Holdem Guide Part 3
The Pyramid System For Gamblers - Part 3
Continued from Part 2
Some Arithmetic
Even though Level 2 players feel that entertainment is their primary goal in a casino, they have monetary goals too—winning more and/or losing less in the Texas Holdem table so their entertainment can last longer. But before I can teach you to be a clear-thinking gambler, you have to know at least a little about odds in a poker play, I reccomend our Holdem Guides for that matter. Having been a high-school English teacher for more years than I care to disclose, I could always handle words better than numbers. Math was never one of my strong suits (in difference from Texas Holdem Poker). It may not be yours either. But you have to understand some of the basics. The most important thing to understand is the difference between a negative-expectation and a positive-expectation in a poker game. I’ll be using these two terms throughout the book, so let’s talk about them right off the bat.
First, the math, If you put a hundred dollars into a slot machine, and the machine is programmed, over the long run, to give you your hundred dollars back, you are playing an even game, it works the same way in Texas Holdem Poker. It has neither negative nor positive expectation.
If, however, for every $100 you put into the machine, you get back only $97, then the casino has a 3% advantage. This is known as a negative-expectation game (for the players of course). On the other hand, if you play a
machine that, for every $100 played, gives back $101
over the long haul, then you have an edge of 1%.
This is called a positive-expectation game. In these machines no Holdem Tricks will work.
Most of the games in a casino are negative-expectation games. This means that no matter what you do, whatever strategy you employ, whatever money- management system you use, in the long run you will lose when you play them, and Texas Holdem is no different. I’m not trying to discourage you from playingpoker. I’m simply making you aware of the incontrovertible mathematical realities of gambling when it comes to the majority of games on the casino floor. When you gamble at negative-expectation games, you are the underdog.
However, there are a few machines or games where you can get into positive-expectation territory. These games are structured in such a way that playing skilfully can reverse the situation and make you the favorite when you play them. You can lose on any one day, week, month, or even year, but if you play a positive-expectation game long enough, eventually you’ll come out ahead, one of this games is Texas Holdem Poker.
Keep in mind that these positive and negative percentages hold true over the long run. The results are often different in the short term (which explains why losing gamblers sometimes win). In any session you can play a negative-expectation game and win, or play a positive-expectation game and lose, you can play poker for two hours and loose, and in the next game of Texas Holdem you will win. If you play long enough, however, the math will bear out, albeit slowly, to the expected result: positive or negative.
Why is knowing about odds and poker expectation so important? Because the casino edge represents the “cost” for your casino entertainment. You have to know the various costs in order to choose which risks you're about to take, and you can learn all these things in the Holdem Guide.
This is the wisdom that lies behind the great Gamblers' Pyramid, and all is said especially for Texas Holdem Poker.
