This website edition (and the ebook edition) is a revision of the orginal work which is still available in paperback.

Contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Part 1
• Part 2. Why play poker?
• Unique features of poker
• Chapter 22. Tournaments
• What is a tournament?
• Very large fields

Chapter 1. Introduction

Unique features of poker

Poker is a game of skill; luck and psychology also play a part, but unlike other casino games that rely entirely on luck, winning poker requires skill. A skillful poker player can change the odds in the game to his favor by using position, psychology, bluffing, and other methods to increase his chances to win the pot and increase the size of the pots he wins. No other casino game allows the player to manipulate the odds in this way - only poker. Poker is a game of money management. It more closely resembles the board game of Monopoly than any other casino game. It is also a game of patience that most closely resembles hunting, and has no analogy in any other casino game with the possible exception of counting cards in blackjack.

Knowledge of the critical features of poker is necessary to form an understanding of the game. Like other games in a casino, poker is a gambling game. Unlike most other games, bets are made among the players, not made between the players and the house. The casino is essentially renting the space to players. They collect rent by either taking a small amount from each pot, by charging each player a small per hour rate, or by variations of the two collection methods.

The result from an individual poker session has a lot to do with luck. The structure of the game, however, is such that a player with an understanding of the game can be a long-term winner, while those who don't really understand the game will be losers at the game. That makes poker an ideal gambling game for those willing to work to improve their understanding of the game. Note that I didn't say you will be a winner. Many players understand the game very well, but engage in enough self-destructive behavior at the table that they almost never win. We'll talk about how to avoid some of those self-destructive tendencies later in the book.

Those without an interest in learning about the game should probably just buy lottery tickets if they want to gamble. The fact that you're reading this book suggests that you're interested in understanding the game which is the first step towards becoming a winning player.

I’m one of those people who enjoys learning about the game almost as much as I do playing it. If you share that thrill of learning I think you’ll enjoy this book very much, even if you think you already know a lot about the game.

It’s possible for a winning poker player to have a large edge over losing players.

Because of their larger edge, winning poker players also experience smaller fluctuations in their results than do blackjack players or players of progressive slots. We will discuss risk in more detail later in the book. There are two characteristics of a game that create risk. One is even-money bets. Statistical variance reaches its maximum on even-money propositions. The other is when the range of possible outcomes is very large. Blackjack is very close to an even-money game, hence has large risk. Progressive jackpot slots have low probability but very high dollar payoffs, hence large risk. Poker is based on neither even-money bets nor low probabilities.