Decisions, decisions are the common point in poker. If you are patient enough to learn how to make good decisions, you’ll be able to conquer this game. And if you always make bad decisions then its your loss. Simple concept that’s hard to get.

Decisions that we make in poker has a long term expected value shorten as EV. It is the standard win or lose situation of a player in term of long term goals. Here is one good illustration: You’ve been playing in a limit Hold’ Em poker game and you end up betting the nuts on the river. This move has a positive expected value of or +EV of $20 and if you’re lucky you can win $20 if you make this move and someone bet against you. On the other hand, folding a big blind in the same limit poker game you’ll get a negative EV of $10 every time you make this move.

The negative expected value of $10 is not as simple as it seems. You see, if you usually lose an average of $3 in the big blind, then the EV of folding every hand is -$7. But if you lose $12 in the BB then the EV of folding is $2. Kind of complicated isn’t it?

Why do a lot of players make poor judgment? This is because they are so focus in their short term winnings that they forget to think about the long term goal of the game. They even forget about EV. They think that poker is a game of luck and if they win once they will continually win. But they are really mislead by this assumption.

Players make mistakes. Even the most disciplined poker players have holes in their game which are sometimes unseen. Poker players sometimes are too preoccupied by some thoughts that they tend to forgot the purpose of playing. For example, some players often use one set of strategy that all his opponents knew about it, others misunderstand the significant of positioning and some are not taking their blinds seriously.

Always remember this: Playing poker and making good decisions is the recipe of a winner.

Some misunderstand this concept. They believe that they make good decisions when they won the pot a couple of times. They didn’t know that luck has been good to them. If you won a big pot it doesn’t necessarily mean that you made a good decision. Good judgment can only be done if you have a positive expected value in the long run.

Poker players should always think long term when playing the game. They should not be blinded by their short term winnings. Its really not easy though. All of us have luck from time to time but don’t let it distract you from your initial purpose. That is to gamble your money when you think the odds is on you.

Don’t forget to use the core strategies of the game. If you do then this will make you a results oriented player whose always gunning for results rather than on how to play poker. They always think that the end justifies the mean that they don’t know how to refine their strategies in order to become a better player. But persons like these are the money machines of the poker world.

This is because you can more money if your opponents are weaker than you and make more mistakes.

You should always remember this idea. This game is a mistake based competition wherein the winners are the people who made the least mistakes. So if you want to win in this game often, look for players who are worse than you.

This is true to all kinds of poker games, whoever the players are. If all players are disciplined and are so experienced in the game, who do you think will win?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 7:25 am and is filed under Poker Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.