17
When I tell my non-poker playing friends that I play poker they think I'm gambling - until I give them the following explaination.
Poker, played correctly, is not gambling in my opinion. And I think this is a good way to explain EV to non-poker players or new players. The idea in poker is to do two things - make correct decisions based on available ...
15
Probability: the chance of a particular outcome.
More precisely, the probability of any given outcome is the ratio of all the favorable outcomes and every outcome that is possible. (so favorable / everything)
The probability of throwing 6 with a dice is exactly 1/6 because all the sides are perfectly equal, there are 6 of them but only 1 is favorable in ...
9
Say we have a $1 million raffle that has only two tickets: a winner and a loser.
I give you a random ticket and tell you that you MUST sell it. How much money should you sell it for? (I.e. how much is it worth?)
A. $1 million?
No, because it could just as easily be worth $0.
B. $0?
No, because it could just as easily be worth $1 million.
C. $0.5 million?
...
8
Yes, you can and you should. The concept you're describing is called implied odds (the estimated profit you'll make if you make your hand).
Notice is a much less concrete value as it is an estimation of whether your opponent will call when the draw comes and the amount he'll be willing to pay. There's also the concept of reverse implied odds which are the ...
8
You haven't provided enough information. This is entirely dependent on what the action was leading to the all-in, current stack sizes, and the frequency with which your opponent is taking said action. I can tell you, just from experience, that your opponent would either need to be very short stacked, ~13-15BB or less, or jamming all-in with a very wide range,...
8
I found some opening charts here which you might find useful:
Semi-Loose
Tight
There is also a chart here with calling, 3-betting and 4-betting ranges:
7
Your preflop actions look fine. You have the second best starting hand in poker, so 4betting strongly is correct.
The 3-5-6 rainbow flop is coordinated, but you worrying about hands like 2-4 and 4-7 is just silly. Think about it: would you call a 4-bet preflop with this kind of hand? Probably not unless you were super deepstacked (which you didn't mention, ...
7
It affects strategy in no-limit, and especially pot-limit play. Some simple examples: There's $300 in the pot, and you plan to try a $200 bluff to take it. Well, if one of your opponent's only has $50 left, then you're really only betting $50 at him, and he can call with much less risk. Similarly, if you make a $50 bet on an early round, and your opponent ...
7
*Range charts made with https://premiumpokertools.com/equity-calculator
Here's my analysis! Assuming your opponent is min-raising about 80ish percent of hands preflop, a reasonable calling range against your small 3-bet size might be this:
After the flop, removal effects make villain's range look like this:
When you shove 3.5 times the flop, the villain's ...
6
Probably but these "thinking procedures" only apply when given a hand to analyse. When you're sitting at a table, you're aware of everyone's stack sizes, positions, previous actions, table image, etc. all the time so the only things that you really look at in each hand are the pot size and the two cards you put players on.
Then, depending on who's in the ...
6
First calculate the probability that no aces are dealt to 6 players (12 cards):
Prob of no aces 48/52 * 47/51 * ..... * 37/41 = 0.3376 = 33.8%
Therefore the probability of at least one ace being dealt is given by 1 - 0.3376 = 0.6624 = 66.24%
The probability of 1 and only 1 Ace being dealt is given by:
12 * 4/52 * 48/51 * 47/50 * ... * 38/41 = 0.4379 = ...
6
There are five board cards in hold'em. Since you start with two known cards, there are 50 unknown. That means there are 50x49x48x47x46 ways the board can come. Since the order of the cards on the board doesn't matter, divide that by the number of ways 5 cards can be arranged (120), that's 2118760 total distinct boards. There are 47x46/2 of those boards that ...
6
I have over 1M hands in my poker database and everything holds true for the RnG of any site. Stats I can look up are frequency I get hands like AA and odds of calling and shoving all in's. Everything is fine and well within the norm.
The RnG is the same for all, there are no juiced hands. As vlzvl says if you lose regularly then the only person to blame is ...
5
Say that we decide to bet on coin flips.
In the first case, I will give you $1 every time that it is heads, and you will give me $1 every time that it is tails. Simple logic will tell you that since 1/2 of the time I owe you $1 (heads) and the other 1/2 of the time you owe me $1 (tails) that if we flip the coin enough times, it will even out. In this ...
