Young opponent

I don't get to play a lot of face to face poker. This is unfortunate because I enjoy that more than playing online.

One time I was getting my seven year old son ready to go to hockey. We were downstairs in the basement. I flicked over some channels and there was a Full Tilt sponsored tournament on. So I watched a couple of hands while I put my son's gear on.

My son grumbled about the poker at the time. But then while we were driving to hockey he said he wanted to play poker. So about a week later I got a basic hold'em set at the dollar store. It was only three dollars for two decks of cards, 200 chips, a dealer button, and a nice carrying case. Great value for the money.

We've played a few times since then. We started out playing 2/4 limit for the play chips. I figured limit would be easier to learn. I try to play properly so that he can learn. He likes to play, he has yet to fold a hand.

One time for a change we decided to try out no limit. On the first hand it was his turn on the flop. He looked me in the eye and confidently pushed his full stack of chips forward and announced "I'm all in". Notice he used the correct term. I didn't tell him that. I didn't have anything so I folded.

We played two more hands of no limit. Both times he pushed all in on the flop. Both times I had nothing and folded.

Since he's learning, we like to show our hands when someone wins without a showdown. He's brave. On the three no limit hands, he had a pair twice and nothing once.