How good poker strategy affects a poker game.

This is the sixth page of a multi page Hold Em poker article about poker strategy, poker odds, poker stats etc. Rather than gradually increasing the skill factor and running many simulations, making Dopey Dave even smarter a little at a time, I opted to insert two highly skilled players (Sharks) using sound poker strategy into seats 4 and 9 which were the largest losers in the previous simulation and run one more simulation using the same deal as before.

The two Smart Dave players stayed in the game. There was, as expected, a huge change in luck for seats 3 and 6 and the most terrible luck for every other player. The two sharks would have had to endure an awful lot of frustration caused by the idiots that constantly outdrew them.

In each of the simulations run so far, all of the players received exactly the same cards as before. As players with some level of skill joined the action, the results changed. Surely if poker was strictly, a game determined by the luck of the cards the simulation results would never have changed.

The skilled players using solid poker strategy bet, called, raised, re-raised, delay raised, checked, check raised or folded based on mathematical probabilities when it was their turn to act and by doing so affected the only result that matters in a poker game that is increasing stack size. Because the players were computer driven, they were not able to use any of the many human elements present in a game of poker. In real life, a player that always makes the mathematically correct decision can be a winning player. An excellent poker player uses a poker strategy that combines both mathematical and human skills such as reading other players hands, changing gears, deception, psychology, maximizing earnings, reading player tells, self-discipline etc.

Is poker a game of skill or luck? Dopey Dave will tell you clearly that poker is nothing but luck and he will be right. World champions will tell you it is a game of skill and they will be right. For most players it is a combination of both. The higher developed a player’s skills are the less reliance that player has on the luck of the cards. To understand this you would need to learn what it was the Sharks actually did to affect the game in such a huge way.

What is amazing, although not surprising, is the 3.8 win percentage for both sharks which is about half of what they would expect playing at their normal level. This of course is to the large number of "bad beats" they had to suffer by the donks. Conversely, all of the idiots seemed to have experienced an increase in luck.

If you have been paying attention throughout these pages you must have realize that this simply is not the case. All the cards dealt in each simulation was identical therefore the built in card luck factor could not have changed one iota. I am going to repeat myself. For the skilled player that consistently makes money luck has nothing to do with his result. The expected winning and losing streaks or variances are the result of cards falling in an unusually favourable or unfavorable way for a short period of timed and if you wish to refer these periods as lucky or unlucky streaks then so be it. Both winning and losing streaks are an inherent part of the game.

If we looked at how a highly skilled, say .300+ batter, in baseball got there at the end of the season we would find a number of slumps and hot streaks in his stats.

In a little while, I will discuss what poker skills and poker strategy it was that shark used to achieve such results. Maybe you can learn a thing or two about your game.

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Tex Canuck

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