Good poker math can definitely help a winning player. You can calculate your opponent’s odds of having specific hands, and play accordingly. But don’t get bogged down trying to do it too much!
When your mathematics is good, they will keep your poker keep working really well. Here are four characteristics of efficient poker play that yield to mathematics. Solid mathematics underpin an efficient betting system One of a poker player’s key actions is how they place their bets. From the time you decide on your sitting position, you will bet in order to influence the cards in front of you. After the flop, your mathematical understanding can help zero in on the following issues: which bets have the highest likelihood of success; how much you should bet to maintain the optimal odds; and how much you should bet to maximise your winnings. Exerting pressure on your opponents is an integral part of every poker game, as long as stepping on the gas isn’t your way of instructing someone to migrate north. Most good players will avoid this kind of language. Some players smartly adjust their table behaviour, especially their speed of play, after losing on the flop.
Game theory
I think that is a huge part of what we do with poker maths. It turns out to be one of the most profitable skills in poker – being able to count outs and figure odds and estimate ranges. That makes it easier to make the right decisions.
Game theory is a mathematical framework that models interactions between rational decision-makers. Every player’s payoff depends on how other players chose their strategies.
If Game theory, in this case, says that a particular play is a player’s dominant strategy, then you’re playing a ‘prisoner’s dilemma’. Two prisoners stand accused of the same crime. They’re arrested, and police tell them they’ll both get free passage to jail for 10 years if they just agree to finger each other for the crime. But they can also just keep their mouths shut.
Limits
Winning at poker requires skill as well as luck. Mastering the theory of probability and game theory are essential elements that will work only in your favour. An approximate understanding of equities, plus pot odds calculations, will help you play well in limit games. It provides that crucial sense of balance to resist a tantrum when your top pair or overpair gets beaten by a set of garbage, a so-called deuce and a gimp.
So, you guys couldn’t figure out why no-limit poker continuously pokes you in the eye? Limit poker’s structure is simpler and more laid back… for beginners anyway. And once you learn the ropes of Limit Hold’em you are way ahead of the curb before diving into no-limit, where learning pot odds and simple math will also help you avoid that avaricious maniac in the no-limit table that splashes all his T7s in the middle of the live crowd…
Variations
The game itself comes in different forms, with Texas Hold’em perhaps the most popular (used for the poker tournament that revolves around every major global sporting event); Omaha or Draw and Stud might be the other forms, so you can practise various styles in the warmth of your home.
An understanding of the mathematics of poker can only improve a player’s game: this is so despite poker being based on the Law of Truly Large Numbers, meaning that, ironically, the outcome for individual hands is as equally likely to be good or bad for any given player or players. The reason why skilled players are more likely to come out ahead in the longer-term is because of their understanding of probability and game theory – which is what two notable professional poker players, Doyle Brunson and Liv Boeree, have embraced in recent years in attempting to capitalise on changes in the relative strength of players at the poker tables.
Bluffing
Bluffing – feigning weakness when you’re strong – is an important part of all games: it’s a way of exploiting your opponents’ mental states, which can be highly influential over the course of play, and can even contribute to games’ success. On the other hand, a player who starts bluffing at every turn will quickly run out of ammunition and will find his cards running out, too. Playing strong hands is indispensible when bluffing.
There are many factors that affect a good bluff – bet size and frequency of bluffing attempts, for example. When you vary the bet size you alter how players perceive the strength of your hand; consistency with prior betting patterns that still include both good and bad bluffing attempts keeps emotions strong but without compromising your ability to make good decisions – and this gives the bluffer an edge at the poker table.