poker club at my school?
i'm thinking of starting a poker club at the high school i work at (although i'll probably call it a cards club when i present it to the principal - catholics don't like their children learning "gambling" i'd imagine. obviously there would be no money on the line. we'd be playing for points, pride, and bragging rights. i'd probably donate something to the winner(s) like a pizza party or gift certificate or something at the end of the season.
i'm interested in any suggestions on how i should run it, what i should teach, etc. i'm assuming that i'd have to start out very basic - i.e. rules of the game - but i could eventually get to more complicated topics.
here are some topics i've come up with (in no particular order) but i'd like to hear some other opinions.
i'm sure i'm missing some obvious stuff that should be mentioned.
since it's unlikely the club will be meeting for anything longer than 2 hours max on any given day, i thought we could have single table hyper turbos with winners moving on to play each other the following week or something like that. could also have a series of heads up matches, round robin tournament style or whatever. also could have a weekly hand analysis where i bring in a hand history from some pros and we discuss it. maybe i'd consider a ring game style where we count our chips at the end of play and get those same amounts the following week, although i do foresee some problems with that.
what do you guys think? good idea? bad idea? how can i make it better?
i'm interested in any suggestions on how i should run it, what i should teach, etc. i'm assuming that i'd have to start out very basic - i.e. rules of the game - but i could eventually get to more complicated topics.
here are some topics i've come up with (in no particular order) but i'd like to hear some other opinions.
- hand rankings
- texas hold'em rules (eventually i could introduce other variants but that would probably be way down the line)
- importance of position
- drawing odds
- pot odds
- implied odds
- bluffing
- hand ranges
- expected value
- short stack vs big stack play (# of BBs or M)
- style of play (loose/tight, passive/aggressive)
- understanding basic statistics (VP, PR, CBET%, etc.) - this might be lumped in with styles of play
i'm sure i'm missing some obvious stuff that should be mentioned.
since it's unlikely the club will be meeting for anything longer than 2 hours max on any given day, i thought we could have single table hyper turbos with winners moving on to play each other the following week or something like that. could also have a series of heads up matches, round robin tournament style or whatever. also could have a weekly hand analysis where i bring in a hand history from some pros and we discuss it. maybe i'd consider a ring game style where we count our chips at the end of play and get those same amounts the following week, although i do foresee some problems with that.
what do you guys think? good idea? bad idea? how can i make it better?
Comments
Keep in mind, poker or even the mention of card playing involving betting of any kind be they just chips with no money involved is a bit of a hot topic amongst some fairly backward thinking people.
Gotta consider the perceptions of the parents here too.
yes, this is a concern of mine for sure. i have mentioned it to a couple teachers who said that they don't particularly see anything wrong with it. i was also considering arming myself with some documentation about the poker classes at such places as MIT and Harvard.
also, if parents have an issue with it, their children don't have to join
idk if there's a math club. i don't think there is as i've never heard any announcements for it.
yeah i'm kind of assuming that i'll hear this.
...
Sorry.
From the school's perspective, if any of the kids ever developed a gambling addiction later in life, you could be open to a lawsuit or, on a personal level, job loss.
Probability.
Cash games not Tournaments.