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How to ensure you lose to kids but kids don't think you're punting? (2 Viewers)

MrCatPants said:
Also, holy shit you guys are merciless.

CRUSH THEIR DREAMS! DROWN THEM IN THEIR OWN VOMIT UNTIL THEY LEARN TO FIGHT BACK!
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100%

My kids will never grow up with a free pass from me on anything competitive. I just played Mario Kart with them over the holiday break while they were home from school and made it very clear they need to keep practicing.
 
If you let them win their first hand so you can properly show them the mechanics of the game and so on, fine.

Beyond that, never play soft against anyone for any reason. I don't care if it's a game of Go Fish* for a nickel against a toddler. Crush that toddler. (Whether to gloat about the nickel afterward is a judgment call.)

This is especially true against these kids, who are apparently half-decent at poker. They actively want you to challenge them so they can get better.

Challenge them!

Yes, Go Fish is a skill game.
 
MrCatPants said:
This thread is not a joke although it may seem like it. And poker strategy seemed the best place to put it it - but it's really a question on how to lose, not win.

I was asked to put together my first 'family friendly' poker tournament over the holiday break - it was 3 adults and 6 kids. I tried to play soft (e.g. only min bets, no crazy bluffs, really weak calls) but still ended up crushing, grinding down the soul of an 8 year old girl heads up at the end. Everyone had fun and took it well, but clearly I need a new strategy on how to lose.

Now, before you say "Oh, just fold winners and call with ace high hands and such" - my other issue is that my kids are decent players that can hold their own against competent adults. (e.g. my 9 year old played Big O with us after a tournament and lost $8 over 2 hours at .50/.50) And they are so intense, specifically her, that she gets super angry if she thinks I'm trying to lose on purpose. One of my Ace high calls (that won against king high) she got super angry across the table with me "I know what you're doing, I know you're trying to take it easy on us because we're kids. DON'T TAKE IT EASY ON US PLAY YOUR BEST, DAD!" I'm still hearing about it. "OH, LIKE WHEN YOU PUNTED TO ME WITH BOTTOM PAIR, DAD?"

This tournament was very positively received and everyone had fun. I'm getting asked to do it again with two different groups of people.

How do I adjust to a secret losing strategy? Or should I?
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Come to meetup.

Do what I do.

Not everything I do. Your liver would fail.

Just all the poker things.
 
To paraphrase the great jbutler16: beat them until they want to drizzle hand histories on your chest in undiluted acid.
 
I don’t think I’ve ever punted anything with my kids. I’ve definitely played softer in things (poker included) - close games are always more interesting. Blowouts stink. But I think it’s important for them to know that I’m trying to win. Then when they finally do beat me, it means something.
 
There is no person that I would rather take my stack at my regular game than my son, but he has got to earn it fair and square.

He is a much better technical player than me, but he learned by watching, reading, asking questions and dealing for our game for about a year before asking for a seat at the table. We talk about hands all the time, and I spent the majority of Monday texting him from Harrah's Cherokee discussing interesting hands I was involved in and mistakes I made or made by others. I'll give my kid the guidance and the tools he needs to be successful, but I'm not punting to him or anyone else. We learn by our mistakes, and I make more than my fair share. He learns from my mistakes, but he learns a lot more from his own.
 
Jimulacrum said:
Yes, Go Fish is a skill game.
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Hell, even war is a game of skill. You just need to stack your hand with the sequence of cards you’ll need to win. It takes longer to do it that way, because you have to pick up so many cards you have a handful. But it works.
I explained it to my kids after a while. To teach them that you can always find an edge. They said it was cheating. Kids these days . . .
EDIT - I'M A DUMMY. I MEANT BULLSHIT, NOT WAR.
 
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upNdown said:
Hell, even war is a game of skill. You just need to stack your hand with the sequence of cards you’ll need to win. It takes longer to do it that way, because you have to pick up so many cards you have a handful. But it works.
I explained it to my kids after a while. To teach them that you can always find an edge. They said it was cheating. Kids these days . . .
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Yeahhhhh, stacking the deck sure sounds like cheating to me.
 
Jimulacrum said:
Yeahhhhh, stacking the deck sure sounds like cheating to me.
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No no no, I said stacking your hand. Meaning that if I know I'm going to need some 3's to win, when somebody actually puts out some 3's I call bullshit, collect those 3's, and save them for when I need them.
Holy crap, I said War when I meant Bullshit.
Haha, I'm a dummy again.
 
So I think many of you are missing that this is not just my kids, it's other kids as well. My kids do expect me to play hard and that's why my oldest was mad at me.

Thanks for all the free parenting advice i guess?

The question is more along the lines of if you were running a poker game for an unknown class of 2nd graders and supposed to playy...how would you play?
 
Thomacetti said:
FYP…I understand, and @BootySnatcher is my real daddy :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

DiD :love:

Degen Tingles !
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I was so concerned that you had not learned that very important lesson since our meeting. My heart goes "pity pat" just hearing you acknowledge publicly that I am indeed your real daddy in all the ways that really matter......you make me so proud Cetti!! :love:;)
 
MrCatPants said:
So I think many of you are missing that this is not just my kids, it's other kids as well. My kids do expect me to play hard and that's why my oldest was mad at me.

Thanks for all the free parenting advice i guess?

The question is more along the lines of if you were running a poker game for an unknown class of 2nd graders and supposed to playy...how would you play?
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Crush them. You can’t mess them up anymore than their parents already have, so don’t worry about it. I mean good god they are letting their kids play poker with grown men.
 
ekricket said:
Crush them. You can’t mess them up anymore than their parents already have, so don’t worry about it. I mean good god they are letting their kids play poker with grown men.
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I used to coach youth sports for my kids, and I’ll add that many kids will never get this perspective from anywhere else. If you can demonstrate to them that a) they will simply never be the best at everything they try, and b) THAT’S OKAY!!!!, you will be doing them a HUGE favor in life.

It’s not a small gesture. I grew up without a father figure in my childhood and I can still easily point to moments like this where I learned from someone outside of my family that something didn’t automatically have to be the way it was initially shown to me. It’s on the individual to absorb that lesson and grow from it, but that impact can be enormous on certain kids.
 

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