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How to Final Table a Poker Tournament with Your Mom |
| Written by John C | ||||||||
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Intro: Over the past year, my mom, of all people, has been bugging me to teach her how to play Texas Hold'em. She has been my biggest fan throughout my consistent online poker results and I figured it was time to repay her with a few lessons.  Step 1: My mom loves to play the freerolls that many online poker sites offer. Even though she is new to Texas Hold'em, she has made it in the money a surprising number of times. I tried to explain to her, that the blinds in a freeroll tournament often escalate at such a rapid pace it is almost impossible to have consistent results. She felt that if she became good enough she could start winning these tournaments. As you can understand, it was a tough task trying to show her that statistically it is relatively impossible to win a 5000 person freeroll on more than one occasion.  Step 2: Freeroll tournaments often have under a 10 minute blind structure and have starting chip stacks of 1500 or less. Most players play freerolls to just goof around and go all-in over and over again. These factors also add to the difficulty of having winning results in these tournaments.  Step 3: One nice afternoon, I finally gave in, sat down, and started to play a freeroll with my mom. Right off the bat I started explaining basic tournament strategies, pot odds, calculating pot odds, and starting hand requirements. After about 5 minutes of yapping I looked at her and saw a blank look in her facial expression. I knew that I was going to have to slow down and take is one step at a time.  Step 4: To final table a poker tournament with your mom, you need to explain why you should fold a lot of bad hands pre-flop and try to only play big suited connecting cards. The best way to get this point across was to tell her that “6 2 off suit is a losing hand.” The flop would then come 6 6 2, and she would say, “Look we would have flopped a full house.” I had to explain, over and over again, “in the long run, we will lose more money with these types of hands than we would win.” Oh and another thing, “just because it’s suited doesn’t mean it’s playable!”  Step 5: We managed to double up a couple of times with AA and KK. We flopped one or two sets throughout the duration of the tournament. We didn’t get phenomenal cards but they weren’t too terrible. We mixed up our play well, sometimes tight, and sometimes loose. A couple of good flops, some good action, and before you knew it our chip count was at the top of the pack.  Step 6: By the middle of the tournament we were flirting with a top ten chip stack and my mom was starting to get the hang of it. I would ask her what she thought we should do in many tough situations, although, I did not let her have control of the mouse. She had some troubles with making tough lay downs and playing too many hands but it was expected. She even said a few times, “I wouldn’t have folded there.” Fortunately, I had the mouse, made the fold, and didn’t get knocked out when our kings were beat by two pair.  Step 7: Ten hours later, we find ourselves at the final table, the blinds are out of this world, and our chip stack is shrinking faster than you can say “That’s Poker!” The all-in party has just started and we are number one the guest list. It wasn’t looking that good for us but I was hoping we were destined to win. All-in, fold, all-in, fold, finally we were called and all out in 7th place, earning a life changing, mind blowing, 3 dollars…  Step 8: The experience my mom gained and the time we spent together was worth way more than 3 dollars. When playing poker don’t always think about the money, but think about the knowledge and experience you are gaining. Maybe someday you can pass it on to someone else who is starting to feel the love for the game.  Tips: To final table a poker tournament with your mom, you need to practice your Texas Hold’em skills and teach her.  Warnings: Making the final table of a poker tournament can be a long and daunting task.
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... I used to play alot of Rummy with my Grandma when I was a kid. We won some pillowcases at the church hall. Good times! |
tracysmith159
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... Playing games together is a great way to bond. I remember my mother and I would also play scrabble together. I started by search the dictionary for words and eventually learned to spell; spell check it still my friend however. I also loved the time we spent together playing as well. |
