Online poker strategy is a hot topic across the Internet since the explosion of poker’s popularity in the past decade. Since the inception of televised poker (most notably by ESPN), online gambling sites 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 just isn’t legal in several states, these poker web pages effortlessly sidestep the legality by advertising “for fun” sites where customers cannot use their own money, with a near-identical domain name registered for actual monetary commitment nearby. Therefore, 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 dozens 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 isn’t terribly distinctive from that of table poker, and also 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 relies on the mathematics of the game. As a player has no real way to learn what cards his opponent is holding, there’s absolutely no 100% effective outcome for poker players (hence the term, gambling). Alternatively, understanding the math behind the poker will permit the player to understand situations where calling or folding, according to nothing but the odds of the game, is within his or her best interest.

All the math behind poker depends on the simple proven 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 will not know which cards are in the hands of the opponents, the remaining cards (a certain few of that are needed for a successful, winning hand) will be in plain sight for someone to count. Using this contact form data, a player can determine the amount of money 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.

By way of example, say a Hold ‘Em player needs just one diamond to make a flush, which would be the most effective hand available to any player in this scenario. While there are actually 13 diamonds in the deck, the Hold ‘Em player has two of them and you will find two on the table (as five are expected for a flush). Thus, there are only 9 potential diamonds within the remaining cards. In the event the player has two cards, his opponent has two cards, and you’ll find four cards on the table, you’ll 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 as the odds are one to five — thus, the pot odds favor calling the $5 for the payout is double the opportunity of winning the hand. While this particular hand could possibly be won 20% of the time, if it might be played out 100 times, the player would statistically be likely to lose around $400 while winning around $1000.