Nate Meyvis

@briankoppelman Real question- My 9 year old son is obsessed with Chess, at what age should I introduce him to Poker?

@RealKidPoker @thinkingpoker @NateMeyvis @VanessaSelbst should answer this question.

So, first, I'd defer to anyone with extensive experience with kids your age; I am not such a person. But I think of this question in terms of comparative advantage. What is poker distinctively good at? How is it distinctively stimulating, entertaining, and so on?

Lots of what's distinctively great about poker requires a lot of abstract and/or counterfactual reasoning, or reflection after very long experience. Kids (or me, when I'm too tired) can enjoy the mechanics of the game, but might struggle to enjoy its distinctively great features.

Now, that could be all wrong, and your kid might like it a lot, much better than other card games and games of chance. If that's the case, then wonderful! I wouldn't let the cultural connection with gambling scare you away.

But in terms of what to _introduce_, I think gops / goofspiel / glockenspiel is a wonderful game with many of the same features that might be more likely to appeal to pre-teens. My dad (no stranger to poker or chess!) and I played many, many rounds of it.

I also think that, without becoming a maniacal chess parent, there is a whole lot of value in encouraging that interest and letting him go deeper, explore different angles, etc. I had _deep_ and _long_ intellectual experience with games that I didn't soon get anywhere else.