Tight Poker

[scotty1139]

Some of you who have been reading the forum for a longer amount of time might remember that I've occassionally mentioned that I teach a class on Hold'em. For something that gives me much personal satisfaction and more, it's surprises me that up until now, I've never shared the details of teaching the class... until now.

About a year ago, I received a flyer for a local adult school that offers classes for continuing education and such. If you live in a city with a community college nearby, you've no doubt received one of these pamphlets that advertise everything from ESL training to GED tests, to classes on cooking and candlemaking. At the end of the pamphlet, there was a mention that the school was looking for instructors to teach classes of their own choosing. Basically, you came up with a class idea, and if they liked it, they would offer it on the listing. The school would hire you on a "consultant" basis, and you got paid per hour, with the school keeping the rest of what was left from the students' class fees. To my surprise, the school was very open and interested in the idea of the very first poker class ever offered at this school. There was absolutely no resevation or resistance, and among the administration, somewhat the opposite.... people seemed excited about the prospect. At the time, poker was still growing in popularity, and Southern California itself is quite the hotbed for poker, so it probably shouldn't have surprised me how easy it was to get it on the listing for the next semester.

I've taught some seminar classes before, and I'm very comfortable doing so, but it still took me about a week of tweaking to come up with a syllabus for "Limit Texas Hold'em for Beginners". The structure of the course was this:

Max class size of 10, 3 hours, no experience necessary.

Part of the reason I agonized over the syllabus is that I'm the kind of person who wants to impart the whole totality of my knowledge on a subject as fully as I can in the shortest amount of time. I tend to overwhelm people who are just starting out. I knew this, and made the conscious effort to EDIT discussion of poker concepts like I was throwing out photos from a slide show: "oh the picture of me in front of the Eiffel tower, but I'm so fond of it... eh, well, maybe it doesn't belong in this show about Deruta pottery...ok, deleting it!" I must've vacillated so many times on whether to keep "pot odds" in the mix, that I almost put a hole through the paper from crossing it out and recircling it over and over.

Here was the official outline that I ended up submitting for my first class:

3 Hour Class Outline

Introductory discussion
1. Your name
2. Have you played poker before? How long?
3. What brought you here today?
4. Have you read any books, watched Holdem on TV?
5. Any personal goals in regards to playing poker?

The Game Play
1. Hole Cards/Board/4 Rounds of Betting
2. The Blinds, and the difference from using Antes
3. The Showdown, & Determining who wins.. Figuring out the “Nut Hand.”
*Refer to chart (List of Hand Rankings)
*Refer to list of terminology/vocabulary

Demonstrating the Game… a walk-through on the rules and procedures
1. Look at your cards in turn, and only once
2. Avoid String Bets (Define what they are and why they’re illegal)
3. Limits on Raises (Capping) and bankroll considerations
4. Placing your chips & protecting your cards…and the “muck”
5. Called Hands show first, loser may muck. Hand Request, Show One… rule

Basic Strategy for Limit Poker
1. Play a small number of hands (Holdem is about foldem). Explain the different player types from Loose Aggressive to Tight Aggressive.
2. Understand the value of position relative to the button
3. Understand the value of the kicker… Explain “dominated hand”
4. Evaluating your hand. *Refer to EV list. Explain concept of EV.
5. When a good hand goes bad… when to make the laydown
6. Deceptive Play… slow-playing, check-raising, and semi-bluffing.

Pot Odds Made Easy…. Counting your “Outs”
1. What are outs? How do I count them? *Refer to Odds and Outs list
2. How do I figure my hand odds? How do I compare them to pot odds?

Now What?
1. Playing online and in a casino. The differences…*Refer to “Places to Play” list.
2. Tournaments as a learning experience.
3. The difference between limit and NL (Optional course – plug!)
4. Suggested resources for improving your game (i.e. books, chat forums)

Dedicated Q & A Time

Quite ironically, I was playing very little limit poker at the time, rather it was NL STT's that I was most familiar with. I wasn't too worried about this, as I figured much of the class would be simply explaining how the game is played, as well as all the other fundamental information that is independent from actual gameplay strategy.

My first class

8 people showed up to the first class. The average age of the class was perhaps around 44, and female. They all got $200 in chips, and we played $2/4. 5 of the 8 had never played before so the first half hour was spent explaining the game. They each had a "cheat sheet" that I had spent a day preparing that had an odds chart on the upper right hand corner, a list of vocabulary at the left, and information in the bottom right on bankroll size, places to play live and online, and suggested reading. I left not one square inch of wasted space on that sheet. Yes, I was justifiably proud of that document Many times during the class I would refer the students to the shorthand lingo that I found myself using; words that we take for granted in poker parlance, such as: limping, gutshot, come-over-the-top, ROI, etc... I hadn't rehearsed much of the class, preferring instead to "wing it", so I noted to myself that many of my explanations could be phrased much more briefly. Also, I found myself talking about 1.5 times as fast as I should have been doing.

I had wanted to preset some deals that illustrated some key hand matchups, such as AK vs. a small pair, or a flush draw vs. top pair mid kicker. The big monkeywrench in that idea was that I needed to know how many people were going to attend in order to do that, information that I was not given prior to the class. While prearranged hands is something I'd still like to do, I was happy that without any "deck-rigging", many of the matchups I wanted to have came about naturally. As you might expect, there were plenty of "you stupid donkey!" moments as well.

