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Poker Mathematics

Poker is a game of skill, and using the ability to read situations and opponents to give you the advantage in each hand you play. It is also a game of mathematics, where you should be able to calculate the odds of either you or your opponent winning the hand in any situation.

People often ask me if they can win without integrating poker mathematics into your game. While it’s not certain that players who don’t use mathematics will not beat the game, correctly calculating the odds is a useful weapon that will give you the edge over players who don’t use them.

Poker mathematics can be used in many situations, but they are mostly used when a player is on a draw such as a straight draw or a flush. If your opponent makes a bet and you are on a draw, you have two options: call and try to complete the draw with the next card, or fold and give the pot to your opponent. A player who has good knowledge of poker mathematics will always know whether he should call or not, while a player who doesn’t know poker mathematics will hesitate. If the bet is big enough to scare him, there’s a good chance he will fold. But if the bet is small, he will probably call. On the other hand, the player who learned how to use poker mathematics will easily work out the pot odds and act accordingly. Pot odds take into account the amount of money your opponent has bet in relation to the pot and the probability of completing your draw, to help you make the right decision.

Poker mathematics can also be used in a situation of “Expected Value.” For example, what should you do if you are on the river holding a bottom pair and that your opponent bets $8 into a $20 pot? Mathematics can determine whether or not you should call if you can’t tell from the way the hand played out whether your opponent has a better hand than you or not.

So how do poker mathematics work? The first thing you should do is estimate the probability that your opponent is bluffing and has a worse hand than you. For example, if your opponent bluffs 1 time for every 3 times he has the best hand on the river, there is 1 in 4 chance that you’ll have a better hand than him and 3 in 4 chance that you won’t. For every 3 times you lose, you will win 1 time (3-to-1). If you call and end up having the best hand you will win $14 once, but if you call and have the worst hand you will lose $4 three times. So if you called every hand, you would lose $12 (3 times $4) and win $14 after four hands. You would be making a net profit of $2 if you called on the river every time, thus you should make the call.

The explanation above might seem complicated but it’s not. To put it simply, I just said that you should always have better odds of winning than what the pot is giving you. In the example above, you had to call $4 to win a $14 pot, which is $3.5-to-$1. The odds of winning are 3-to-1, so you have better odds of winning than the odds in the pot.

When you use mathematics in poker, remember that your decisions will not have an immediate effect on your winning. Working out the odds in a particular hand and making the right call does not guarantee you will to win the hand. Also, if you lose the hand, it does not mean you have made a poor decision. If you keep making the correct decisions based on odds you will earn more money in the long term. Perseverance is the key, so don’t let short-term results in the have an effect on your correct play decisions. That’s how you’ll become a winning poker player.

Everythingaboutpoker.com · Filed Under How to Play Poker 

How to Bluff in Poker

Bluffing in Texas Hold’em poker is the ultimate deception, and is what separates the amateur players from the true pros. Taking down a pot that your opponent should have won is a great feeling. However, you should keep in mind that even if most new players say that bluffing is key to winning at Texas Holdem poker, it’s actually not true. You can be a winner without ever bluffing, but the fact that poker is a game of incomplete information makes it possible to win just by getting you opponents believe that you have the best hand when you don’t. Here are the 10 best bluffing tips that will help you become a master bluffer.

Tip #1: Don’t be scared
Don’t be afraid to bluff when you play live poker because it’s going to show. The art of Texas Hold’em is reading your opponents, and if you aren’t confident enough when throwing out chips on a bluff, there are good chances that you’ll be called out. When you’re trying to bluff, you should look as normal as you do on any situation. Of course, this tip doesn’t apply when you play online since you don’t have to put on your poker face.

Tip #2: Scare your opponents
If you want to bluff, don’t do it passively. If you throw a small bet at a big pot, you will not make other players fold a decent hand. You have to bet agressively, but not so agressively that you will be stuck committing more than you wish to fold away.

Tip #3: Your should bluff after the flop
While it’s possible to bluff pre-flop, most Texas Hold’em players with a good hand won’t likely fold before they see the flop. Only huge pre-flop raises will make your opponents fold a good hand, and if you compete against premium hands like aces or kings, they will probably go all-in against you. However, after the flop comes out, even aces can be kicked out of the pot if the board pops up nasty, which brings us to the next tip.

