Here we will try to answer the main questions and highlight the most important points.
Poker math
Mathematical calculations are at the heart of poker theory – the entire strategy is based on it. A player who does not know poker mathematics, but has a developed logical thinking, plays deliberately, but cannot ensure stable profits. The fact is that any action in bidding, whether it’s betting with a strong hand, Folding or bluffing, must be profitable.
Profitable decisions are determined by calculating probabilities and pot odds, Equity of the hand, and EV. It seems complicated, but there are only 52 cards in the deck – 4 of each denomination and 13 of each suit – so you can use probability theory to calculate the odds of winning in any situation.
Tactical Game
Every successful player is an excellent tactician. This ability does not have to be innate, as everything can be learned by studying theory and gaining practical experience. To use it effectively it is also important to be observant, which allows you to make correct opinions about your opponents. Competently evaluating your opponents and game situations, you will be able to use tactical tricks. For example, identifying a tight opponent according to the following signs, you can choose the best tactics against him.
There is an opinion that every person forms his or her own style and eventually becomes a tighter or more aggressive. In reality, successful players stick only to an aggressive or balanced style, a middle ground between tight and aggressive.
Having Business Skills
Earning money from poker is a type of investment, hence – a poker player should be able to handle money in about the same way as a successful businessman. In classic businesses, people build marketing strategies, develop business plans, and use logistics to get the best return on investment. Surprisingly, these are the kinds of skills a player needs.
The goal of the game is to generate income, so creating the conditions for poker capital growth is the main thing in poker. Theorists have even allocated a separate section of the strategy – bankroll management, which teaches how to multiply investments.
Bankroll Management Chart for Short Stack Strategies
A private example on the chart shows how a player should move to more expensive tables, depending on the growth of his capital. It is not based on the experience of any individual poker player, but on mathematical calculations. Acting on the financial plan, the player makes all the money work for profit, as well as insuring against bankruptcy.
Psychology
- Mental attitude is important in poker.
A person needs to be able to set himself up to play so that he can sit down at the tables in a good mood and take his mind off everyday problems.
- He should also be able to cope with his emotions – not to feel resentment, anger, contempt, pity and other feelings towards opponents or himself. Any emotion during the game is a sign of excitement, which has no place in an intellectual competition.
- It is important to develop patience – sometimes making money from poker becomes a boring activity. You should remember that your goal is not to have fun, but to make money.
Objective evaluation of your own game
At the beginning of your career, every poker player makes a lot of mistakes and loses money. The main thing in poker is to understand that all losses are the player’s own fault, and not the competitors or bad luck. If a person uses the right strategy, he will make a profit. If he plays in the negative – he makes mistakes. There is a modern software for analyzing game history that allows you to identify flaws in the strategy.
Analyzing your own game history, you can understand – why the session was unprofitable. Excessive self-confidence, such as – I did everything right, but he is so lucky – is the main enemy of a poker player.
These are the most important fundamentals of a successful strategy, but there is one more point to be mentioned – the game conditions. Already in the first stages of learning the theory, it is important to choose a reliable place for poker – a popular poker room with fair and equal conditions for all participants. Otherwise, you will quickly become disillusioned with poker.
