Who knew poker was a game of math? Well, among other things. Some of our players wonder what takes so long for me to play a hand. There is a lot of information to process if you ask me. How much money do the jamokes that are in the hand have behind them? What range of hands can you put someone on that are still in the hand? Lots of stuff to think about, if you actually want to think about it.
As far as math is concerned though. Like I mentioned to the folks from http://www.nolimitholdempirate.com you can figure your outs and odds and all that from those rules of 4 and 2. Let me know if you don’t know what I am talking about. ;-D However, what about the reverse side of things? What if you are the one with the made hand? Big pairs preflop or hitting set on a draw heavy board? What then? Are you betting enough to keep the Pirate at bay? Check calling hoping to trap really requires a huge hand if you ask me.
Pot sized bets obviously lay 2-1. Someone needs a pretty strong holding to stick around. If the Pirate anything, he’ll pay. What about half the pot? The Pirate then will hang around just to hang around with big cards getting 3-1. Very simple math, but it is also an awareness of the bet amounts as things progress. What was the raise preflop and how many players are left? Simple.
What about your check raise? How much do you reraise? Do the math. Someone bets the pot, a raise of double that still lays pretty good odds.
Ex: pot is $10. A bet of $10, you raise to $20. Costs me $10 to win $40. The raise itself signals strength, but the Pirate isn’t going anywhere. That may or may not be a good thing depending on what you’re up against. A set vs his overpair needs a bigger raise than that to keep him from drawing out cheap. Crack him by at least tripling his bet or even quadrupling it. Make it $4o so that it’s $30 to win $60 in the above example. That will bring an inkling of fear to the Pirate if he even has that emotion. Then again it all depends on how much money you have left in your stack. Which brings me to implied odds…
If you are all in, he might just pay you off, since he knows what his cost is. With a bunch of money behind, he might let a hand go instead of facing any more of a barrage with a hand that is as good as it’s going to get for him. A drawing hand will have him sticking around in the hopes he can be stacking all of your chips in front of him when the hand is over. He’ll examine not only the money you are charging him to stick around but the amount he could also win from your stack, namely his implied odds.
We’re just having fun with poker here. Like I said, there is a lot to consider. Although, you and I both know there are players that will refuse to process this and just play their cards. I imagine a timely bluff will get thrown in there for them as well.. so, check this one out and enjoy..
