The Brake Pedal or the Gas Pedal?

Recently, a poster on the Internet poker forum www.UnitedPokerForum.com asked which is more important in poker, knowing the math of poker or playing the players well at the table. The fact is that both skills are important to a player's poker decisions, but the level of importance of each depends upon the player, the situation, and the dynamics of the game he is playing in. In other words, as is the case with most poker questions, it depends. It's sort of like asking which is more important to driving a car, the gas pedal or the brake pedal. You need them both, and which you need at any given moment depends on the situation.

In very loose games, knowing the odds the pot is laying you and the chances of your hand winning are of great importance. Few players fold, making bluffing situations less frequent and less valuable. The majority of the time, you have to make and show down the winning hand. A player in this type of game who has good fundamental poker skills is not giving up as much to a top-level pro who has great play knowledge as he would in a tougher game. That is because many of the situations in which play knowledge is applicable don't arise as frequently in a game with these dynamics. Players with little playing experience, bad people-reading skills, and weak play knowledge – but who have read books on fundamental strategy and understand them, and understand poker math – will do much better sticking to games with inexperienced loose players in them.

Of course, inexperienced loose players are not always available at the limits you want to play. Sometimes, if you want to play poker, you must contest a better quality of player, and prying the money out of his hands is a much tougher task.

In tougher games, most of your opponents will have an understanding of basic poker odds and hand selection, and fundamental skills become much more equal. Players will read hands, more particularly, your hand. They will have an abundance of plays in their poker arsenals and will make moves on the pot, more particularly, the pot you are in. You must learn to read these situations and design and execute counterstrategies that are appropriate. And when your opponent gets a line on your counterstrategies, you need to design new ones to counter those of your opponent. It is a tough assignment to perfect, and math skills and book learning are of significantly lesser value than people skills, analysis, and seat-of-the-pants feel, which come only from experience. You must concentrate on the game … learn many plays, and the correct times to utilize them … learn to read your opponents accurately … and have the heart and grit to pull the trigger at the right moment.

That said, both mathematical skills and reading skills factor into all poker decisions. If you are thinking about calling on the come, both the size of the pot and the playing styles of your opponents are factors. Will you get called if you make your hand? Will players behind you raise? Is your hand likely to be good if you make it? And so on. If you are thinking about making a play on a pot, math is a big factor in the equation. The likelihood of success for any given play is relevant to the size of the pot, the reward you will receive.

Let's say you open the pot by raising the two tight blinds (you know your opponents) with the A 9. The small blind, a tight pro who almost always three-bets out of the small blind if playing (you know your opponent), three-bets you and you take the flop heads up. The flop comes Q-J-10 with two clubs. Your opponent bets and you call. The turn card is an offsuit 5 and your opponent bets. Should you raise in an attempt to make your opponent fold?

Well, what is the range of hands he may have in this situation (reading your opponent)? How many of them would he fold (reading your opponent)? To figure this out, you must have a good idea of the hands he would play in this manner, and then be able to do the math to figure out the odds that he possesses a hand that he might fold. This is done by calculating the combinations of the number of hands he is likely to have (using math to read hands), and then comparing them to the combinations of the number he may fold. That way, you have a good idea of the likelihood of the play working (using math to calculate the likelihood of success). Whether the play is worthy or not is based on the comparison of its likelihood of success to the size of the pot (using math to determine price/play value). As you can see, both factors were applied to logically analyze the problem.

As far as which is more important, I would say that playing the players is more important, but the two skills correlate in all poker decisions. How you play the players is dependent upon the math of the situation. The math of the situation is dependent upon the playing styles of your opponents, and your ability to accurately read them. Neither is really much good without the other, and the use of each makes the other more effective.

Someday when you're driving your car, you may need to step on the gas to avoid a situation, and then hit the brakes. You might even have to throw in something else, like a hard cut of the steering wheel for a controlled skid, or a downshift. Learn to use all of the requisite skills together in order to have the greatest potential results. Put all of the information you can into your poker decisions … and smile while you kick ass at the table.

Roy Cooke played winning professional poker for more than 16 years. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas If you would like to ask Roy poker-related questions, you may do so online at www.UnitedPokerForum.com.