Expected Value (EV)- This is one of the hot terms in the poker world. A concept that has been around for a while, EV refers to your expected return on a wager. For example, if you make a bet with a friend over flipping a coin. Heads and he will pay you $100. Tails you will pay him $10. Should you take the bet? Yes, obviously. But mathematically why? The probability that you win is 50%. Therefore, your expected win is worth $50 ($100 x 50%) and your expected loss is worth $5 ($10 x 50%). This makes your expected profit on each coin flip during this bet being worth $45 ($50-$5) and you should attempt to bet your friend as many times as possible. Apply this concept to poker when drawing to hands. You should only draw to hands when you have a positive EV should it hit. EV plays a part in many hands and can help you stay out of trouble and win big pots!
Widen your range- You will often see professional poker players raising with hands that a beginning player would never raise with. For example, a good player sitting UTG could raise 4x with 34s just as easily as he could raise on the button with 72offsuit. Don't become such a TAG that you cannot mix up your play. Keep your opponents on their toes and never become too "textbook."
Categorize your opponents and exploit them- Label everyone at your table as a TAG, LAG, fish, tilter, etc. Then depending who you are in the hands against, modify your play to best exploit each player. Play mind games with everyone at your table, especially the super-aggressive players that are just waiting to slip up and send you their entire stack of chips.
Tells-Study up on tells as players at every level have them. You can make quite a bit of profit and probably stay out of a lot of trouble by knowing when your opponent is giving off a tell. Mike Caro wrote an excellent book on poker tells that most players can benefit from.
Meta-game. This is an advanced skill that many of the top pros are currently exposing. As defined Wikipedia, "Metagaming is a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game." This is a form of reverse-psychology that a player uses in hopes that it will pay off for him in the long run. For example, a player might make a quick call on the river with obviously not the winning hand and then show it to the table. This action could induce the rest of the table to begin trying to bluff him/her more. These plays, also known as balancing plays, should be mixed into your game.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