Tip #4: Analyze the flop and bet accordingly
If the flop doesn’t look too good for premium hands (6-7-8 for instance, or three cards of the same suit), bet like there was no tomorrow. If your opponents call you, they probably have a piece of the draw, but if they have a high pair, or KQ without the flop connecting with their cards, they will likely be scared. Flush and straight draws are the worst enemies of AA’s, so you should turn that into your advantage.

Tip #5: Don’t let pride blow your bankroll
If you throw your chips at a pot twice and keep getting called or raised, never hesitate to fold your hand if you feel your opponents aren’t going to lay down their cards. To bluff successfully, you must learn to read your opponent. If he’s staying in the hand, swallow your pride and get out of the hand before you give away too many chips. I know it’s hard to do, but this will keep you away from trouble.

Tip #6: Give yourself a loose image
If you continually try to bluff your opponents and get caught from time to time, they will try to catch you and make loose calls against you, which will give you a big advantage. In No Limit Texas Hold’em, loose calls can be very profitable if you really do have a premium hand. If you get a loose and agressive player image, your opponents will overplay their weak hands when you bet you will win a lot of chips in the process. Also, people hate to be deceived out of their money, so if you make a successful bluff and show them your hand, they might become so frustrated that they will play weak hands in an attempt to win their money back. That’s what called putting other players on tilt.

Tip #7: Use table position to your advantage
You should always take into account your table position when bluffing. If you’re in early position, you have much less chance of pulling a successful bluff than if you’re on the button or close to it. If you’re in late position, you’ll have more information about what’s going on. You should be ready to fold if there is a bet and a call, but ff you’re seated early in the hand, you can check and see how your opponent act in the hand. If the player on the button bets out after many checks, try to raise them as they are likely trying to steal the pot.

Tip #8: Bluff at least with a draw
Bluffing with nothing is doable, but don’t expect to win if your bluff gets called. The best plays you can make are the ones where you have an emergency exit if you get called. Let’s say you flop four cards to a straight. In that situation, you have two chances to pick up the pot when bluffing; your first chance is when your opponent folds, and the second chance is hitting your hand if he calls. However, if you bluff with nothing, your only chance of winning is if your opponent folds.

Tip #9: If you think your opponent missed a draw, then bluff on the river
If you the river turns up a card that completes no draws and your opponent played softly during the hand, you should bet at him hard to scare him. Your opponent has probably chased and missed a straight or a flush and he will usually fold to a hard bet. But if he plays back, you should fold it because there’s a good chance you read him wrong.

Tip #10: Pay attention to your opponent’s stack
If you bluff an opponent running low on chips, he will probably bet all-in against you if he has any decent hand, to either try to catch your bluff or to out-draw you. Also, bluffing the chip leader is very difficult because he has enough chips to call you without risking to lose much of his stack. So you should try to bluff against people who have a similar amount of chips to your own. They will often be scared of facing an all-in, just what you need to take the pot.

Continual Evaluation
One last thing to note is that the experience of your opponents will have a huge impact on their reaction to your betting. You should never bluff against new or bad players because they won’t realize what you are trying to achieve and they will nearly always call a bluff instead of laying down their cards. Good Texas Hold’em poker players will be aware that you could be have a strong hand when you bet hard at them, and they are more likely to fold.

Everythingaboutpoker.com · Filed Under Poker Strategy 

Poker Odds Calculator

The poker odds calculator will help poker players who want to calculate their chances of winning pre-flop, on the flop, and on the turn.
This free tool gives you the most accurate probabilities of winning a hand in any situation. Also, don’t forget to read our article about calculating pot odds in poker. Have fun and good luck at the tables!

Instructions
Click the cards at the bottom section to select the hole cards for Player 1 and Player 2 holecards. They will appear in the calculator from left to right. To change the suit of the cards, use the small box located the bottom left corner of the odds calculator. If you click the calculate odds directly, you will see the odds for the pre-flop. If you want to see the odds after the flop, just select 3 more cards. If you want to see the turn and the river odds, choose 2 more cards.

Pot Odds Tell You Whether to Call or Fold in Poker Games
Knowledge about pot odds is very important if you wish to become a winning poker player. Pot odds are the ratio between pot sizes and what you have to pay for a call. If you calculate odds correctly, you know what to do in most situations. To win at holdem poker online you must learn how pot-odds calculation is done.

Everythingaboutpoker.com · Filed Under Poker Strategy 

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