Teaching Children (and Grandparents)
to Play Poker

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

Sure, a lot of people know how to play no limit hold 'em. Thanks to the television, the internet, and Indian casinos, it's played by more people than ever before. Many can pick it up just by watching the many broadcasts. Others learn quickly when they're introduced to pick up games by friends and family.

Still, I know from experience that there are still many who don't know how to play. Just as there are many who sit watching football without really understanding the rules, there are many who watch poker - or watch a spouse watch or play poker - who don't really get it.

This series of articles is meant to teach them how to play. This article is the first poker lesson for those who have no clue of how to play.

Poker is, truly, a very simple game. Unfortunately, most people go about teaching it in the wrong way. They teach it like the way you teach gin rummy or cribbage - focusing on the hands - on what beats what. While it really should just be taught as a gambling game - with the hands as secondary.

Let's start at the absolute beginning.

Poker is a gambling game in which there are two ways to win. You either end up in a showdown with other players in which case you win if the value of your hand is the highest. Or you convince your opponents with your betting that your hand is superior so they don't stay to find out how strong your hand really is and they fold, conceding the money in the pot to you.

I will explain shortly how you figure out which poker hand is the strongest among players. But for now let's focus on the very basics of betting.

I want you to imagine a very, very simple game. It's the game of War. Did you ever play this as a kid? It was the first game I learned. You start with a pack of 52 cards - no jokers. The value of the cards go from 2, the lowest, up through all of the ranks, with each bigger number worth more than the lower number. So a 3 beats a 2 and a 4 beats a 3 - all the way up to the picture cards that rank Jack as the lowest, Queen higher, and King the highest of the picture card. The Ace is the highest card of all. So from lowest to highest, the values are: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace. For the sake of brevity we'll always abbreviate the 10 as T, the Jack as a J, the Queen as Q, the King as K and the Ace as A.

Got it so far?

In the two person game of War, the deck is split into two equal 26 card stacks. Each player in succession turns over a card. The higher card wins. So if you turn over a T and your opponent turns over a K, the K wins. If you turn over a 9 and your opponent turns over a 6 you win. Simple as that. As I said, it is a children's game. (Forget ties, by the way - let's just focus on the 12 of 13 times on average when one player has a higher card than the other player).

So now imagine a different version of the game of war - a version that involves betting. We'll call it "Money War." Still two players. We'll call one Player A and the other Player B. In money war you don't show your opponent your card first. No. First each player puts $1 into the area between them, called "the pot." Then each player looks at his own card. Player A then has a choice. He can either make a $5 bet with Player B that he has the higher card or he can check - meaning he passes the option of betting to Player B. If Player A bets $5 then Player B can either accept the bet, or he can concede that his hand is weaker. If Player B concedes then Player A wins the money in the pot - the $2-that they initially put in. But if Player B. accepts the $5 bet then he must put in $5 as well. If he does then they actually see who has the better hand. The winner takes all of the money they have put in the pot - the full $12. If they tie they divide the money in half.

Player A can also pass the bet by saying "I check." This means that the initial option of betting passes from Player A to Player B. Player B can then initiate the betting. Now if Player B bets and Player A concedes then Player B wins the $2 in the pot. ($1 from each player) If Player B bets and Player A accepts then they show down their hands and the high hand wins the $12 in the pot (Initial $1 from each player but the $5 each player bet).

In Money War the initial decision to bet passes from Player A to Player B and back again every hand. As you can see, there are two ways that a player can win money. He can win if he bets and his opponent concedes. Or he can win if he bets, his opponent Matches (known is poker as "calls") his bet, and he has the higher ranking card.

In this very simple betting game of Money War there is certainly some strategy. There are two actions that Player A can take after he looks at his card. He can check or he can bet. If he is a very conservative player, for example, he can check - passing the betting option to Player B - unless he has an Ace. If he has an Ace and bets he is assured of winning unless Player B has an Ace too in which case he splits the pot with Player B.

Consider the two extremes of betting behavior. Some Money War players who are conservative will refrain from opening the betting unless they are very strong - perhaps unless they are certain of not losing by holding an Ace. When they check and their opponent bets they will always fold.

On the surface, this may seem like a very good strategy. Since they are assured of at least a tie, they will never lose when they bet. But consider the downside. If they always check when they don't have an Ace, then they will be checking 12 out of 13 hands on average - since they will only have an Ace one out of 13 times (there are thirteen ranks from 2 to A). If they always fold when their opponent bets after they check then they will be losing 12 out of 13 hands. Surely, a player who plays this mechanically and conservatively (known as "tightly" in poker parlance) will lose in the long run. He will lose $1 12 times in 13 attempts. And that one time when he does bet he will probably only win $1 - since even the most casual of observer will recognize how tightly he plays and concede all of his hands - unless he has an Ace as well in which case the tight player will break on that hand even for his troubles.

We can outline this strategy and see how it loses in the long run.

Loses $1 twelve times = -$12.
Wins $1 one time = +$1
In thirteen times = -$11

Consider the opposite extreme. If, on the other hand, he bets every hand no matter how high or low, then he will lose all $5 he bets when his opponent calls him with higher cards. His observant opponents will learn to wait until they have strong cards, saving their calls for those situations when they judge themselves to be more likely to win against their random opponent. This too would not be a winning strategy in the long run - since they will only win $1 when their opponents fold weak hands, but lose most of their $5 bets when their opponents call with strong hands.

In Money War it is fairly easy to figure out the relative value of your hand. There's only one card. So a card 9 or higher is better than average, while a 7 or lower is weaker than average. But that's only a third of the battle. The next step is figuring out when your opponent is strong and when he is weak. That too can be fairly simple to figure out. Just remember the general frequency of his betting and you'll have a good idea of whether he plays only strong cards and is tight or whether he liberally plays most hands - and is, in poker lingo, "loose." Figuring out when your in Money War really has a strong hand and when he is weak is a good way of learning when you want to bet.

Finally, you can also gain an advantage by learning to conceal the strength of your hand. If you exclaim "Goodie" every time you have an Ace you will be giving your opponent an opportunity to save money when you bet. Similarly if you frown or otherwise look disappointed every time you have a low card then you will be letting your opponent know that he should bet because you will be likely to concede.

Poker is just a more complicated version of Money War. It is made more complicated chiefly by three factors. I will take you through all of these complications until you at least understand how a good poker player can make money against a bad poker player. First of all, poker is usually played with many players, not heads up. The typical number in a No-Limit Hold 'em game is between eight and ten, though there are many games with fewer than eight and a few games with more than ten. Usually, however, by the time the last betting round begins, there are three or fewer players - most often just two.

Players do not just compare one card. Poker compares five card combinations, known as poker hands, to determine who wins. Hold 'em is a form of poker where players combine two personal cards, called hole cards, with five mutual cards, called "the board" that all of the players share, to make the best five card poker hand.

No-Limit Hold 'em is slightly more complicated still, as players may bet any amount they have in front of them instead of one $5 bet as in the fictitious Money War.

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