Advanced Poker Theory
This is a very important post for those who wish to learn professional poker. If you don’t know this advanced poker theory, you will not do well because there will be a lot of leakage in your games.
I have taken the liberty to make some attempts to summarize advanced poker theory. In a nutshell, the Fundamentals of Poker Theory coined by David Skylansky is actually the basis of Advanced Poker Theory.
Before you can play advanced poker, you have to understand the Fundamentals of Poker Theory. In advanced poker you are constantly trying to make your opponent or opponents play in a way that would be incorrect if they knew what you had. Anytime they play in the right way on the basis of what you have, you have not gained any advantage. In other words, you are trying to induce your opponents to deviate from ideal play. In this context, I would like to define ideal play as the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponent’s cards and vice versa.
The Fundamental Poker Theory states that:
1. Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain.
2. Every time you play your hand the same way you would have played if you could see all their cards, they lose.
3. Every time your opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain.
4. Every time your opponents play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.
Notice there are only four variations in this 2×2 matrix. There are two assumptions here. Firstly, you know the correct play in all poker situations if all cards are exposed. Secondly, deceptive play is used to induce the opponent into playing differently because the opponent believes you have a different set of card.
More importantly, you have to compare poker with board games. In board games like chess, backgammon, and checkers, you can always see what your opponent is doing. However, poker is a game of incomplete information. If you were able to see everybody’s cards at all times, there would always be a perfect, mathematically correct play for each player in every situation. Any player who deviates from his correct play would be reducing his mathematical expectation and increasing the expectation of his opponents.
Of course, if all cards were exposed at all times, there wouldn’t be a game of poker. The art of poker is filling the gaps in the incomplete information provided by the exposed cards as well as your opponent’s betting strategy or style. A good starting mindset is to assume that you and your opponent can see all the cards as if you are playing chess. This is the basis of Fundamental Poker Theory.
The Fundamental Poker Theory works best when a hand has been reduced to a contest between you and a single opponent. It also partially applies to multi-way pots, but there are exceptions.
Information from the exposed cards can change the way you play. There is one aspect of comparing the odds of making your hand to your pot odds that is frequently overlooked in open-handed games like stud poker and razz. You have to consider both the cards exposed in other players’ hands, and the cards already folded in order to estimate the cards which are still out against you. For example, it would be stupid to play a pair of 5s in seven-card stud with the two other 5s exposed.
It is very important to understand that when you talk about making a mistake based on the Fundamental Poker Theory, you’re not necessarily talking about playing badly. You’re talking about a very strange kind of mistake.
If you have a royal flush and someone has a king-high straight flush, that player is making a mistake to call you. But a player surely cannot be accused of playing badly by calling or, as is much more likely, raising with a king-high straight flush. Since he doesn’t know what you have, he is making a legitimate losing ideal play. He deviate from ideal play and play differently from the way he would if you could see all your opponents’ cards.
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HOW TO PLAY WINNING POKER
According to the Fundamental Poker Theory, you play winning poker ideally by playing as closely as possible to the way you would play if you could see all your opponents’ cards. In addition, you try to make your opponents deviate as far away from this ideal play.
The first goal is accomplished mainly by reading hands and reading players accurately, because the closer you can come to figuring out someone else’s hand, the fewer mistakes you will make. The second goal is accomplished by playing deceptively.
Reading hands and reading players together with deceptive play are the elements of winning poker in advanced poker theory. The triads of winning poker are reading hands, reading players and deceptive play. Poker is a deceptive game. Either you deceive your opponent to deviate from ideal play or your opponent induce you to deviate from ideal play. Skills in deceptive play are the keys to winning poker. To be good at deceptive play, you must be good at reading hands and reading players.
Do not confuse deceptive play from bluff and semi-bluff. Deceptive play is a strategy to induce your opponent to make mistakes in reading your hand as well as to believe that you have a different set of cards.
This is a very important point. You must get it right because this is the heart and soul of every situational play in advanced poker.
KEY POINTS
1. Every time you deviate from ideal play, your opponent gain.
2. Every time you play ideally, your opponent lose.
3. Every time your opponent deviates from ideal play, you gain.
4. Every time your opponent play ideally, you lose.
5. Ideal play is defined as the way you would have played if you could see all your opponent’s cards and vice versa.
6. The triads of winning poker are reading hands, reading players and deceptive play.
7. Skills in deceptive play are the keys to winning poker.
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The Theory of Poker: A Professional Poker Player Teaches You How To Think Like One
