Do you calculate your decisions?

Do you do your maths and calculate pot odds or do you go with your instict and hope you are good?

When you play a lot of hands, you will make these calculations instinctively, since there is no need to calculate the bank's chances exactly - you should be sure only that you accept a plus or a border decision, and do not do anything negative.

On a more accurate calculation, you simply will not have time if you actively play several tables at once.

honestly you don't need to do calculations. I used to do the calculations but it doesn't actually help. Now I play without calculations and I play with years of experience and it helps me win.

Yes to both. Especially if I have info on player against

I've tried both....i trust my instincts more.

Spaceman said:

Do you do your maths and calculate pot odds or do you go with your instict and hope you are good?

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Lately, I started paying more attention to the statistics and the game of my opponents, so I revised my approach to my game and make more decisions based on their game (information about them), and I began to consider the math of the game more carefully. In the conditions of modern poker, I think that this is the right decision)

We not have consciousness of everything that the brain does because it works uninterruptedly, even in sleep, to collaborate on the right decisions and mistakes of our choices.

Better still, in most cases we struggle as a conscious spontaneity against the development of emotional manifestations; we try to master our fear, to calm our anger, to hold back our sobs. Thus, not only do we not have consciousness of the finality of emotion, however, we still repress emotion with all our strength, ant it invades us in spite of ourselves. A phenomenological description of emotion owes it to itself to remove these contradictions.

At the moment, I do not make any calculations. Those calculations that I need have long been in my memory. To take poker seriously enough to count all the options is not part of my plans for life, because for me poker is only a starting platform with which you can earn money in the beginning, but the realization of this capital is already the end goal.

I try to keep in mind what is in the pot. And what I can win for calling a draw or marginal hand. Must times it's an easy fold. But I use the simplest math possible to make the best decision

I use pot odds to help make my decisions but I depend on my experience for strategy decisions.

See how your opponents are playing and adjust your play accordingly - tight and aggressive is my default, but I am often the loosest at the table in a tournament!

Good luck to you!

1) usually instict only,
2) sometimes rough calc and then add instinct to take a decision

It is good to learn about the math of the game, but in a way we will not do the calculations very often, we will only use in very rare exceptions, since part of our plays turn out to be intuitive.

I like your answers. I went with my instinct most of the time as well. But I realised I was playing poorly. Let me enlight all of you that may doing the same mistake.

You have a 70% probability to win. If you win you get 26$, if you lose you give 38$. Tell me what your instinct says about this. Do you feel like winning or losing here?

Hi.
Yes, I often count on my decisions.
It helps me to be more confident in my actions.
Good luck.

I would compare it to playing darts or working in a bar.

When I was new to these and struggling to do the calculations I was surprised at how some people who had perhaps not been so good with mathematics at school could add up scores and drinks really quickly.
The trick was that they didn't have to add everything up each time because they remembered common combinations.
Treble Seventeen wasn't 3 x 17 (or 3*10+3*7), it was just known to be 51,
and this was often scored together with other common darts which made other memorable numbers.
Similarly, 3 bottles of Stella Artois and 2 bottles of Carlsberg wasn't 3x£1.70+2x£1.40 it was the known numbers £5.10 and £2.80, and these often occur in combination with a cola for the nominated driver, giving other remembered numbers.

What appears to be instinct can sometimes be experience.
An experienced statistical player can recognise card combinations for which they have previously already done the calculations a few times.
(or perhaps they just know it is their lucky hand with which they have won more often than they have lost).

Looking at the numbers, the end result of calculations are a number that needs to be plus EV.
'If you win you get 26$, if you lose you give 38$', (assuming this has been normalised to equal probability of each), is negative ev, so it is not a good choice.
But with 70% probabiltiy of a win it is actually plus ev, which would indicate it should be played.
However instinct can say, regardless of the numbers, it sometimes isn't good to perhaps give away a large amount with only the opportunity to win a small amount, if there is not going to be enough repeats to gain the long term advantage.

I do rough calculations, adjust to the opponents ' game and also rely on my experience.

I do not know, judging by what I see in online poker ,few people consider the chances of the Bank, equity,etc.! Then shove everything and everywhere, without thinking about math!

Many will say that catch pen and paper to do your math but do not think so. I personally guided me through the experience and plays I've had before.

Poker without the math element can exist only for pure fun. What separates the good for the bad players is that thing. All of you said that you play against the player you really play against the stats of the particular opponent. This is what a HUD does. It calculates the tendencies in different plays. After that you can find those patterns which give you the edge against your opponents.

You can watch some coaching sessions for free and they will tell when call is profitable etc. Math tells you to call a cbet with a straight draw on the flop but not on the turn if you don't hit. The turn call is not profitable in general.

I don't want to get misunderstood , under no circumstance I don't tell that your play shouldn't be opponent oriented but you can't play every hand you participate based only on your instincts! By experience you can calculate every decision in no time.

I definitely think that it's important to do at least rough calculations so you know your chance of winning. Statistically speaking if you are calling hands with greater pot odds than the percentage of winning then you should be successful in the long run.


Of course knowing your opponent is important too and adjusting your play to their style but I think it's important to use calculations and rely on your instincts in certain situations when you recognize a players pattern or a tell.

After years of playing I would say that I use both, but as time goes on I feel I have become more intuitive in my decisions .. I always try to keep the rough calculations in account, although sometimes I follow them precisely and sometimes I go with my gut...

For me it has to do with what I feel, and there was a very good book written about this subject .... " Your Worst Poker Enemy " By Alan N.
Schoonmaker Ph.D It goes into great detail about your intuitive side vs. your logical side, are you a right brain player or left brain player. ..it helped me to even make that determination regarding myself... it is kind of a hard read, because it requires you to be brutally honest if you have any hope to advance, and the mind seems to like to fool itself for the sake of comfort. It makes a difference even to how you learn ... by that I mean people that are, say, more logical ....learn the calculations more easily and will excel down that path, where they will generally not do so well going with their instinct.... for me I am the opposite and it was difficult to learn the math involved and to apply it or to want to believe even that it had merit. ... Like most things, I think the truth lies somewhere down the middle...I know the odds and I calculate EV as best I can without a pen and paper all the time, but often the final decision comes to my feel. I do believe you have to make the best of both worlds, so to speak , to play your best .....

I'm not a professional, but I always count

When I first learned about calculating pot odds, I started to do it on drawing hands, but i agree with popov, after a while it’s more instinctive. That being said though, there are times when a quick calculation may come in handy, like if your opponent jams the turn and you’ve got a flush draw and a gut shot, it may help to calculate your odds percentage against the size of the pot

Hey, if I do the calculations but are approximate, but what helped me a lot is the odds calculator. It is a very good tool and also by playing many hands're taking the right decisions greetings.

I go with my instinct most of the time