Metalevel Strategy Lecture
poker is the only game out there that is game of strategy based on randomness. It’s amazing really that 52 cards can create such complex situations that casino players have to think about. Instead of a game like chess where skill is totally the key, online poker employs the element of chance and success depends on a players understanding of randomness and how it affects the series of following events. So how do we define strategy? Well strategy is the sum of all the possible actions that a player can take in a given situation. In poker it can be pretty simple. Bet. Raise. Fold. Check. Sure the sizes of the bets and the timing of the checks and folds can say something, but essentially it’s a game of four decisions. Ok, well what does that say about strategy again, you say? It means in order to be successful you have to adopt a successful strategy. You decision has to be one that is more likely than the others to generate a win or a winning session. This is where we get into expected value. The expected value (+EV) is the sum of the winnings of each outcome (either win, tie or lose), multiplied by the probabilities of an outcome occuruing (win, tie, lose). So we get to skill, now that we’re dong with strategy. The skill is either one of two things. You play a game of exploitative poker, where your observance exploits the tendencies of other players, or you play an equilibrium game, where you play a style that is unexploitable.
