Hot answers tagged poker-theory
11
When it comes to seat positions in poker, you have to keep in mind that it varies depending on how many players there are at the table.
So, here they are:
2 players: Dealer, Big Blind (in this case, the Dealer is also the Small Blind). The Dealer acts first preflop, but last post-flop
3 players: Dealer, Small Blind, Big Blind
4 players: Dealer, Small ...
8
There have been several posts already here explaining how to compute side-pots (note that the subject of penalty blinds has not been dealt with but that is another topic).
Here's one such topic:
How are side pots built?
Question. Is the ratio against the total pot... or the other winners?
Is this correct? Get a ratio compared to others?
The ...
8
You're missing the whole betting process, which is key in poker. Cards are dealt randomly, but afterwards, the players will wager on the strength of their hand until one of two things happen:
all players but one have folded their hands or;
the latest bet have been called by everyone still at the table.
So if you are a winning poker player, your betting ...
7
I was thinking about how to explain my question a bit more and then realised I could work out the answer.
I wrote a small python script to count all the badugis one can be dealt.
715 badugis in total
4 high: 1, 0.1% of tot. Cum 1, 0.1% of total
5 high: 4, 0.6% of tot. Cum 5, 0.7% of total
6 high: 10, 1.4% of tot. Cum 15, 2.1% of ...
7
You can't adjust the "outs" because you don't have enough information (that's what poker is, a game of incomplete information) but that's perfectly ok because the outs themselves do mean absolutely nothing.
If I tell you, you have 16 outs to win... are you ahead or are you most likely dead? You don't know, 16 outs means you're ahead in the flop but you're ...
6
The calculations given in your example make sense. Except you write 53/44 when you should have written 35/44 I believe.
In the case that player A checks, the expectation value of profit will be:
<(A)>=(35/44)*400 + (9/44)*0 = (35/44)*400 = 318
In the case that player B bets $60, and player A calls, the pot increases to 400 + 60 + 60. The expected ...
6
The books your are reading are telling you to play this way as it will help you to exploit these kind of players and its correct.
Its not telling you how they need to react to counter your play style.
If you are playing against a tight player you can definately open up your range a lot more and make aggressive plays. If they miss the flop then they are ...
6
In my experience:
One approach in this spots, is enter the pot only if you have position
If you don't have position enter the pot only if the rest of players are very passive
If you have premium then stab the pot strongly, since pot is very small you may want only one player to stay at it.
Always take in mind the size of your stack, it may help you to take ...
5
I think it's more of a convention than a rule of logic. That said, there are compelling reasons why this is the case.
Mostly, it's to address the imbalance that would be created if, in heads-up play, the button was also the Big Blind (BB). Here are my thoughts:
If you give the BB the button, then they act last pre-flop and post-flop. Acting last is one of ...
5
The correct bluffing frequency is a subjective measure. It all depends on the perceived probability that your opponent will call your bluff, and the estimated equity you have at that moment, whichever street you're on.
Similar to the question How Do I Calculate EV Of Shoving..., you can work out how often bluffing would be a profitable play by manipulating ...
5
I think we should not consider heads up match here, when players are "tuning" their style to the opponent. This approach is reasonable against the average field. For example, if you play on a tight table, the aggressive style is beneficial, and on the contrary being neat is profitable against "loose" table on the average.
5
To convert backdoor draws into probabilities, you need to multiply the probability of hitting the first card by the probability of hitting the second card given that you hit the first card.
How do I measure the probability that my straight backdoor draw will be realized at the river?
It depends on the number of gaps you have in your draw;
Suppose we ...
4
To have every nut hand in your range:
22+, 32s+, 42s+, 52s+, ATs (pocket pairs; suited 0, 1, and 2 gappers; ATs)
22+ covers all nut 4-board-card straight flushes, and the combination of {32s+, 42s+, 52s+, ATs} (ATs is a special case for KQJ) covers all 3-board-card straight flushes. Since it includes one of every rank, it covers quads with 3-of-a-kind on ...
4
For an open-ended straight draw, there are exactly 8 cards that will give you your straight: 4 of each suit at the low end, and 4 of each suit at the high end. However, to make a flush, you have 9 cards available that will make your flush, as there are 13 cards to a suit, and you have 4 of them in your hand.
At 3 cards to the set (again assuming an outside ...
4
there is a very clear rule regarding pots and side pots:
you can earn according to the chips you risk.
Lets assume that the chips you put in the middle are no longer yours...
in the scenario above villain1 risk 45$ (40$ as an ante and 5$ as the big blind).
If villain1 was the winner, he would have won 335$ (8*40 of the ante and 3*5$ from the pot).