Everyone at the first class really seemed to enjoy it, and a few of them had even remarked on their evaluation sheets that they had learned much more than they expected. I certainly don't want to toot my own horn too much, but my evaluation was pretty damn close to perfect.

Next time: Part 2: the NL poker classes

Comments are welcome.

[goofyballer]

They each had a "cheat sheet" that I had spent a day preparing that had an odds chart on the upper right hand corner, a list of vocabulary at the left, and information in the bottom right on bankroll size, places to play live and online, and suggested reading.

I bet you gave them 'suggested usernames' as well so you could track them down on PartyPoker later!!

Sorry, couldn't resist. Good story, I'm kinda surprised that most of them were women. Was it just one three-hour session, or a weekly thing?

My dad taught a class like that through the local high school district's continuing education system for retirement planning, so I kinda know the system you're talking about. Looking forward to Part 2.

Oh, and is that a custom avatar? How the hell did you get it on here, and so f-ing big? phpbb doesn't like me uploading my custom avatar from my HD.

EDIT: Oh, figured it out, you have to do the off-site link...neither of the other two options work for me. Apparently the off-site option doesn't limit your avatar to 80x80.

[scottie_g]

What about a section on online poker?

I agree with Goofy, handle name is a very important aspect. I prefer ones that suggest that I'm either a donk, inebriated, or have something to do with Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Some of my screennames include:

call_2_river
cold-call
mastorshake
blazed1
itwuzsooted

[scotty1139]

What about a section on online poker?

I did talk about places to play online, as well as comparisons to live poker, near the end of the class; in all, probably the last 15 minutes.

Given that it's an adult school, many of the students tend to be older and less savvy with internet play, although that seems to be changing with each year. I teach my class with the intention that they'll be likely be playing in home games, though I do give them preparation for the B&M casino environment.

[uncledave]

Scotty -

Can I ask, what "qualifications" do you have to be teaching a class. Please, I'm not being rude here or anything like that I just wondered how long you've been playing? What limits? Where you play? Do you play for a living? A significant other income? A bit of spare cash? How often do you play? That kind of thing...

I think there could be an opportunity for this sort of thing in Nothern Ireland here, and while I don't think for one second that I could coach a class myself, there is a card club around the corner from where I work that perhaps I could contact for such a class to start up.

Thanks.
DS

[scotty1139]

Can I ask, what "qualifications" do you have to be teaching a class.

I don't know, CAN you? As opposed to, "MAY I ask?" (yes, I am a grammar nazi).

Don't worry, I didn't take your question as a challenge to my competency. Since I was the creator of the idea of the class, as well as the instructor, there was no qualification requirement by the school. As long as they can find students to pay and take the class, they really don't care. Many, if not all, of the classes at this adult school (and I'm sure, pretty much ANY adult school) are taught by people who really want to teach and enjoy what they're teaching. This was my first time formally teaching hold'em. I had some prior experience teaching friends and family to play in home games, and eventually I came to realize I was adept at breaking down complicated ideas into easily understood segments.

I had a nice amount of teaching experience in my thesis year during my architectural education. I've been practicing some form of education every other day when meeting with clients. I've given several lectures and have been doing some form of public speaking for many years. My mom was/is an educator. So I guess you could say that it's in my blood.

As for my poker knowledge/ability: I suppose I'm lucky that I've always been an overall winning player. At the time of teaching the class, I was playing very little limit play, but at a $3/6 level, and I was, and still am, a break even player. I hadn't played much $5/10 to be worth counting. I think I was multi-tabling NL $33 STT's at the time, but I'm not entirely sure. My cash game area during that span ranged from NL$25 to NL$200, depending on where, when, and what kind of donkeys were at the table. I have one good friend (familiar to a few here) that plays part time at high limit games, so I soak up some HL knowledge from her, but in reality, that amounts to about 1/5 of what I gain by my own experience. We frequently talk about poker hands, in addition to the discussion prompted by this site.

In the first couple minutes of the class when we were making introductions, I told the class that I played half the time online and live, but not enough to make a living. That is still true today. I highly enjoy my day job, and I have no desire to replace it with poker. I could have lied and told them I was a professional, but it wouldn't have mattered to people who were complete beginners.

Many people both here and elsewhere are much better poker players than me, but sometimes that doesn't translate into better teachers. There are plenty of incredibly brilliant scientists at nearby Caltech (maybe you've heard of this obscure school? ), but ironically many of them have a very hard time explaining their work or even basic astronomical concepts to laypeople/children, or anyone who doesn't work in or study particle physics. Many poker players have an inflated self worth. I don't know where I stand in the pantheon of teachers, but I fancy myself to be a very good one.

[uncledave]

Very good.
It's interesting to hear a little bit of background there.
Keep us informed of any other classes you run and your thoughts on them. I'm going to ask around and see if there are any takers for such a class here.

Thanks.
DS

[scotty1139]

Heh, I almost forgot. Thanks for the reminder.

[joiny]

Wow, I like the idea I'm not surprised that the class was majorly female and middle aged, I wouldn't be surprised if they were avid computer users either. The geek shall inherit the Earth, but the Grandma shall overtake online gaming.

Keep us informed, I want to hear more!