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The Documentary: The poker parent

The poker parent

25/04/2024 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, The poker parent

Can teaching a child to raise, call and bluff help them learn lessons about life?

Alex O’Brien believes teaching her daughter to play poker can help her learn important life lessons. What could the benefits be, and how serious are the risks?

An eight-year-old girl holds two cards in her hand. She places several plastic poker chips into the middle of the dining room table and makes a bet. 

Science writer Alex O’Brien has been teaching her daughter how to play poker for three years. She believes that the game - enjoyed by one hundred million people worldwide - will give her daughter important life lessons in the future. These lessons range from critical thinking skills, empowerment and emotional control to understanding psychology, probability and risk. But when the game is associated with casinos, gambling and men (95% of players are male), understandably not every one agrees with her decision - including poker players.

Alex explores the benefits of the game for her child with professional poker players who are also parents, as well as experts in psychology and gambling.

Guests include India’s female poker champion Nikita Luther; US chess champion and poker player Jennifer Shahade; Irish poker champion David Lappin; psychologist and poker player Dr Maria Konnikova; Professor Avi Rubin, who teaches students poker; and Sally Gainsbury, a professor of psychology and director of the Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic at the University of Sydney in Australia, the country with the largest gambling losses per adult in the world. 

We also hear from Alex’s daughter in her own words.

Producer: Sue Nelson, Boffin Media
Presenter: Alex O’Brien

Image: Alex and her daughter playing poker (Credit: Sue Nelson)

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