S
sxm59
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Hello,
Playing sound poker can involve using a "mixed strategy" in certain spots. For example, a player who is first to act and who has a weak hand my decide to bet (as a bluff) 50% of the time and check (with the intention of folding) the remaining 50% of the time. The player is "mixing" between betting and checking because he (or she) wants to be unpredictable and hence not to be exploited. If the player always checks in that spot (that is, never bluffs) then other players eventually will realize that his (or her) hand is always strong whenever he bets, which will enable them to "print money" by calling less when he bets (and betting more when he checks).
In online games, a 50:50 mixed strategy can be implemented by flipping a coin and picking one or the other action (say, bet or check) depending on whether the coin lands on heads or tails. Or by rolling a dice and betting if it's a high number (4, 5 or 6) and checking otherwise.
In live games, however, flipping a coin or rolling a dice is not practical! A better way to implement the mixing is to use the suits of your own cards. For example, suppose you are going to play hold'em and you anticipate that there will be situations during the game where you will want to mix 50:50 between, say, calling and folding. Suppose your favorite suit is spade. Then, the following are simple ways to do the 50:50 mixing:
Playing sound poker can involve using a "mixed strategy" in certain spots. For example, a player who is first to act and who has a weak hand my decide to bet (as a bluff) 50% of the time and check (with the intention of folding) the remaining 50% of the time. The player is "mixing" between betting and checking because he (or she) wants to be unpredictable and hence not to be exploited. If the player always checks in that spot (that is, never bluffs) then other players eventually will realize that his (or her) hand is always strong whenever he bets, which will enable them to "print money" by calling less when he bets (and betting more when he checks).
In online games, a 50:50 mixed strategy can be implemented by flipping a coin and picking one or the other action (say, bet or check) depending on whether the coin lands on heads or tails. Or by rolling a dice and betting if it's a high number (4, 5 or 6) and checking otherwise.
In live games, however, flipping a coin or rolling a dice is not practical! A better way to implement the mixing is to use the suits of your own cards. For example, suppose you are going to play hold'em and you anticipate that there will be situations during the game where you will want to mix 50:50 between, say, calling and folding. Suppose your favorite suit is spade. Then, the following are simple ways to do the 50:50 mixing:
- If you are holding unsuited cards, call if you have a spade (and fold otherwise).
- If you are holding suited cards, call if they are black (and fold if they are red.
- If you are holding unsuited cards that are not a pair, re-raise if the highest of the two cards is a spade (and call otherwise).
- If you are holding a pair, re-raise if the first card you received is a spade (and call otherwise).
- If you are holding suited cards, re-raise if they are spades (and fold otherwise).