Poker is a game of skill, and every decision you make is approximately maximizing your Expected Value or EV for short. The term “EV” will be used throughout this article and you will be seen in two ways. A new player can have +EV, that is positive Expected Value or – EV, that is negative Expected Value. Poker is not gambling and the next explains why.
Most gambling games have a poor EV for you, and a confident EV (5.49% in this case) for the casino. In the short run you can win, but in the long term, in the event that you played typical gambling games 1000 times, the casino would always find yourself winning by about 5.49%. As you can see these kind of gambling games come in favor of the house. Poker pits you against other players rather than the house. In a full ring game (9 players) or shorthanded game (6 players), the goal is to make the best EV decisions against the many other players playing worse (making -EV decisions) than you.
A simple example would be in the event that you were dealt KK before the flop came (preflop), which everyone understands is an excellent hand preflop. This hand includes a high chance to win against all other hands preflop. If you played and raised “all in” with this hand against a new player who played and called every all in, you would have a huge advantage as you’ll be a favorite every time, making it a +EV decision. This is an exaggerated example and playing one hand would not be the smartest idea. What you would do is play say the top 20% of hands because against somebody who plays maybe 70% of their hands, you again, will be making a +EV decision every time you play with him. It’s likely your starting hands will have a lot higher probability to win. This is just scraping the top, and there’s an EV mounted on every decision and every situation. poker88 provide starting hand charts for beginners to use, which would function as simplest way to enhance your EV.
In addition, there is always variance and in the short term weaker players could easily get lucky, but that’s also what attracts them another and keep playing. In the long term, a good player who always makes +EV decisions will always find yourself a winner. This is why poker is not gambling but a casino game of skill and finding out how to exploit your opponent’s mistakes.
Is it safe to play online poker?
Absolutely, some sites have over 50,000 people playing at one time. Major sites like Full Tilt Poker run advertisements on it and the web and so are even listed on the stock market. They enable you to play poker online free of charge or real money. Any negative publicity would affect their business so these sites often supply the best customer service. Maintaining your password secure can be your responsibility and if you do this, your money will undoubtedly be safe. Online poker sites have no incentive to cheat when dealing hands given that they want to be extremely fair so you continue steadily to play, that allows them to earn their income in the form of “rake.” This is a very small percent of the pot (usually significantly less than 1%). In poker, you’re playing contrary to the other players, and not the home.
Obviously if the poker site seems shady, you haven’t heard of it, they don’t advertise on TV or the net and there aren’t members playing on a regular basis – you wouldn’t be depositing your money there!!! With that said, most of the major poker sites have become safe and reputable.
What are the best online poker rooms?
You can find three major sites for playing online poker. Full Tilt Poker, Pokerstars and Party Poker have lots of traffic, play money tables, a lot of freeroll tournaments and have very good customer support. If you’re a beginner you need to play at Full Tilt Poker or Pokerstars when you start. Other sites like Party Poker call you up once you sign up and require some type of id verification to activate your account. Some people may such as this extra security, and will certainly go that route. Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars do not require this. Overall, all three sites are incredibly safe and popular.
Many sites state “Deposit and get another $600!” Do they really double your deposit amount after depositing?
That depends on the site. Some sites give you a really small portion (around 10%) of one’s deposit instantly, but that’s rare. What typically happens is you deposit $600, and then after you accumulate a certain amount of player points, they will provide you with the full $600. This is to ensure depositing players are also active. With online poker sites such as Full Tilt Poker these points are achieved very quickly.
Online sites will publish poker bonus codes which should be entered upon account creation. From then on, the amount you earn depends upon the time you may spend playing and the stakes you play at. When a player reaches 400NL limit, which means 2 to 4 dollar blinds and have an excellent percent of wins, they can make up to 5K a month. This is of course in the event that you treat playing such as a job and dedicate a long time every day to playing. Ultimately job freedom and the lure of easy money that’s just a click away, is what draws so many people to online poker.