Poker and Love

With Valentines day just around the corner, we thought it was a good time to look at just how you should treat your partner when it comes to poker, and to see how and how not you should let poker get in your relationship.

How to

How people are introduced to poker can have a profound affect on how much they enjoy the game and those that play it, and nowhere is this more true than in a relationship. Although the thrill of online poker or casino card rooms is hugely appealing to anyone well versed in the game, to a complete beginner these can be very intimidating or confusing environments.

It is much better to try and introduce your partner to poker in a much more recreational setting, such as a home game or in a low stakes game in a pub or bar. These games are typically so soft (you regularly have seven or eight players to a flop and very little folding to bets of any size), that a simple explanation of how to play a tight aggressive style should yield them profits, as well as a good night out. Poker is a great social game, and by far the best way to get people involved in it is to focus on the recreational nature of it in a relaxed and social environment.

How not to

I was once in a relationship with a girl I met at university, and I was asked along to meet her parents during a short holiday in their nice house in the countryside. The first night we get in, I ask if anything is planned. My girlfriend tells me no, and that she would quite like to watch me play a bit of poker. We go upstairs and I fire up six $50 sit and goes and get to work, trying to explain what's going on to my bemused partner. Half way through them, it suddenly transpires that not only did we have plans, but that those plans involve a reservation at a restaurant in the next fifteen minutes.

Much as I love nice food, the prospect of a $300 meal (probably much more considering I was still in all of them and would have cashed a few) did not really grab me, and I tried to stall for time so I could finish the games. This did not work out well, as her parents got more and more angry about the delay. In the end I just started shoving every hand in an effort to get them finished and soothe her fuming parents. I bust out of all of them, didn't cash a single one, cost myself at least $300 and get the great experience of sitting in angry silence in a Chinese place in the middle of nowhere. Definitely not the best way to introduce poker to your partner.