HomeStrategyTexas Hold'em Poker

• In basketball blowing out a team is great, but in a poker hand it's often better to win an in depth one.

• Understand relative hand strength and the way cards that improve your hand aren't always good for you.

Comparisons of poker to sports are very common. The hot efforts of the brand new Global Poker League with its city-based teams and frequent mentioning of “sportifying” the sport have kept that discussion alive.

Even so, there are lots of characteristics of poker that make it different from most sports. The dearth of an athletic component is among the most evident. There’s another difference, however, person who was well illustrated, in fact, during one of the crucial GPL heads-up matches this week.

Winning By just a little = Winning Big

In most sports, individuals or teams strive to attain up to possible, desirous to build big, comfortable leads over their opponents in an effort to increase the risk of victory. But in a hand of poker, it is usually preferable to not make hands which are overwhelmingly better than those your opponents hold, but rather just slightly ahead to be able to improve your possibilities of getting more value from those hands by winning bigger pots.

In other words — speaking mainly of hands that visit showdown — it is usually better in poker to win by a little, with the intention to speak, because your opponent is more apt to repay more with strong second-best hands than with hands which might be obviously crushed.

We can’t control what cards are dealt, of course, and so we can’t really force the problem on the subject of managing our hand strength. But recognizing this fact about poker — that the worth of our hand is directly suffering from the price of what our opponent’s have — may help us recognize what cards are good for us, what don't seem to be so good, and the way to play our hands going forward.

A Good-Bad Flop for Kurganov

The GPL hand that mentioned this difference between a poker hand and, say, a game of basketball, came through the first heads-up contest between George Danzer (representing the Paris Aviators) and Igor Kurganov (of the London Royals). It was the primary hand of the match — and, because it turned out, the one hand of the match, because it ended with Danzer managing to say all of Kurganov’s stack.

The players had stacks of 50,000 initially the blinds 200/400 with a 40 ante. Danzer was dealt at the button and raised to 1,000. Kurganov meanwhile had picked up and so three-bet to 3,600.

Both players were on webcams, talking to the viewers but to not one another. That meant lets see Danzer grin and exclaim “first hand!” as he saw Kurganov’s three-bet. Shall we also see Kurganov smiling as well, saying into the camera “So obvious that I’m three-betting the primary hand, right George?” and hoping Danzer would doubt his three-bet meant a genuinely strong holding.

“This is an outstanding hand to name a three-bet with,” Danzer concluded after a moment’s thought, and called the reraise. Both watched the flop come .

Igor Kurganov

While Danzer had little reaction to that flop, lets see Kurganov looked a bit disheartened, even making an “oof” noise and grimacing a bit of. But he had made top set of aces! He’d improved his hand up to he possibly could with that flop, in truth. Why the disappointment?

Commentator Griffin Benger provided an explanation.

“Almost disappointed, Igor, that he flopped that well,” said Benger. “Hard to get action in this texture.”

With pocket aces, Kurganov didn’t mind the rainbow flop (three different suits) and comparatively dry board. But he would much rather have seen a raggedy flop with out a ace. With the sort of strong pocket pair within the hole, he didn’t want to improve his hand at the flop as a way to have what would likely be the strongest hand. Thinking also in regards to the range of hands with which Danzer would call the preflop three-bet, the ace (and the king, for that matter) appeared prone to snuff out any action Kurganov might get going forward.

If this were an NBA playoff game, Kurganov had taken an early lead when he was dealt the pocket aces. Now suddenly he was up by 20 late within the third quarter, with those “Win Probability” calculators you usually see utilized in sports now rating him a heavy favorite to stay within the result in the end.

According to the PokerNews Poker Odds Calculator, Kurganov set of aces made him better than 86% prone to finish with the most efficient hand against Danzer’s then-unimproved jack-ten. Even without knowing Danzer’s hand, Kurganov knew he was similarly way sooner than absolutely anything his opponent can have. Too far ahead, even.

A Delightful Turn of Events for Danzer

Kurganov bet small — 1,890 into the 7,280 pot — and with a shrug Danzer called, saying “I’ve got a gutshot, right?”

The immediate pot odds (calling 1,890 to win 9,170, or about 4.85-to-1) made it okay for Danzer to name and chase his four outs (four queens) for a Broadway straight. And the implied pot odds further justified the decision, for the reason that if a queen did come, Danzer would have an excellent chance to win much more than what was already within the middle.

George Danzer

Also making the decision simpler to make was the truth that if Danzer did improve to straight, there’d be zero doubt he’d have the most productive current hand. Whereas Kurganov didn’t necessarily wish to improve at the flop, Danzer absolutely knew he needed to improve at the turn or he’d have a very easy fold to Kurganov’s next bet.

Alas for Kurganov, the did fall at the turn, and after Kurganov bet 6,800, Danzer raised to 16,730.

Now Danzer was within the position we were describing above with reference to Kurganov — holding an excessively strong hand (the strongest possible) and hopeful his opponent had something nearly as strong. In fact, Danzer was greater than just hopeful — he had a good suggestion from Kurganov’s action he will have hands like ace-king or ace-queen for 2 pair, or a premium pocket pair for a set.

His hand too good to fold, Kurganov called. It was a “close” game, with the intention to speak, with only one card to come, greatly favoring the team within the lead.

The river was a blank — the — and Kurganov ultimately check-called Danzer’s river shove of 28,740 to lose the match. Again, it was a great situation for Danzer, with both players having strong hands and him being just slightly sooner than his opponent. (YOU'LL BE ABLE TO watch the hand at the GPL site by clicking here.)

Conclusion

Poker tournaments are like other sports in a way, in that during a tournament it's obviously good to construct a large lead over your opponents and increase your chance of winning.

But in one hand, having a “big lead” in relation to relative hand strength isn’t usually going to earn you much action. And while every victory by an NBA team is worth the exact same whatever the final score, poker hands are of varying value as determined by the dimensions of the pot.

In hands that visit showdown, you’re prone to win big when your “lead” is small — a difference between poker and sports worth keeping in mind when deciding even if cards that improve your hand are actually good for you.

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