Poker is a game of skill, and every decision you make is approximately maximizing your Expected Value or EV for short. The word “EV” will undoubtedly be used throughout this article and will be seen in two ways. A player can have +EV, that is positive Expected Value or – EV, which is negative Expected Value. Poker is not gambling and the following explains why.
Most gambling games have a negative EV for you, and a positive EV (5.49% in cases like this) for the casino. In the short run you can win, but in the long run, in the event that you played typical gambling games 1000 times, the casino would always end up winning by about 5.49%. As you can see these kind of gambling games come in favor of the home. Poker pits you against other players and not the house. In a complete ring game (9 players) or shorthanded game (6 players), the goal is to make the best EV decisions against the a great many other players playing worse (making -EV decisions) than you.
A simple example would be if you were dealt KK before the flop came (preflop), which everyone knows is an excellent hand preflop. This hand has a high chance to win against all the hands preflop. In the event that you played and raised “all in” with this particular hand against a new player who played and called every all in, you’ll have a huge advantage as you’ll be a favorite every time, making it a +EV decision. That is an exaggerated example and playing one hand would not be the smartest idea. What you would do is play say the most notable 20% of hands because against a person who plays maybe 70% of their hands, you again, will be making a +EV decision every time you play with him. It’s likely that your starting hands will have a lot higher probability to win. This is just scraping the surface, and there is an EV mounted on every decision and every situation. Many internet poker sites provide starting hand charts for beginners to use, which would function as simplest way to improve your EV.
In addition, there’s always variance and for a while weaker players might get lucky, but that’s also what attracts them another and keep playing. In the long term, a good player who makes +EV decisions will always find yourself a winner. For this reason poker is not gambling but a casino game of skill and understanding how to exploit your opponent’s mistakes.
Could it be safe to play internet 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 are even listed on the currency markets. They enable you to play poker online free of charge or real cash. Any negative publicity would affect their business so these sites often provide the best customer service. Maintaining your password secure can be your responsibility and if you do that, your money will be safe. Online poker sites have no incentive to cheat when dealing hands since they want to be extremely fair so you continue steadily to play, which allows them to earn their income by means of “rake.” This is usually a very small percent of the pot (usually less than 1%). In poker, you are playing against the other players, and not the house.
Obviously if the poker site seems shady, you have never heard of it, they don’t really advertise on TV or the net and there aren’t members playing frequently – you wouldn’t be depositing your cash there!!! With that said, a lot of the major poker sites have become safe and reputable.
What are the best internet poker rooms?
You can find three major sites for playing online poker. poker88 , Pokerstars and Party Poker have lots of traffic, play money tables, plenty of freeroll tournaments and have very good customer support. If you are 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 form of id verification to activate your account. Some individuals may such as this extra security, and may certainly go that route. Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars usually 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 website. Some sites provide you with a really small portion (around 10%) of your 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 give you the full $600. This is to ensure depositing players are also active. With online poker sites such as for example Full Tilt Poker these points are achieved rapidly.
Websites on the internet will publish poker bonus codes which must 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, this means 2 to 4 dollar blinds and have a good percent of wins, they can make up to 5K per month. This is of course in the event that you treat playing like a job and dedicate several hours each day to playing. Ultimately job freedom and the lure of easy money that’s just a click away, is what draws a lot of people to online poker.