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Why is Maths Important in Poker?

by Luis Ada

Everyone who sits at a poker table wants to win but for those who don’t, what is really stopping them? Well, for some it’s impatience, others like to bluff too much, but we think it’s players inability to properly use maths at the table. We think math is one of the most important aspects of winning in poker and we’re going to explain why in this article.

Chasing Draws

Math is important when it comes to chasing after the flop. We’ve all been there, you’re holding a flush draw or straight draw and facing a bet and chasing it down. However, it should not just be a case of calling and hoping to hit. The maths are important to recognizing whether it’s a profitable long-term call or not. This is true regardless of setting, local cardroom or casino online terpercaya.

When you chase a draw, you should consider what price you are getting and see if it matches up with the chance of hitting your hand. So, a flush draw is 9 outs, if you are heading from turn to river, you have 9 cards out of 44 to hit to make your hand. This is approximately 20%. So, if you are facing a bet that is leaving worse than 20% pot odds, you should strongly consider folding, unless you think a big pay off is likely.

Profitable River Calls

Another time math is key is facing a river bet and working out whether your hand is good. Using the same principles when facing a bet, you need to estimate how often your opponent is bluffing or weaker than you. For instance, if you think your hand is winning around 1/3 and facing a bet that is giving you better that is giving you a better price, you should make the call as you will be in profit in the long-term.

Hand Match Ups in Tournaments

Finally, maths is vital in tournaments. When you’re in scenarios where you are risking all ins, you need to compute whether your hand is coin flip, better or in bad shape. By using maths to know roughly how your hand fares against opponent ranges, you can make profitable long-term decisions that will help your in the money rate and your tournament ROI too. For instance, calling off 50 big blinds with pocket deuces is a poor maths play but calling a SB shove from BB with A-9 for 5 big blinds is a mathematically sound decision.

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