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Poker Tournaments for You This Week
There is never a dull moment in a poker player’s life. Obviously, the main reason for that is the constant existence of poker tournaments and poker events that one can participate in. These events are not just for making money, but also to have some fun and get better at the game in the process. Several live poker tourneys are lined up for this week and the coming weeks. Here is a note on some of the tournaments you can … Read the rest
2012 PokerStars Macau Poker Championships Announced
PokerStars is one online poker room that never takes a break from hosting tournaments. The poker room recently released details about its upcoming event, the PokerStars Macau Live Tournaments. The Macau tournaments hosted by PokerStars is one of the biggest and richest poker events held in Asia. It includes 4 major poker series – Macau Poker Cup (MPC) Red Dragon, Asia Championship of Poker, Macau Poker Cup Championship or MPCC and the yearly Asia Pacific Poker Tour event at Macau. … Read the rest
The $30,000 Winner Wednesday Dozen Unveiled
Winner Poker has partnered with pokernews.com to bring a new promotion to its new members. The online poker room announced its new promotion called Winner’s Wednesday Dozen Freerolls, which literally lets you win free money. The new promotion is open to all the new players who register with Winner Poker and make a deposit. The promo will run for three months, and all you need to do is play poker and earn as many Winner Points as you can. Here … Read the rest
Math vs. Instinct
Monday, July 7th, 2008 by Phil
I had a conversation recently with a poker playing buddy of mine. He’s not what you would call a math guy. He goes by instinct and “gut feeling” and never even thinks about the math aspect of poker.
I’ve tried to explain the virtues of knowing the math when playing poker and he just doesn’t get it. More precisely he thinks the math part is over rated.
He’s a successful player and he’s gotten very far relying on gut instinct to get by. He relies on the feel of the game and his gut feeling on what he thinks the other players have. He understands that math plays an important role in the game but he thinks that reading your opponents is more important than determining if the odds are right to make calls etc.
In a way I agree with him. I think that human instinct is a powerful weapon and tool in a poker game. Me being a more logical type of player tends to overlook the instinctual aspect of the game at times. My friend on the other hand often disregards the proper odds and calls with draws that mathematically doesn’t make sense. He just feels it.
I attempt to explain to him about the one long poker game theory and that if he continues to make bad calls when it’s not mathematically correct, he’ll eventually lose more than he wins. I break it down to him by the numbers but he still refuses to budge and he’ll always rely on his instinct to guide him.
I tell him that the math aspect of the game is concrete, it’s something that you can chew on and rely on in the long run. Instinct is supernatural, it’s something that can’t be qauntified and thus hard to defend or advocate.
He tells me that it’s gotten him this far and he’ll continue to rely on his instinct moving forward.
In the end, I just decide to drop it and tell him that whatever he’s doing it’s working and that If I were him, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Even if the odds are against him.
