Online poker strategy is a hot topic across the Internet considering that the explosion of poker’s popularity within the past decade. Considering that the inception of televised poker (most notably by ESPN), online gambling websites have invested millions of dollars’ worth of advertising on tv networks for the sole purpose of luring poker aficionados to their sites. While advertising for online gambling is not legal in many states, these poker sites conveniently sidestep the legality by advertising “for fun” sites where customers can’t use their very own money, with a near-identical domain name registered for actual monetary commitment nearby. Consequently, online poker draws countless new customers each day and fortunes are won and lost at Internet card tables.

Like any form of entertainment, online poker has experts willing to sell their secrets to the highest bidders. Professional poker players have published lots of books filled with their advice and bookstores have been quick to follow suit, dedicating valuable shelf space to these online guides. Online poker strategy just isn’t terribly distinctive from that of table poker, and a novice player will take advantage of the tactics of both online and table poker books.

Much of the strategy behind winning consistently at poker is dependent upon the mathematics of the game. As a player has no real way to learn what cards his opponent is holding, there isn’t any 100% effective outcome for poker players (hence the term, gambling). On the flip side, comprehending the math behind the poker shall allow the player to understand situations where calling or folding, determined by nothing however the odds of the game, is within his or her best interest.

All of the math behind poker relies on the simple fact that there are 52 cards in a deck. In a game of Hold ‘Em poker, a player receives two cards, in a game of Omaha four, in a game of Stud, five. Thus, while a player does not know which cards are within the hands of the opponents, the remaining cards (a particular few of which are needed for a successful, winning hand) are in plain sight for anyone to count. Using these details, a player can determine the total amount of cash in the pot to calculate what is called “pot odds”. Pot odds will either favor the player based upon the rewards weighed against the statistical chance of success, or favor folding his or her hand given the lack of a successful hand being dealt.

For example, say a Hold ‘Em player needs just one diamond to make a flush, which would be the most effective hand available to Centroacademicoarandas any player in the scenario. While there are actually 13 diamonds within the deck, the Hold ‘Em player has two of them and you will find two on the table (as five are required for a flush). Thus, you can find only 9 potential diamonds in the remaining cards. In the event the player has two cards, his opponent has two cards, and there are actually four cards on the table, you can find 44 cards remaining, a 9/44 chance of hitting a diamond or approximately a one in five chance.

In the scenario, the pot is $50, with a $5 call for the player with the flush draw. The potential payout is ten to one while the odds are one to five — thus, the pot odds favor calling the $5 for the payout is double the possibility of winning the hand. Although this particular hand might only be won 20% of the time, if it will be played out 100 times, the player would statistically be prone to lose around $400 while winning around $1000.