Winning money from other people playing cards, and you win, cause, well, ofcourse !you are better then them, and you chose poker because it is a god damn FUN !!! Its a game, not some silly thing adults do! :))

Only one reply so far! I can't say that I'm surprised, it's kind of an annoying question to answer because a proper answer feels kinda lame but If you try to push it further, all of the sudden you end up with an answer that a 6-year old probably wouldn't understand.

Atleast for me the question revealed the following things:

1) I"m too much of a perfectionist
2) In a twisted way, my ego likes the idea of poker being this complicated entity that is hard to explain in a simple way.
3) It's easy to get lost in details and forget what poker really is and what really separates those who win and those who lose.

How's this?

Poker is a card game that you generally gamble on where you can make
hands of differing strengths. The object of the game is to make the
most money possible by trying to get your opponent to throw away hands
that are better than yours or call wagers with hands inferior to
yours.

Poker is a card game where the objective is to maximize the EV of any given holding at any given time. Anything other than that is just an attempt to describe with tangible concepts a purely mathematical non obvious game. And if you need the more tangible concepts, then you most likely don't understand it yourself. A 6yr old would most likely not understand any of this. Not even most adults would.

A 6yr old would most likely not understand any of this.

Thats pretty good population read on 6y. olds.

I got some of these in my family. Only concepts they're capable of understanding (through a lot of deliberate practice tho) are cartoons, gross snacks and loud farts. I highly recommend not try to explain EV concepts if you meet one, preferebly running away to some safe place with other adults instead.

You each put some money in the middle and are dealt a hand of cards. If you think you have the best hand, you can bet, otherwise you can check and let the other player bet.

If you bet money that you have the best hand. then if the other person thinks his hand is better than he matches "calls" the bet, otherwise he throws his hand away "folds" and you win the money in the middle, "the pot". If he "calls" and your hand is better you win his money plus "the pot", if his hand is better he wins your money and "the pot".

If the other player bets, than you get to decide whether to "call" or "fold".

I suppose this where we wax poetical out of the amount of complexity that can come out of those two paragraphs.

“I play a game for a living by choice in order to avoid the typical 9 to 5 work day most people tend to do. What I do is one of the hardest ways to make an easy living even though it’s just a game, but because I love playing it I make it work.”

Son, I've made a life
Out of readin' people's faces
And knowin' what the cards were
By the way they held their eyes.

Great answers guys, I love the variety!

"This is a deck of cards.
We can do magic, play lots of different games, build castles with this.
From the tons of games, there is one called poker.
People play for real money in this game.
It's a fun and some people's job are playing poker."

I wouldn't try to explain it to him. I'd rather not allow my ego to corrupt his innate abilities with low quality social and intellectual patterns. Instead, I'd gently invite him to play. If he wanted to play all I'd ever do was play with him and guide him in figuring it out himself. He's the authority, not me. He'll learn much faster that way and have more fun.

"Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you."
- Illusions by Richard Bach

Would probably say '' I'm playing card games to pay my bills '' and will be cool dude.)

My son turns 3 years old in a few months, he still does not talk much, but I guess I'll soon have to answer questions like these, and reading these tips is a good help.

I think ill try to find an explanation that talks more about the game itself, and not that much about money.

What should we do if your child asks you to teach him how to play? For one side, i would love to teach him, but on the other side sometimes i think on the negative effect that teaching him how to win money and get some financial independence while beeing very young could have.

While theory is valuable, I'd start with play. I'd do my best to make it about fun, experimentation, exploring -- doing my best to keep the love of the game and learning alive.

I would like to place a keen sense of his motivation to learn and play. It is coming from fear/scarcity or love/abundance. The decision to play or not play is irrelevant to be. The motivation is paramount.

Most importantly, I'd do my best to hold a space of Full Non-Judgemental Being. What a gift that would be to give my son (or daughter!) at any early age!

Samu Patronen great question! And thanks to everyone else who shared their view. Fun and learning. I appreciate you all!