Your Personal experiences on team play

[DD11]

With the couple threads about team play I was curious to get other experienced people opinion. I am still fairly new to all this (only about 2 years into it) and I have often thought about team play. Mainly with spotters and BP. The thing that holds me back and will be the reason I probably never will is one word. TRUST. I have known some people I find to be very trustworthy and close friends turn out to be thieves and deceitful liars. So needless to say it would always be in the back of my mind "are they being fully honest about thier wins and losses? Did he stick a couple blacks in his back pocket?". Sadly they 2-3 people I would/can trust with every dollar I have don't have much interest in AP play. They could learn it but they wouldn't be very interested so therefore would be hard for them to learn and train as thier interest level is minimual.
Just wanted to get others experience on team play, different types of teams they were on, what was the demise of the team.
Just guessing with out doing the numbers becasue it is pointless to me, I could imagine you can generate much more EV with a 3-4 person team, less back offs if done right.
What are yalls thoughts?

[ZeeBabar]

For all your reasons, team play would not be attractive.

[mcallister3200]

Safest way is to just play with players who you've been through the trenches with before and know you can trust.

No solo play, or spotter stays at table and has a secondary job to verify chips/are safer ways also, but can also limit upside if your team is all or mostly all part time players.

[mcallister3200]

I guess I've played in a team in both situations I mentioned above.

I think both are good ways to start and you learn, improve, and grow as you go along or build, I know we have an I'm sure the current iteration of my first team has.

[Stealth]

Challenging, difficult, frustrating, fun, neat people, profitable, not for the meek and a lot like herding cats.

Demand good management.

Integrity always an issue but can be managed.

Diversify skills so you are not just blackjack.

Make detail plans.

Not for everyone, but many of the naysayers rarely have any experience to give you advice.

[Bubbles]

Trust is imperative. You need to be able to trust everyone on your team. You will have bad variance eventually and wrongful finger pointing is not constructive. This isn't to say it's ok to blindfully trust teammates. Make note of their chip stacks and be aware of their wins and losses just as you are of casino heat. Playing with a tight group of people helps too. You've been through the trenches with them so to speak.

It takes a while to trust people. You don't have to rush into team play with anyone. Get to know other APs. Play with them at first without combining money and eventually you might find some like-minded souls who look forward to playing with you as much as you do them. Next thing you know you have a team, or at least a network of people to play with. You'll also find out who you don't want to play with.

[copper090]

If you want to be a teamplayer, you need trust your partner and being postive and negotiable.

[Jabberwocky]

If you want to be a teamplayer, you need trust your partner and being postive and negotiable.

Yeah, it's like being married sans the in-laws.

[blackjackomaha]

As others mentioned -- trust and commitment to follow-through on agreed-upon responsibilities. Truly working together and ensuring each other is always playing at their best. Comfortable calling out errors if they occur, validating results, and suggesting improvements. Keep the ego in check -- no matter how good we are -- when working as a team, you depend on others and vice-versa.

Maybe the words I'm looking for other than trust are knowing when to balance selfishness and selflessness. Self-control? Yes. Hopefully these would have been worked out by the time people play as a team. Stress & money can make folks do weird things. Just my $.02.