5
You can only lose the low hand if you get counterfeit (when a low card hits the board that also pairs one of your low cards), so that you don't hold the nut low on the river anymore.
If there is a low hand possible, and no A or 2 on the board, you always have the nut low. At worst, you will split the low pot if someone else also has a A2XX hand. With that ...
5
Definitely yes, its worth it.
For example: you play MTTs, in the middle of tournament, and you've got a decent stack of chips (not short stacked). Blinds are going high, and a lot of short stacked players will start going all in. And that's where poker math comes into play. Its the best time to increase your stack by doing some calls, if odds / pot odds are ...
5
In the big scheme of things at the poker table there are upsides and downsides to math, as well as with intuitive play. For the sack of clarity, generally speaking intuitive play is doing what you feel is right, and mathematical play is what you figure out is right based on a range of factors. Neither is a strategy, they are how you approach the game.
The ...
5
I'll give you my perspective as someone who has abandoned cash games in favor of only doing live MTTs.
I think a lot of this will depend on your current level of experience and your game will change over time. Of course, you need to be sound in things like picking your pre-flop hands, but these are some things that I know I need to work on for my tourneys:
...
5
I think it's important to not try to bite off too much at once. You're right that you have a lot of options, but focusing on one thing and really attacking that is IMO always going to be more productive than a casual perusal of a variety of topics.
You might want to look at some of the online coaching sites like CardRunners, Run It Once, or Tournament Poker ...
5
A♠ 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ 5♠ 6♠ 7♠ 8♠ 9♠ T♠ J♠ Q♠ K♠
You need to use a T
5
A small card, sometimes called a "rag", is usually any card that isn't a face or paint card, which includes the 10. So anything from the 2 to the 9 may be considered a small card, although some players may consider the 7 through 9 as medium cards.
5
So first part of this, we need to in my opinion, breakdown and acknowledge the differences between a straddle game and a larger stake game. In the example you mentioned both may have the same amount of chips in preflop and preaction, but both are extremely different games.
First and foremost, typically the average person will sit at a cash game with ...
4
The maths is wrong... It should be 3 out of 1225 not 2 because 2d6d is possible as well as Ad2d and 6d7d.
But anyway the answer would be wrong for a real game - the answer would assume that the opponent had random cards, which isn't true in reality. It would depend on how the hand played out as to how likely an opponent is to have those cards. For example ...
4
Games that are closer to "real" poker would not be simple enough to be solved. Recent research seems to be mostly focused on HU LHE and programming AI bots to play Game Theoretic Optimally. Most of this work seems to come out of the University of Alberta's Computer Poker Research Group. You can find their publications here.
One game that is closer to real ...
4
I have always followed the Sam Farha mantra:
Against a good player I can outplay him, but against a poor player I need a hand.
Good player recognize a situation in which they may not have the best likely hood of winning a hand. It could be argued it costs them pots, but on the long run it would be a profitable situation.
Weaker players don't recognize ...
4
I think about my opponents range, my percieved range, previous action in this hand(Is the pot raised/limped preflop? What are their ranges for raise/limp preflop?), pot/stack ration, stack sizes, plan for future streets, timing. In tourneys/SNG you also need to think about other concepts: ICM, phase of tourney(early, bubble, in the money), NASH
Would like ...
4
First off, I think this is a GREAT question! I'm not sure if I have a procedure that I follow, but I definitely have reminders for myself. Little things that I tell myself to re-enforce concepts that I want to exercise. Some of mine include:
"You're in early position, play tight, tight, tight!"
"You're on the button, let's see if we can steal something here"...
4
There's a bunch of hard-skills (you mentioned some) which you will gain naturally as you play more poker. Specific plays, situations that always play out in certain ways, etc. But there are also a lot of soft skills which it's harder to figure out. (Note, I assume No-limit Texas Holdem below in concrete examples, but this applies to all versions of poker)....
4
If one is a hold em player, after playing Omaha as a serious student for a time you will notice that with starting hands you will be playing less hands than in Holdem, and if you are playing 8 or better you will be playing even less hands then in Omaha high.
Omaha is a drawing game. It is rare for pocket pairs to win straight out at showdown. Big pairs ...
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