Beginners Guide to No Limit Holdem

I would like to begin this guide to No Limit Holdem poker (abbreviated NLH or NLHE) by explaining a few key concepts. It is important to understand that NLH is always about maximizing your wins and minimizing losses. You must constantly be thinking in terms of risk vs. reward. That's what pot odds and counting outs is all about, so I'm going to try to shed a bit of light on these concepts. We'll get more involved later on.

Calculating Estimated Value

I'll start with a non-poker example. Let's suppose that you have an opportunity to roll a standard 6 sided die as a proposition gamble. The offer is this: any time you roll a 6 you win $6, and any time you roll another number you lose $1. Is this a favorable wager for you? Let's find out. You are being offered a chance to win $6 by risking only $1. That's very favorable odds; you are getting 6 to 1 on your money. However, you are much more likely to lose than to win. There are 5 numbers that cause you to lose, and there is only one that gives you a win. You are a 5 to 1 underdog. You're getting 6 to 1 on a 5 to 1 shot. Take it. Here's why. This bet has positive EV (estimated value). If we take this bet a large number of times we will win in the long run. It is a statistical certainty. For simplicity's sake we should assume that we have 6 trials. On average we will win the bet 1 out of 6 times. We will lose $1 five times and win $6 one time for a total profit of $1. You will win, on average, $1 for every 6 attempts. If we divide $1 by 6 we will find the amount of money you make per attempt on average (you're EV). $1/6 is a bit more than 16 cents per trial. Your bet has a positive EV of about +.16. When you consider a gambling problem you always have to look at it in long term profitability. This bet is a long term winner. If you cannot look at poker in these terms you will have a difficult time succeeding at it.

Let's use an example that actually occurs on the felt. You hold QJh; the board is 8h 3h Kc 2s (for reference, see poker hand abbreviations). Your opponent has a pair; he holds KTd. The pot contains $100; your opponent bets $10. Now you have to risk $10 to win $100 + $10 ($110). That means the pot is offering you 11 to 1 odds. You will make your flush about one time in five, or to put it another way, the odds are 4 to 1 against you filling your hand. So, every five trials you will lose $10 four times (-$40) and you will win $110 one time. $110 - $40 = $70. You will make a total of $70 every five trials. $70/5 = $14, your call has a positive EV of $14.

It's important to understand that after many many sessions of poker your profit will be equal to your positive EV- your negative EV. All the other skills in poker are only there to assist you in your goal of making correct EV plays. There are many great players who have no idea what EV is and who aren't particularly math savvy. Rest assured, they are still using there skills to make correct EV decisions. That's what being a winning player is about. Eventually each player will be dealt approximately the same number of good, bad, and indifferent hands. The winner will be the player who does the most with what he's dealt. Fate and the poker deck hold no one player above another. The deck will try to balance us all out in the end.

In order to win in the long run you must be able to take more than your fair share of what fate will deal us all. You can only succeed at poker long-term by making correct EV plays and causing your opponents to make incorrect EV plays. There are many ways of accomplishing this goal, but only one goal.

When your opponent raises you and gets you to fold AJ while he only has 32o, he has gotten you to make a mistake in terms of EV. You folded when you had the odds to call and in fact should have raised. He took one of his bad hands and made money on it. He took what random chance said belonged to you. When your opponent gives you 6 to 1 while you're on a flush draw he's allowed you to make a correct call. He had the best hand and failed to protect it. Now you have an opportunity to capitalize on his mistake by winning money that the poker deck did not have in store for you. This is poker. There are a lot of means to one end, but the end is simply to win more than your fair share of the money put into play. You can only do that by playing better fundamentally than the players you play against. You don't have to be great; you just have to be better than your opponents.

♣ Continued at: Position in Holdem Poker

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