25nl (as opposed to 5/10nl) -- although she might take some hits early, her game will develop far quicker.

The way you make her sound, I almost want to stake her!

JRuVIC,

Thanks a lot. That is very helpful to say the least.

You and all others - any specific series? (Maybe I should be ashamed, but I don't have great familiarity with the low stakes series on DC).

Also, if you had to recommend a 2-3 month plan, what would it be (assuming she crushes 25NL in a month... just in terms of maybe progression of video series/books/approaches)

Thanks for all your help!

- V

I think you should teach her PLO exclusively so she can crush 5000PLO by the end of the year. And then introduce her to NLHE when she has solid poker fundamentals.

baby steps > coaching kristy/road to robusto > coaching tree

I've tried teaching a few of my friends poker that are kind of in the same boat as far as I believe they're very smart and have the ability to beat at least small stakes NL. I'd suggest starting with From the Ground Up (Tubasteve an nowhereman), then both Real Life NL Micro Grinder (WiltonTilt) and The Coaching Tree (Tuba and Baluga.) I actually found pretty much every Baluga Whale video extremely helpful when I was learning the micros. Imo there aren't really any good books for people that are first starting out, but once she knows how to play and maybe getting a little frustrated Tommy Angelo's book is really good.

That's basically it off the top of my head, I could think of more stuff later. Oh also might consider starting her off at full ring, I think it's a lot easier to teach a new player to play tight and she'll probably also have an easier time figuring out people's ranges. If you do that def have her watch Nolan's FR Movin' up series (at least the micro and small stakes episodes.)

The way you make her sound, I almost want to marry her!

FYP... Although staking deals are good too.

Good luck with this, Vanessa.

Since I've not properly learned 6-max NLHE from the ground up, and since I'm going to be playing more live full ring, I appreciate the video recommendations in this thread.

Make sure she has fun to start off with, once she's helplessly addicted, you can pile on the learnin'.

I think I'd also introduce her to PLO as it sounds like she might like the contrast between the two games.

Let her experiment with game selection. I tried to play tournies for ages but really I'm more suited to being a cash player. It does take a bit of time to work these things out. It'll be faster because of the your help & her skills but sometimes, faster isn't necessarily a good thing.

Anything with JK3A is good...books are ok, tho once you watch vids, it's hard to read books as it's so much easier to watch and understand than to imagine and understand.

i think she should play 6max from the start so she won´t get bored. some dc series to watch would be:

baby steps -> from the ground up / road to robusto -> coaching tree w/ tuba & baluga

playing games like minesweeper she should be a math type, so let her watch mathematics of nlhe by wiltontilt, really great stuff there.

i liked the +EVolution of a poker player by sthief09 very much, and dont forget to have her watch eightfold path to poker enlightment

greetz

Langdon and Blah have the goods in terms of videos imo

I'd also recommend shipping her a basic book, maybe one of those basic e-books? Depends on how she learns, but they are always useful for some review.

WTF Minesweeper World Championships!

On topic, I would say if she's really smart, why not start with Heads Up? Her brains should be capable of processing all the info thrown at her, and she will learn to pwn the quickest that way me thinks

I agree with recommending "The theory of poker".

It's quite an advanced book, but the chapter on +EV decisions alone is worth its weight in gold.

A lot of videos and books are about specific hands and technical parts of the game, whereas Theory of poker explains brilliantly "where the money comes from" IYSWIM

WTF Minesweeper World Championships!

On topic, I would say if she's really smart, why not start with Heads Up? Her brains should be capable of processing all the info thrown at her, and she will learn to pwn the quickest that way me thinks

This makes the most sense to me.

I would start off by giving her a good preflop generic skeleton she can follow, along with a generic postflop skeleton. Once she's getting pretty good at that stuff and she understands WHY she's doing what she's doing I would add in more variables for her, instead of focusing on her hand strength etc. move her to their hand strength too, then move her from 1 and done cbetting to barrels and why. Basically start her off with a very simple game, when she masters it add stuff in. Mold your frankenstein! Yes books and videos are good but if you're starting out really fresh, you may not process the information as efficiently as you could if someone gave you the framework and you built on that as you mastered it.