Summary:
You cant call yourself a poker shark untill you take money from pro players. It doesnt matter how old you are.
I just returned from a week long camping trip and of course I could not help but bring my chips and cards. I took some kids with the scouts to there camp and all day I did nothing.
There where some old kids and some young kids, but they where all going to play just because I had nothing to do. The result of these games would amaze everybody.
Texas holdem is a game of mystery and astonishment, you can never tell what is going to happen.
On this occation, we played a game with 1/2 blids and 6 players. Each player had 40 chips. I tought the young kids who where clueless. They didn't know how to play, they didn't know the suites and the combinations. They had no chance of winning.
The other players where around 17 and 18 years old. They where fair players and with my help they mastered some of the basics of texas holdem. They tried to keep the tells off there faces but they really could not. They always stared at the flop like it was going to fly away or something. At that point I focused on there faces.
It was easy to tell when they had cards or not. There bluffs where obvious and there monster texas holdem hands where the same.
Now, when we threw in the young kids, thats when the trouble began. Since they had no idea how to play texas holdem, there was no way they where going to win. As soon as we started, they where betting 3 before the flop. We all went with it thinking they where doing it for fun, raising the stakes.
Thats where it all went down hill. They where pulling out pocket aces, suited connectors, concecutives. They won on the river with straights and flushes. We underestimated them almost every time and checked every time. There hands where unmatched and they won every hand. THey dominated each hand and they didnt even know what they where doing.
We turned them into texas holdem sharks. Once the older guys realized that the younger guys where getting great cards they played tighter and ended there streak.
We all learned a valuable poker lesson that day: Never underestimate your opponents, no matter how old they are or how skilled they are because the cards will come as they will either way.
As ime went on we realized that we could get them to tell us there cards and they would still beat us because they had monster hands every game. This really was nothing I have ever seen.