Tourney Would an all-in or fold tournament help teach players certain game mechanics? (1 Viewer)

[TheRealStephen12]

I always play a cash game setup style game with my friends whenever I have a poker night. I say style because none of my friends want to play for money. However, since there isn't any real money, they also never learn how to play considering anything like position or relative stack sizes. I thought if I ran short-stacked all in or fold game and played for quarters (which my friends would actually take seriously), maybe they'd be more interested in learning how to play, while still removing the advantage I have as the only one who grew up playing poker. Do you guys think this makes any sense for teaching very basic strategy?

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

I disagree that it teaches any basic strategy, it disregards betting and hand reading and most of position and streets. It would help them understand hand ranking and what beats what, but that's about it. If you want to run it as a fun social event sure, have fun, but I wouldn't fool myself into thinking I was helping them learn the game. I believe it would do more harm than good, that type of poker is boring and over quickly especially with brand new people.

 

[upNdown]

I guess it would help them learn short stack tournament strategy, which also includes learning about position.
But I'd also guess that if they've played poker with you and they haven't shown any interest in learning the game, it might be a lost cause.

 

[Frogzilla]

for no stakes poker you could run a tournament league where the prize is points. Say 1st is 5, 2nd is 3, 3rd is 2 - that’d work well for 7-10 people.

Run these turbo where you can do 2-3 a night. Make a leaderboard. Have the leaderboard carry over to a few sessions as a “season”. Maybe increase the prizes per tourney towards the end of season so less people are technically eliminated