Much about life and the world can be revealed through thoughtful poker playing. I learned late and suffered for it, but I’d like my kid to be adept at poker as soon as possible.
She’s a somewhat precocious 5 year-old; she is a good early reader, knows the numbers and face cards in order, understands suits, she gets the rules of solitaire (but lacks the ability to focus on it to play a hand to fruition). She also made up her own card game called Organizer which is basically a complicated but coherent way of putting the cards in back in order that has aspects of an actual game. So she’s creative and apparently willing.
Are there any card games I could teach her that would set the stage for learning (and hopefully excelling at) poker? Games for 8 year-olds, or maybe 10 year-olds would probably be okay.
At that age, smart or no, she’s going to learn just by playing any simple card game about probabilities.
I’ve started playing a sort of Texas Hold Em with my seven year old where I just deal each of us our hole cards and ask if she wants to “bet.” If she does, I deal out all five cards. If she wins she gets ten cents into a treat fund. She’s learning what hands are good and having fun, and which aren’t so soon I’ll introduce the turn and river as separate bets.
But I also play Crazy Eights, Go Fish, and other such games. Just being familiar with the cards and learning what’s likely to happen and what isn’t is something.
There’s a silly game called “Indian Poker.” My 12-year old son still enjoys it even though he is good at cribbage and knows many other games including Texas Hold’em.
In Indian Poker, you hold your one card on your forehead so that all the other players can see it but you cannot see it yourself. You can have rounds of betting with chips, though we just call out “Raise!” “Reraise!” since no one ever folds. :rolleyes: You’re allowed to replace your card up to five times.
It’s not a serious game, obviously, but introduces the idea of bluffing since if another player has an Ace (winning hand) you laugh at him and tell him he needs to replace. It can introduce the basic notions of bet/raise. It might be fun.
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BTW, an excellent relatively little-known game is Cassino. It might be a good game to practice simple addition, but is also a good serious game needing logic, card-reading, and memory. We play the Royal Cassino variation with 1 point for sweeps (variant rules shown on Wikipedia’s page), Little casino plays as 2 or 15, Big casino as 10 or 16 (variants mentioned in Hoyle but not on Wikipedia’s page) and any Three plays as 3 or 30 (our own rule invention).
Anyone who doesn’t see life as a poker game has never participated in either.
I do wonder what the OP’s definition of poker is, though. I hope it’s traditional individual-hand games and not the community-hand variants that really should be classed under another name.
The actual cards part of poker is pretty trivial surely? I’d expect a bright 5 year old to be pretty comfortable learning trad poker card games.
That might be the problem, actually, in that if you isolate just the cards part of poker you’ve got yourself a pish-boring game. Gin is a good suggestion as a fun game for weens to play.
Would cribbage be too difficult? - it’s a while since I’ve played. Simple counting - decision making on which cards to hold and discard, pegging out etc.
Any card game where bidding takes place is a good way to introduce risk/reward to a young persons knowledge base…Bridge, Rook and Pinochle would be good starters.
Games where combining like rank cards and/or suites are another good introduction…Go Fish, Gin Rummy, etc.
When I was 7, I was a visual learner and math proficient. It was like I had this craving to learn all of the adult games, including poker. I would say just give it some time and it will come much easier at that age…including chess, cribbage, backgammon. It helped that my father and grandfather didn’t try to dumb down their games for my benefit…they played and beat the crap out of me for a couple of years until I started to win here and there and then started to beat them regularly by the age of 13.
That was my first thought, too. I think there’s even a “junior” version with cartoon characters, but that might even be a little too young for her.
Blackjack is good for learning about actual betting on cards, as far as probability and risk are concerned. If blackjack’s too big a leap right off, start with high/low instead.
At that age I played 500, loved it and still play today. The other games that coem to mind are of course blackjack but we called it matchsticks because that was the currency and the one that really popped into my mind was UNO.
Why UNO? You need to be constantly working out what’s int he deck and trying to work out whats in another players hand. Much like 500. It is quick and simple and develops the ability to hold multiple factors to account when placing a card.
Simple poker is fun and can be easily taught as I did to my kids but UNO is simple and neat and there are winners and losers. Also she can play it on school camp and not get a blast from the teachers for gambling
I forgot to mention one of our favorite games, which strongly introduces the concept of bluff: Bullshit!
The rules we use are different from any of the variations shown at Wikipedia, and, I think, much better. (I started to type the rules but that would take a while – I’ll do it if there’s interest.)
why? is this something she wants, or something you want? I’ve played poker maybe twice in my life and can’t fathom why one would think it’s some essential skill.
I’m surprised it’s taken this long to come up. There’s no problem in teaching kids yo play poker, but it’s not going to change her life. Well except in the sense that everything we do changes our lives.
Because this thread was my way of getting ideas of the games she’ll be playing in her new 9 hour-a-day card playing regimen. If she isn’t playing at a tournament level by age 12, I’m disowning her.
Jesus, lighten up. She likes playing cards, and I’m thinking of a way to foster that affinity which will have some ancillary benefits. If you don’t or can’t understand how a good working knowledge of poker is beneficial to a person, I don’t know what to say to you.
There’s always Magic: the Gathering. Very different games, yes, but many Magic pros also have a lot of success at the poker table, since the two games test similar skills: reading opponents, adjusting strategies, playing probabilities, etc.
now i’m curious too. please name a few concrete benefits out of what you have described that would benefit a five-year-old? i’m missing out since i’m not into Poker, and i have no idea what you’re talking about that would apply to a five-year-old. the art of lying?