Entries by Simon Nystroem

Those who play poker often get caught up in the results of individual hands or how they performed in a particular session. It is very easy for a poker player to conclude from a single winning session that they are masters of the game. Deciding that you are doing something wrong because you have a bad session or a run of a few bad sessions is also a mistake.

It will be helpful for you to think of poker as one lifelong session that you play for your entire life. Your individual “sessions” simply represent breaks that you take over the course of that lifelong session. How will this help you as a poker player?

Corrects Results Oriented Thinking

You may have made a certain play and because of the way the cards came out, you won a big pot. It is easy to conclude from this that you have made a correct play. However, this is not always the case where you play in online poker room. It may simply be a matter of luck that it worked out this time. If you keep in mind that you are playing one lifelong session, you are more likely simply to file this result for the next time the situation occurs and revise your judgment about the play based on repeated trials.

Corrects Snap Judgments Based on Individual Sessions

Poker games such as Texas Holdem is a game of long-term skill and short-term luck. As someone once said, “The short term can be a very long time.” Your luck may run such that even the best players would not have won with the cards you were dealt. However, the better players will lose less in these situations than weaker ones. Remembering that your results as a whole are what matters will stop you from using your last session as evidence for whether you are a winning or losing player and disregarding all the sessions that came before it. Make sure that you have some understanding of basic bankroll management if you want to become a long term winner.

Makes it Easier to Get Up From the Table

Many players have difficulty knowing when to quit. When they have a big stack they don’t want to stop even after their luck turns, and when they are down they don’t want to leave until they get even. If poker is one lifelong session, the only way to know whether you end up or down is your total when you die. Therefore, there is no leaving “even” or “ahead” during a particular session. You are where you are and you’ll continue at that spot when you resume playing.

Most people who start playing poker don’t start out by thinking too much about the math of the game. They know a flush beats a straight and it’s hard to see how math figures into that. Sure, there are numbers on the cards, but it’s not like you have to add them up or anything, right?

The reality is that poker is all about math, and you can learn a lot about math through poker. In fact, if you don’t understand the math behind poker, you may struggle to be a long-term winner.

The Mathematics of Gambling: Getting an Edge

Poker, like any other game that involves gambling, or a randomized outcome, is about odds. If you can get an edge, you will come out ahead. An edge means a way to tilt the odds in your favor that is not reflected by the conditions of the bet. For example, if you are betting on the flip of a coin with a friend, where every time it comes up heads, you win $5 and every time it comes up tails, he wins $5, there is no edge. This is a 50-50 or 1-to-1 proposition and you are both wagering the same amount. Eventually, you should break even. However, what if you convince your friend that tails comes up more often? If you convince him that tails will come up twice as often as heads, then he should give you 2-to-1 odds, since he’ll win $5 two out of every three times, you should win $10 the one time out of three you win to make it even. Of course, the reality is that this really is a 1-to-1 chance, so you will win $10 for every time he wins $5 over the long run and you will come out ahead.

The Mathematics of Poker I: Pot Odds

In poker, this idea is reflected through the concept of pot odds. Pot odds represent how much you can win versus how much you have to put into the pot. If there is $20 in the pot and you have to put in $5 to see the showdown, you are getting 20-to-5, or 4-to-1 odds. Why is this important? If you know that you are 3-to-1 to win the pot, meaning you will win the pot once for every three times you lose it, it is correct to play for 4-to-1 pot odds. You will come out ahead just as you would if you got odds on the coin.

The Mathematics of Poker II: Counting Outs

To determine your odds to win the pot, you will have to rely somewhat on your read, but you will also have to learn to count “outs.” An out is a card that you believe will win you the pot. For example, if you have the Kh Qh and the board is 8s 9h Th As, you may consider all the remaining hearts as outs (although you may be wrong as someone could be drawing to the ace high flush). You also may consider the jacks as outs to a straight, although you might discount the Js since this may give an opponent a flush.

As you play poker, you will become more skilled at counting outs, calculating pot odds and learning to appreciate percentages and ratios. Not only are these math skills good for poker, you may be surprised that they translate to other walks of life as well.