How To Play Poker

Everyone's had a bad run of luck when it comes to poker. For example, you're playing Texas Hold 'Em, $2-4 blinds, with no limit. You're dealt AA, a great starting hand. Someone else raises the blind, so you call, deciding against a re-raise. The flop turns K-8-A, and the betting begins again. You raise, believing you have the best hand, three aces. The turn shows another 8. The other players at the table don't seem to react, and no one raises, so you still believe you have the best hand. You raise, a couple of players fold and two stay in. The river turns another K, board showing K-8-A-8-K. You have a full house, aces full of kings, and push all in. Of the two players left, one folds and the other calls - showing his pocket kings. Ouch. You …show more content…
Its ingredients are the three laws of probability well stirred with the ladle of the imperfect shuffle, Factor X, and seasoned with the spice of bluff. Hence every Poker player should understand thoroughly the theory and practice of percentage. Law of Single Event. The probability of a favorable event equals one divided by the number of possible events, provided that every possible event has an equal chance of happening as in getting a certain card. For example, what is the probability of getting the king of diamonds in the hole at Stud? As there are 52 cards, your chance is one in fifty-two, i.e., 1/52. So in the course of 5200 deals you should get the king of diamonds in the hole about 100 times. Law of Compound Event. If a favorable event depends mutually on two or more single events, the probability of the favorable event equals the PRODUCT of the probabilities of the necessary single events. For example, what is the probability of getting the king of diamonds in the hole and the queen of diamonds up on the first two cards at Stud? As above, you have 1 chance in 52 of getting the king of diamonds in the hole. Now whenever you get this card in the hole, there are 51 cards left including the queen of diamonds, so that your chance of getting her is 1/51. Therefore, on the average you will have to get the king of diamonds in the hole 51 times in order to him with the queen once. The probability of this compound event is 1/52 x 1/51 or 1/2652. Law of Either-Or. If a favorable event may occur in two or more mutually independent ways, the probability of the favorable event equals the SUM of the probabilities of the necessary single event. For example, what is the probability of getting any king in the hole at Stud? As mentioned before, to get the king of diamonds is 1/52. Likewise, to get the king of spades, hearts, or clubs in each case is 1/52. So the probability of getting any king in the hole is 1/52 + 1/52 + 1/52 +