Texas Holdem Poker Math

Texas Holdem Poker Math
The most fundamental piece of Texas Holdem is math. If you are looking to win you must learn the in's and outs of pot odds, investment odds, your available outs to win a hand, and odds against. If you use pot odds and outs together you can make the right bet every time for an overall winning percentage.
Holdem is all about the numbers and making the correct bets. There are both good and bad investments. If the odds are 4 to 1 you're hitting you shouldn't be investing a lot of money into the pot. It's similar to the stock market. You're betting on the future of what will hit. If you're risking too much money on long shots, you won't be an overall winning player.
Investment odds on the other hand allow you to get away with certain bets that don't make sense pot odds wise. Investment odds are predictions of how much you believe you could win from the hand if you do indeed make your hand. Let's use this in an example. Let's say you're trying to hit an open ended straight so you have eight outs to hit. You have about a 16% chance of making your hand by the next card. But your opponent bet half the pot. Pot odds wise this isn't a good call. You, however, believe you can take all your opponents chips if you hit. Using investment odds this may become a worthwhile call.
Bluffing also affects poker math. If you know how and when to bluff you can pick up extra chips. Let's say you've been playing tight and the table knows it. If you raise the table is more likely to fold because they believe you have a monster of a hand. On the other hand if you're seen as loose when you pick up aces and bet you're more likely to get callers. By playing tight aggressive you can pick different spots to bluff and get away with it. Betting on flush draws and straight draws would be known as semi-bluffing, and may pick up some pots without having to actually win.
The final component has to do with your wins and losses percentages as well as the potential to win or lose on each starting hand. If you're playing with a lot of cards that have a lower win percentage, you're more likely to lose chips. If you're playing with hands that have a better chance to win, you'll win more pots. Tied into this is your current win loss record. If you're on a losing streak you may not play as well as you typically would due to tilt.
Bluffing, odds, outs, wins, losses, and table image all come together to make the game known as poker. Math and psychology control the game. By knowing the math you can minimize your losses and increase your chances to win. By using psychology you can get inside the heads of your opponents. Know your texas holdem math, win more pots.

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