Poker Probabilities Texas Holdem
Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:45:04 +0000
Gambling has had such a bad image for centuries. It’s supposedly a degenerate form of entertainment that wastes away hard earned wealth to the wiles and whims of Lady Luck.
In recent years, one particular form of gambling has stood out above the rest and entered the mainstream –Texas Hold’em Poker. Numerous men who gamble for a living had come out in the open flaunting their skills at poker achieving a celebrity status – at least to poker aficionados who remain a niche market.
I am a woman, a mother of two beautiful young girls, and a professional poker player. I am one of a handful of women that pit their wits against the male dominated poker world. I have earned the respect of my peers and the disdain of society.
Whenever asked what my profession is, with pride I answer that I am a professional poker player. Some of my peers have tried avoiding this question, coming up with numerous made-up professions from a strategic investor to a useless bum. Apparently, it is far more honorable to be branded a bum than a professional poker player. I, on the other hand, being fully aware of the difficulties of my profession, honestly answer the question and every time I do, the gamut of reactions amuse and annoy me at the same time. Others scoff at it, others awed by it, and others look down upon it, worse yet because I am a woman. Nonetheless, knowing society I have reconciled myself to being judged an addict, a compulsive gambler and an immoral woman.
Nevertheless, when one of my best friends called my profession still gambling my hackles went up. Somehow when one close to you, who has witnessed your skills, who you’ve had confided the trials and tribulations of your job to still claims that your occupation is nothing more than gambling you feel misunderstood and slighted.
As much as Texas Holdem Poker has reached the mainstream and is actually being openly shown on television, poker as a sport has not been accepted and is still seen as a gambling vice by the whole world including the ones closest to you.
In my defense, and in behalf of all the professional poker players out there, let me relate the nature of my job and what it requires of me.
As the old poker saying goes, “it takes a second to learn how to play poker, but it takes a lifetime to master.”
How do you master a game based on luck? Luck is only one factor of the equation and the factor that you can try to contain. The other factors consist of math, economics, behavioral psychology, and self-discipline.
Math is one of the most important factors in the game. You have to be able to calculate the probabilities of you winning a hand. You have to be able to permutate 52 cards as compared to the amount of money that is currently at the table. Alongside, this is the economics of the game. Having calculated the probabilities of winning, you then analyze your profit-loss ratio – how much money could you possibly win/lose given the amount of resources, i.e. chips, available or potentially available to you.
After which, you study the competition. You have 8 other competitors in this market called a poker table all of whom are doing the math and the economics. You hope that they’re not as good in math as you are. Nonetheless, by studying their behavior they may just leak out pertinent information that you can use to your advantage – are they giving you false information? Are there chances far better than yours? Is he scared and nervous?
All these calculations and analysis to be done in a matter of seconds before you make the decision that will either make you earn money or lose everything you have.
Then there’s the self-discipline. To be a professional poker player you need to have mastered your emotions and know yourself extremely well. You cannot afford to fall in the trap of becoming an adrenalin junkie or compulsive gambler.
And like any other male dominated industry, it is very difficult for a woman to be taken seriously or to gain the respect of your peers. You have been branded an emotional and flaky being that can easily be bullied into giving away your chips to the much stronger macho man. Women seem to be deemed more of gamblers than men.
And yet, the irony of it all is that, as a professional poker player, you cannot afford to gamble because your livelihood is at stake. This is a truism that most people cannot fathom, process and understand.
We work at least 5 or more hours a day continuously sitting, thinking, deciding, risking and investing. We are no different from brokers who risk their money investing in commodities, the futures or the stocks. We are no different from a businessman who makes feasibility studies so that he can risk his capital to put up a business. We are no different from professional athletes who constantly study their craft and train in the hopes of one day winning the World Cup, Wimbledon, and, in our case, the World Series of Poker.
Yes, gambling has had a bad image for centuries but it’s changing its face. We are not clueless degenerates or are we doing this for entertainment to waste away hard earned money. This is my job where I work hard, like everybody else, to make a living. I am professional poker player and proud of it.
Often, a casino gamer have a good lucky streak in an online casino badly broken by a wrong bet. This can be rather disappointing and a real downer to many.
In order to avoid this one from happening to you, you need to come up with a good betting strategy to use in your games. This may be a little tough though, as betting strategies vary for different games . You need to know a host of strategies for each game that you are going to play in order to be more effective.
While it may take you some time to learn the techniques that you need, however, there are some basic strategy guides that you can remember. These general strategies are designed to help you come up with a game plan for your casino sessions. These are divided into strategies to be used for luck games and strategies to use for skill games.
Making a betting strategy for games of luck, such as slot machines, is is a little hard since you actually have no control on the possible outcome of the game. Here, rather than trying to predict the outcome of the game, you need to select you bets such that you maximize them. Avoid playing strategies that claim to predict the game’s outcomes, as these are definitely far from that and will end up losing you more money. Also stay away from so called betting strategies that require you to increase bets every time you lose, in the hopes that a win would return back all losses. Chances are, your losses would pile up such that any win wouldn’t make a difference.
In order to maximize your betting in such games, you need to go for bets that have the surest returns. These are usually the smaller bets which, while offering lower prizes, do pay out more frequently than larger bets. Some gamers will definitely scratch their heads on this one, after all why go for small prizes when there are the big ones? But there is a rationale behind the strategy. Larger bets have smaller probabilities of winning, thus you will probably go bankrupt before you get a chance to win. Betting on smaller bets will ensure that you get more returns in the game.
On the other hand, games that have the element of skill in them, such as texas holdem poker and other card games, gives you much greater control in their outcome. Here, you have leeway in betting. However, you should note that you still need to be very choosy of your bets and go only for those that a sure winner.
Here, game skill is pretty much intertwined with betting strategy. You should have a great deal if in game knowledge in order to get yourself into a good position. Also, there are usually several type of bets available to you all throughout the game, choose the bets that you are most likely to win in a particular situation. You can also use the bets themselves to to gain an edge in the game. Again, the idea here is to choose the right bets to place. Using this strategy very carefully, you can actually come from behind and get to the leader position where you can get a better command of the game.
