Not sure I want my 4-year-old to know how to play poker though.

PaulRobinson 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Why?

Poker is a great way to learn a lot of life lessons about human psychology, money management, strategy vs tactics, game theory, and so much more.

There is this weird protestant puritanism around so many aspects of life that confuse me. Every child is going to become an adult, but there is this attitude that they must be shielded from all adult knowledge until they're 21 as if that's helpful.

Your kid can - through game play - learn so much that will make them a more balanced, rounded, capable human than their peers. And done the right way, they're not going to end up degenerate gamblers, but quite the opposite.

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tamat 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

It´s about normalizing something we think it could lead to problems.

I dont want to romanticize the game in his mind, so when he grows up people ask him to play poker and he sees it as "that nice game we played at home!".

It is a game with very strong connections with gambling. There are thousands of other games without that association which are as rewarding as poker.

	▲	Muvasa 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		park chess players gamble. Going to a chess tournament with a prize pool and paying an entry fee is gambling. In germany magic the gathering tournaments are banned since they are deemed as gambling.
	▲	philipallstar 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Don't let your kids enter a raffle, then.

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d--b 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Poker is a winner-take-all game, so it could be argued that it incentives kids to push their self interest first.

It's based on deception, so teaches kids to distrust others and deceive others for the sake of winning.

It gives crazy adrenaline rushes that even adults fail to control. That can't be good for the brain.

You don't seem to realize that 4-year-old is extremely young, and kids that age need security more than anything. They need to know adults have their backs and are not in it for themselves. They need to know people aren't lying to them.

Sure you need to prepare kids for the real life, but there is an age for everything, and my opinion is that 4-year-old is not a good age to learn poker, just as it's not great to put 6-year-old in front of horror movies, or give wine to 10-year-olds.

There is plenty of time to learn money management.

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jedberg 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Math skills and social skills combined?