My 14 yr. old may be a better poker player then me !!!

My 14 year old son, would always hang with me while I'm playing online, and loves the game. I taught him the game by always explaining what was taking place during my sessions. I let him play free-rolls whenever he wanted, of course on his computer and of course not interfering with the site I was playing.

We have rules of course. One being during a school day usually Monday to Friday, he's not allowed to play poker at all unless school is closed.

I have tons of points accumulated at several different sites and decided to let him enter tournaments using my points. He seemed to be a good player and a lucky one, and let him enter point tournaments so he doesn't get to many bad habits playing fish-rolls, considering the game does improve allot. The deal is, if he wins any cash or tournament cash, I keep what he won at the site and pay him in cash which he has to put in his bank.

I now give him the option, if he wins tournament cash he can decide what he wants to do with it. For example on FT he won 100.00 tournament cash. He entered a 44.00 tournament and took $66.00 in cash. He's not allowed to play in cash buy-in tournaments unless I'm along side of him. Once again letting him play in these cause the cash game does improve even more then just points play.

Making a long story even longer, he has $216.00 in his bank with no investment. Of course he's using my points which I usually am paying dearly for. LOL.

I of course have considered the down side of all of this, hoping of course I'm not leading him down the road of devastation in his future. But he is a pretty smart kid, always in top twenty in school, and has a very cheap and conservative personally.

The up side is maybe one day seeing him at a final table on T.V.

Any opinions???

Well I am young. Turning 20 in a few days. Poker is one of my favorite things to do in my life, starting about two years ago. I think what you are doing is a good thing though. The monitoring, if I were him I would probably be very frusturated with all the holds you put on him, but it is definitly for the better.

I have seen myself deposit over $1K into online gambling to only withdraw a few hundred. My father has finally seen how much I have put in and has refused me to use my cards to play poker online.

As long as you monitor him, make sure he is doing well in school and any other categories it should not be a bad thing. Maybe try playing a home game with him and some friends, see how he does.

Can't say I'm surprised I mean what difference does it make how old you are in poker? Except patience I guess....but ya I know a bunch of kids 15 / 16 that play internet poker and make good money off of it. Most with small investments or none at all...

It's cool that you let your son do that.

(off-topic) Pokerstars says that they require some sort of age verification. Do they, and if so how? And is it required to cash out?

you allowing your children to play online at that age is one of the reasons they shut down gambling in the U.S.A......with that said, i also do not where you are from ;-)


only reason i point this out is because i am a member of the poker players alliance