...
4
Well, it's actually pretty easy. In Texas Hold'em you can combine them anyway you want. So the answer is yes, you can choose all the 5 community cards to form your hand1.
In fact, in Texas Hold'em, the total number of ways you can combine the cards is:
(7!) / ((5!) x (7 - 5)!) = (6 x 7) / 2! = (6 x 7) / 2 = 42 / 2 = 21.
where n! = n factorial = 1 x 2 x 3 ...
4
If your opponent has 10 000 in chips and the blinds are 200/400 your normal raise would be something around 1000 - 1350 which means that it's with the blinds something around 20% of your opponent's stack. He can go All in now and win your bet + blinds which is not much but can lose a lot (everything) if he gets called by you (or even reraised all in). If he ...
4
TAG/LAG is all relative to the mathematical sub games. If a guy is an over aggressive calling station in 3bet pots then you need to craft a thorough strategy to exploit that specifically. This would probably involve opening smaller and less often so that your range has a much higher percentage of monsters while losing less on the weak part of your ...
4
As well as the link Toby has suggested above take a look a the following:
the simple psychology of postflop play
How to play after the flop
Post flop strategy
Post flop play after missing flop
Top 15 Poker - Post Flop strategy
Partypoker - Post flop play
Pokerstars Pokerschool - Post Flop quiz
The last one is a quiz. There are a lot of useful quizzes on ...
4
The betting behavior of players does not affect the order in which action takes place in later betting rounds. When new community cards are dealt (flop, turn and river), the new betting round starts with the first player left of the dealer, if he/she hasn't folded in the previous betting round. In the examples you give, nobody folds so this would be the ...
3
Although customary, you can muck before showing your hand. I've seen this happen on WSoP (two players in the hand, winner mucked his low pair, figuring he was beat, the winner showed high card and took the hand). The rules can and will vary with the Casino you are at or the people you are playing with. Always best to ask.
According to Robert's Rules for ...
3
At showdown, the player in the earliest position must show his hand. After that, it will go clock-wise (just like on a flop, turn or river) and all the other players have the option to show or muck. If they muck, they can't win the pot.
So, to answer your question: if the guy with AK has the earlier position, he can't just muck and forfeit the pot. He MUST ...
3
Assuming the purpose of the simulation is to determine a useful ordering of hands, the first thing to know is that there is no one true ordering, due to the non-transitivity of hand strengths. So, all orderings are approximations.
This subject has been tackled by many authors in print. A notably useful approach is in Kill Everyone by Nelson, Streib, and ...
3
I think you can get most of the effect of betting just by removing bad hands. e.g. someone dealt an off suit 2,7 who isn't the big blind will probably fold. Very rarely the flop comes down 2/2/7 and your current simulation will credit that hand as a win, whereas in reality that hand almost never sees that flop. Removing bad hands pre-flop gives a more ...
3
I see two big improvement possibilities:
Variable Number of Players: Seeing the results against all possible numbers of opponents for each hand is probably more meaningful than against a single fixed number of opponents.
Other games: It should be fairly easy to adjust this to run the same simulation for Omaha, since the cards are dealt in the same way as ...
3
I know what you're supposed to do. You start by tightening your range to about 35% openings. You stop checking back your Ax hands and c-bet call down because that means he's check raising with a polarized range. At the same time, checking back gives away your hand.
So, assuming he will not try to bluff you off of top pair you start checking back a portion ...
3
The proper balance is going to depend on your opponent's tendencies. Unless both opponents play Game Theory Optimal, there isn't a single correct answer (and even if they both are, we don't know that answer yet!)
If you continuation bet the range that you stated, and your opponent starts check/raising a lot, you can adjust by calling those check/raises ...
3
This is pretty complex question and proper answer is worth a chapter in book
(Try Collin Moshman's SNG strategy it's a must read for every sng student.)
Usage
No one ever solved Nash equlibrium for such complex game as poker, if such strategy was found, it would be unbeatable strategy. (Not most profitable though, because its static strategy and doesnt ...
3
Sklansky's statement is nothing more than just statistics. Looking at your stats in PokerTracker you will see that in most cases preflop callers have better hands than preflop raisers. If your raise has two calls preflop, then the second call will be "stronger" than the first on the distance.
Really, better pot odds can make someone call with boundary hand ...
3
If its a free roll I tend to stay clear of any big pots at the beginning unless I have a premium hand. If theres already been action before me then I will probably shove with premium hands as in freerolls you are likely to get a caller no matter what.
With regards to small stakes tournaments I will play my big hands and play in position, sometimes even ...
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