Long Term Goals In Poker
It is a must for poker players to stay at ease in the game. They should make good decisions in order to win and if they want to lose a bad decision is not hard to make.
For a decision that a poker player makes there is a long term expected value or EV. EV is the average win or lose of a decision is long terms. Such as you play a game in a limit Hold Em poker where $10/$20 are the limit. Then every time you bet nuts on the river you got a positive expected value of $20. But if you fold your Big blind then expect to have a negative expected value of $10 each hand.
But it does not end there. The negative $10 expected value in a Big blind is more complicated than it seems. If you lose a standard $3 in the BB, then the expected value of folding each hand you have is worth -$7. And if you lose $12 a hand during a big blind then the EV of folding is a positive $2.
But why there are still a lot of players who make bad judgment? This is because they focus themselves on the short term aspect of the game and not the long run. They think that luck is the biggest contributor, that's why they win and they attribute losing in it too. Expected value is farther on their thoughts and they only think about what they can do to be lucky on the next hand.
No one is invulnerable from mistakes. Even the best in poker also have their own game holes. Their mistakes are not that visible to us, but its their. Some of them are too confident that they let their blinds unsupported, others always play with the same strategy over and over again never realizing that it already became their own weakness.
Its commonly known that a player who make good decisions gets the chip on the table.
Some poker players cannot understand this idea. When someone wins the pot, he or she may think that he made a right decision. But the thing is, only a long term +EV will make a person a good decision maker.
Brilliant poker players have trained themselves to ignore the distraction made by short term luck in poker. They focus themselves into making the right decisions in order to attain a positive EV. One goal is clear for a poker player and that is playing their money on a hand where they have a big chance of winning.
Don't solely look on the games results, focus on how to make a better result. Don't be a results oriented player who believe that the end justifies the means because it does not hold true with poker. But also remember that these kind of players made the world of poker possible.
The other players' faults is a gain for your pocket.
This is a very important statement in poker. It is very valuable that you understand this. Your opponent's failure will bring more money to your pocket because poker is a game of mistakes. The least mistakes you make, the greater the chance that you will get the pot and more mistakes you make will make you a losing partner in the game. So look out for players who are worse than you in order to win the game.
This concept is applicable to all types of poker whoever play in it.