Poker Poker Elements

The first type of people just bet on the flop and check the turn and river cards. These people are too afraid that their opponents have two pairs or threes, and they often lose the opportunity to collect value bets.

 

The second type has two fires, bet on the flop, check on the turn, and bet on the river if the opponent also checks; or make two bets on the flop and check on the river. In most cases, this type of play correctly utilizes the power of top-pair-top-kicker cards, without wasting or overplaying them.

 

The third type of person has three fires and makes three consecutive bets on the flop, turn and river. This type of person is our best opponent when the stack is deep, because when we have more than two pairs of hands, we can win a big pot against them. In my previous article "Texas Hold'em Poker Element 5: Pot Control", I explained the dangers of overplaying top pair hands.

 

Identifying the opponent's betting pattern requires carefully observing the opponent even when you are not in the hand. Bystanders can see clearly. It is sometimes easier to see the true when you are outside the game than when you are in the game. But once the betting pattern is identified, it will be of great help to our poker game, and our efforts will be rewarded.

 

Texas Hold'em Poker Element 8: Mentality

 

Poker is a game that is easy to learn but difficult to master. It requires rigorous and fast calculations under pressure, persistent patience, the ability to get into the opponent's mind, the decision-making power to pull the trigger at the right time, and the courage to fight. When you have all of the above, you have the potential to be a winner. However, there is one thing that if you don’t have it, all your hard work, confidence, and of course, hard-earned capital can quickly go up in smoke. This kind of thing is the correct mentality. This article attempts to explain from five perspectives what the correct mentality is and what serious consequences the wrong mentality will bring.

 

One of the correct mindsets: The long term is king, ignore the short term

 

Poker is a game that involves both skill and luck. In a relatively short period of time, even a pro and successful player can do nothing about luck. In any hand when the cards are revealed, only luck can determine who loses and who wins. The top three percent of good cards, AK, only have an advantage of 2:1 against the worst hand, 7-2. This sounds like a big deal. , but it’s still far from guaranteed to win. Even if we take a longer time frame, on any casino trip, any week, or even any month, a flawless play is very likely to result in losing money. A good player may lose money because of a series of reasons such as a bad starting hand, too many coolers, or because his opponent draws too many cards and he draws too few. Immature players often have wrong expectations about short-term results.

 

For example, in a 2-5 live game, we have AA, and we have 500 effective chips before the flop to go all-in with our opponent, who is JJ. Unfortunately, my opponent hit a set and won the $1,000 pot. I'm afraid we are all familiar with this scene, right? Should I complain? If you complained, did you say you were lucky when he didn't hit the set and you won? I'm afraid not. In fact, your AA winning rate is 80%. For this 1,000 pot, you only have 800 EV (Expected Value). When you win the entire pot, luck brings you an extra 200. If you don’t think it’s a fluke that AA wins, then there’s nothing to complain about if you lose.

 

However, once you play for a long time, skill is king and the element of luck gradually fades away. If you play for long enough, the element of luck in your results will almost disappear. People who know more about probability distributions will instinctively think of this, but ordinary people often find it difficult to believe it. Unfortunately, it takes a really long time, say 100,000 hands, to separate the vast majority of winners from losers. However, among these 100,000 hands, in any 100, 1,000, or even 10,000 hands, it is entirely possible for a winner to lose money. If your purpose in playing poker is to make money, then your view should be long-term and any short-term results should be ignored. Paying too much attention to short-term results will cause you to have an unbalanced mentality and make decisions that deviate from maximizing EV. Common phenomena that focus too much on short-term results are:

 

Tilting
Trying to even out when losing money
Hit and Run.
Get angry at bad players
lose confidence

 

Correct mentality 2: Decision comes first, results are irrelevant

 

If I were asked to define a “correct” decision, I think it should be a decision that maximizes our EV given the known information. After seeing the opponent's cards, our correct decision often looks very wrong. For example, in a game with a short stack and all hands folded in front, we see AK in the small blind position. At this time, we must go all-in. But the big blind happened to have AA and killed us. If we know in advance that he has AA, the "correct" decision is to fold, but there is no such thing as knowing in advance. Based on the existing information, we judge that going all-in with AK can maximize EV, which is the correct decision.

 

When we play poker, we should always focus on making the right decision. It doesn't matter whether the correct decision results in a win or a loss. This may sound like a contradiction: isn’t the purpose of playing poker to win money? It doesn't matter whether you win money or not. In fact, from this point of view, the qualities required to play poker coincide with the qualities of a successful business leader. I have never heard that you can become a good leader by keeping an eye on your company's stock price. On the contrary, a good boss must look beyond the stock price and do things in a down-to-earth manner.

 

The time to test the player comes when a correct decision costs us money. For example, a tight player raised before us, we got A9o from late position, folded "correctly", and the big blind called. The flop came A98 with different suits. After a while, the big blind's 9-8 won a very big pot against the tight player's AK. This pot would have been ours had we not folded. An immature player may start to complain at this time, especially after he has been patiently "waiting for the opportunity" for two hours. However, if the same preflop situation occurs 100 times, our A9o will probably lose to the tight player 85 times. The loss in these 85 times is far greater than the gain in 15 times. Any decision, as long as it is correct in terms of EV, is what we insist on making. The money will follow, so there is no need to worry.

 

Thanks for dropping some Texas Hold'em knowledge bombs on me! Reading your take on starting hands and the importance of position got me thinking, poker really is a game of patience and strategy. I totally get the part about not just waiting for big hands but also being mindful of your play style and position.

And that breakdown of how the value of hands changes with multiple opponents? Mind-blown! It's like poker mathematics and psychology rolled into one, huh? Also, trying to estimate your cards in the midst of a game sounds like a skill that needs some serious honing. I'll take your word for it that practice makes perfect.

Looking forward to diving into the nitty-gritty details in your future articles. Keep 'em coming!