Useful Strategies

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A picture of a guy with a tired and confused look on his face.

The Poker Face

An essential key to mastering any card game is to not show any emotions on your face, or your body movements, while playing the game. If you were to give away any hint that you have a good hand, your opponents will back out of that hand immediately. Conversely, if you were to express fear when you’re bluffing on a hand, then someone could easily take you out. So, always be aware of the way you act and feel free to fake people out. Looking confused or scared is a good way to bluff when you have a good hand.

A picture of a guy with a furry hat on and scared look on his face.

 

Pot Odds

Pot odds is a term we use when your chances of winning is greater than that of the percentage of the pot needed to call. For example, you have a flush draw after the turn and there is $10 in the pot. The person before you bets $2, 20% of the pot. Statistically, it would be a good idea to call because of the pot odds. Basically, if the amount to stay in the game is fairly miniscule compared to the amount in the pot already, and you have a pretty good hand, it’s worth the money to just call and see if you can quadruple, quintuple, or whatever your money.

 

Statistics

Ever wonder how pro’s can make such hard decisions on whether to call or not? Yes, being able to read someone and tell if they are bluffing is priceless, but you can also have a mathematical approach to it, too. The easiest way to calculate the odds of getting the card you want is too to follow this easy equation:

 

Percent chance that you get the card you want = (number of outs/total number of cards left in the deck) x 100

 

To figure out how many outs you have left, decide what cards you need and count how many there are in the deck, not including those already seen. When counting the total number of cards left in the deck, count all cards that you have not seen and leave out your hand and however many cards have been dealt face up. For example, if you have two Queens in your hand and you want to know the odds of another Queen coming out on the flop you would take 100x(2/50)=4%. As you can see, I counted two Queens left in the deck, and fifty cards total remaining in the deck because your two cards are the only two that you can account for. So, we get two divided by fifty, times one hundred, equals four percent.

 

*Remember, this equation will never be exact due to the fact that you cannot see every card that has been dealt.*

 

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