There are far too many “MPO777 players” that do not know the math of the game and try to make it work for them. Maybe this is the biggest “conservative” aspect of most poker players. We tell ourselves we don’t care about the math, but it’s actually our ignorance that causes the majority of our mistakes. It is always easy to make wool over your eyes and believe that you can outplay Daniel Negreanu or Phil Ivey, but if you’re going to play you need to grasp the basics first.
First, it is important to realize that the nuts is determined by the number of hearts in the deck. That’s just a fact. The odds of hitting a three card straight are bad. The odds of hitting a full house, even with two cards flop, are worse. However, there are three card flops that are less likely to win than other flops. Those are the nut outs. Without them, there is a good chance that someone else may have a better full house or better kicker.
The “not so lucky” players are more likely to call because they may be desperate and see a card they think will bring them the victory. They may in fact be playing with the aspect of the game and not the high cards they think they have to win. Though their reasoning is understandable, it’s still not going to change their eventual result.
If they had the right poker strategy they would play the odds and maximize their probable outcome, not the outcome they wish for. In fact, the difference between an outcome they can get right and an outcome that will cost them, is the same as the difference between a lightning strike and a raging flood. It may be possible to call one or even to reraise one, but to call in front of a pot sized bet is child’s play.
They may grasp the high cards concept and yet they cannot curtail their curiosity to wait for the right hand. The better poker players know that the high cards are rarely enough and try to build the pot when they get the chance. When you get the right hand, you want to be sure that your opponents are weak before you commit your chips.
To save their chips, they will try and make things happen for you. They may even foolishly try to make a bluff, but remember that every hand is the same, the good hands are the same and the bad hands are also the same. In every game, we would want to hold as many high cards as possible and yet get as little as we can.
When we have a good hand, we will try and make the maximum number of outs (outs are the cards you need to have a winning hand) upon the board. The idea is that we are trying to get the opponents to fold so that we may take the pot down. If we have a smaller hand than our opponents, we will call or attempt to extract more money from them.
However, the more cards we have that are not the best cards, the bigger the mistake we will make and the more it will cost us. So, if we painfully have a bad hand and upon application of pressure, we will either fold extremely weak hand or move all in so that we can get maximum value or our opponents will fold so that we may be heads up or in a position to make the most out of the hand.
Position – When we are in certain position in the dealing, we will raise. When we’re in the small blind, big blind or on the button, we will make a larger bet than we normally would. We do this to attempt to get opposition players to fold once we have the best hand. observe this – if we act strong, the players will fold to us (as thecaptain would act first) – but if we act weak, players with strong hands will try to steal the blinds and raise. This helps to build the pot and gives us a bit of an edge.