Introducing poker to newbies / how to make a "let's try poker" night not awful (3 Viewers)

[Nex]

So we played a tournament 8-handed yesterday, later on only 7-handed because the son of my colleague had to go to bed unfortunately.
Her husband made 1st place, I scored 2nd, and another guy who already knew some poker finished 3rd. Placement was mainly decided with card luck - the only really good known starting hands that night were two pocket pairs of Jacks, one for me and one for my colleague's husband.

My findings...
- It was extremely helpful to have that one guy who already knew some poker and hence was able to support me a bit in rule explaining, side pot splitting and so on. Next time I'll have a pen, some paper and a calculator at hand to help with the latter. Since I have next to no routine in live poker games yet, I just so managed to keep up with the action with his help, especially with all the cross-talk and me playing the game myself too. I barely could join in on the chatter.
- Other players picked up the rules surprisingly fast and already were asking a lot of strategy-related questions.
- My timing estimate on the initial crash course was massively off, due to a lot of extra questions. We noticed this and adjusted the blind structure a bit in advance, shortening the blind levels as well as breaks earlier than planned. People were suggesting 5 minutes was enough for them for a break.
- People weren't too fond about the "one free rebuy" ruling I suggested, but understood my reasoning why I put it in for the first game. We had three of those free rebuys at the halftime break, one of them (mine) was barely needed as I was just a little below the starting stack at that time.
- Since we had a few cases of acting out of turn due to bad overview over the table, people suggested that we use some kind of object that is passed around the table from player to player to bring focus on whose turn it is to act. This sounds like a very good and easy to implement idea for beginner games.
- There were also some cases of String Betting, and for both acting out of turn and string betting we were lenient with the rulings, although reminding people that it is a breach technically.
- 10 minutes for blind times is just barely enough and should be the absolute low end. We averaged at something like 5-6 minutes per hand, so when we shortened the blind times to 5 minutes later on we pretty much had new blinds every hand.
- I also underestimated how much time it'd take me to pack up my stuff after the end of the tournament.

All in all people left the house about an hour past the planned hard end
But it looks like they caught fire for it, and asked me if I wanted to repeat this in two months

Next time should be a lot easier:
- No crash course at the beginning, and less questions during hands, which should free up a good amount of time for actual play.
- We'll implement the "pass some object to show whose turn it is to act" for a better overview.
- I'll adjust the tournament structure a bit: Less big blinds to start with. Most likely I'll keep the starting stack the same and just start at like 15/30, but in turn (since we should have more time) keeping the blind times at 10 minutes.

 

[dew4au]

But it looks like they caught fire for it, and asked me if I wanted to repeat this in two months

Yes! Mission accomplished!

 

[Mrs Poker Zombie]

- We'll implement the "pass some object to show whose turn it is to act" for a better overview.

I would encourage teaching the dealer how to control the action. Players at my game see me using my hand (open handed, no finger pointing) to the player who's action it is. I also say their name when I first point to them, and if they are new, remind them of their choices. Passing an object will most likely slow down your game and you noted it was already taking a lot longer to get through hands. Using an open handed point is quick and easy.

Next time I'll have a pen, some paper and a calculator at hand to help with the latter.

I recommend splitting pots by matching stacks. For side pots, a quick way is to have each player's stack pay the smallest all in, then move the rest of the chips to the secondary pot. Or have a player like Ben who can tell you in 2 seconds the size of the main and side pot.

 

[DerberAlter]

Players at my game see me using my hand (open handed, no finger pointing)

Thank you for clearing this @Mrs Poker Zombie . At my game, I'm not always dealer, but sometimes I deal. So far, I was finger pointing. I will try to use the open hand in the future.

 

[Taghkanic]

Here is what I do for Poker School.

Fantastic, thanks for sharing that.

Re: Dealing: I played in a self-dealt tournament with an older guy who knew the game, but had not played in a very long time. He drew the first deal, and started spreading cards around counterclockwise instead of clockwise.

When this was pointed out, he was sheepish, but everyone found it hilariously charming... I suggested that we try playing that way for a round. That didn’t happen, but the episode made me realize how much something simple like that would force me to recalibrate a lot of internalized poker habits. It might actually be healthy.

It’s fun to think about learning poker from the start again. I’d love to go back in time and do that... with a better awareness so I didn’t pick up bad habits I’ve spent years and years shedding. A lot of my early poker education was in a home game which had more than your average number of thinking players—but a lot of their ideas about “correct” play were picked up (and sometimes misinterpreted) from books of varying quality.

 

[Nex]

I would encourage teaching the dealer how to control the action. Players at my game see me using my hand (open handed, no finger pointing) to the player who's action it is. I also say their name when I first point to them, and if they are new, remind them of their choices. Passing an object will most likely slow down your game and you noted it was already taking a lot longer to get through hands. Using an open handed point is quick and easy.

Problem is, I was the dealer (since pretty much only I and the one other guy knew how to properly shuffle in that round) and like I already said, I have barely any routine in live play yet. I mainly played online, where you have perfect overview of what's happening. At the table, particularly in a bad position, it's still often hard for me to see what happened. Plus, I was always switching between dealing and actually playing my hand, so keeping track of the action moving around was extra hard. Whenever I had the mental capacity left for it though, I did use some sort of open hand gesture to point out whose turn it is.

 

[Mrs Poker Zombie]

Problem is, I was the dealer (since pretty much only I and the one other guy knew how to properly shuffle in that round).

I can see that. When we have someone who cannot shuffle (they don't have the skill, they have an injury, whatever), we have someone else shuffle for them but still have them deal (unless, as mentioned, they physically cannot). This way, everyone starts to learn how to be a dealer.

 

[Shaggy]

If you are all time dealer... then you should get a premium seat where you can see and control the action.

 

[Mrs Poker Zombie]

If you are all time dealer... then you should get a premium seat where you can see and control the action.

You bet - if we have a dedicated dealer towards the end of the tournament, they sit in the middle of the table. But during the tournament, we are self-dealt and people deal from their seats (with help from folks in the middle if they are not getting the cards all the way across the table).