Alright, you’re all shuffled up and the cards have been dealt. You’re a master of reading other people, so you know you’ve got this. Suddenly, you realize that your powers of observational deduction don’t work quite right in online poker… whatever shall you do!?
I’ll tell you what you’re going to do. You’re going to math harder than you’ve ever mathed before!
Odds and Playing the Math in Hold ‘Em
So we all know the poker player who plays with their feelings – “I’ve got a good feeling about that turn,” or “I can feel that he doesn’t have it.” That’s fun for tossing plastic chips around in your cousin’s basement over some beers, but I wouldn’t exactly call that a solid strategy when there’s real stakes.
Like most games, poker is based around complex systems of relatively simple math. What distinguishes poker from other games is the incomplete information factor. This is the main mechanic of the game. You know what you have, but everything else is a variable.
Think you can “feel” what other people’s cards are? Let’s review some facts from our last edition to dispel that illusion:
There are 1326 different possible combinations of hole cards you can be dealt in Hold ‘Em
There are 2,598,960 possible combinations the five cards on the table can be in as they are revealed
There are 9,122,409,676,719,740,029,270,368,190,464,000,000 (9.122 undecillion!) possible combinations for how the entire 23-card board could play out for a game with 9 players.
Still think you can play with your feelings? You’re playing the math whether you like it or not… embrace it!
Poker doesn’t have to be undecillion-level complicated though. With just a little learning and practice, you’ll be automatically weighing the chances of any hand you have with a surprising level of human-quality accuracy. The key is to always remember that there are waaaaay more ways that your hand can go wrong than it can go right.
Miss our last Thinking Poker? Check it out to have your mind blown by the not-quite-so-simple, traditional deck of cards.
Base Hand Odds
So you’re at a table with five other players in the hand. Your decision to fold, call or raise to see a flop. You’ve got A/K of hearts. Pretty confident about that? Let’s see where you’re at from an odds standpoint preflop:
Your A/K suited has the following chances of making a hand by the end of the river, not accounting for any other players:
High Card : 17.8%
One Pair : 44.1%
Two Pair : 22.3%
Three of a Kind : 4.2%
Straight : 2.9%
Flush : 6.2%
Full House : 2.3%
Four of a Kind : 0.1%
Straight Flush : 0.0%
With this hand matched against five totally unknown opponents, your hand has a 31% chance to come out on top. That is better than the 16.66% that would be an even distribution for you and 5 opponents..
A few things to note… That straight flush is at 0 from rounding. Keep in mind that a royal flush is just the highest straight flush. Yes, you have a gutshot royal flush draw – only if the 10 of hearts, the jack of hearts and the queen of hearts all hit the table. That’s a less than 1/1000 chance. The suited feels like it helps your odds a lot, but in the end having those matched suits is less than a 7% bump to your odds to make a decent hand.
In the above hand, you’ll be getting one pair or less in the likeliest circumstance. Think hard about how much that’s worth paying to see a flop.
Let’s look at the above hand again, this time in heads up play. There’s only you and one other player in the game and it’s your call whether to pay to see the flop.
Against a totally random hand in this circumstance, your A/K of hearts has a 66.1% chance to win. That is better than half, but it’s not quite the +11% over even odds that you had against 5 opponents.
You’re also not playing against a “random” hand. A player has filtered their cards to a degree. They’ve bet and called, so they are at least signaling they don’t have junk.
Pot Odds
Above, we were talking about straight odds to win. There is, however, another limited information mechanic in poker – the price. Throughout the game, you are put to a decision to add to the pot to stay in the hand repeatedly. This can be looked at as a price to stay in the game. Pot odds are what we call it when we weight this price versus hand equity or expected value.
Say you have a pair of 7s before the flop. There’s two other players in and there’s 800 chips in the pot. The decision is on you, and you can call for 200 chips to see the river. That means you’d be putting 20% of the value into the pot that you could prospectively win. There’s a table pair, and no possible draws on the board. There are two larger cards than your pair on the table.
Against two random hands, you have a 39.1% chance of taking down this pot after the river. You cannot, however, win if you don’t make it to the river or make everyone else fold.
You know from your cards and odds against a random hand that you are likely to have the best chances of anyone else, unless someone hit that low set on the flop. You’re paying 20% of the potential hand winnings to get into the river, and you’re roughly sitting at a player equity of 6:4, or 40%.
This means that you’re paying less than the perceived value of your hand to see the river. With your mathematical likelihood to win, you could conceivably call bets worth around 500 chips and still be on the right side of the numbers. Keep in mind, the pot gets bigger as you add more, thus diluting the pot odds argument and “pricing you in”, so to speak.
This is a good time to mention that “pricing you in” is an illusion. Remember the pot odds. Let’s say you’ve already paid 1000 chips to stay in a hand and there’s 5000 chips in the pot. The river has come, and you know that you have less than a 5% chance to win against random hands. Someone makes a small value bet of 400 chips (to puff up their pot probably!). If you have a 5% chance to win, paying 400 chips to see it through is a bad choice with only 5000 chips in the pot. You’d need ~8% chance to win to square those pot odds.
Already putting money into the pot does not mean you are priced in. Beware sunk cost… it’s the biggest weapon that the person with the winning hand has at their disposal to make you keep pushing over your chips!
Implied Odds
Let’s take this a step further. We know that pot odds are when you take the size of the pot into account versus the price of continuing in the game. Let’s move into something more abstract – implied odds.
Implied odds don’t only look at the pot and your chances versus a random hand. They are looking at the potential throughout the rest of the hand. Let’s look at another example.
You’ve got 10/J suited versus 5 opponents before the flop. You’re at about 24% chance to win… better than even 20% (1 of 5) odds! But wait! Someone’s going hard pre-flop… made hand? They throw down 900 chips into 100 chips of blinds. 3 callers, your decision. You’re now being asked to pay 900 into a 3700 chip pot to see the flop. This is less relative price than your chance to win to see three more cards, so you jump in and call. But… the player on the button raises to triple! Only one caller. It now comes back to you at with another 1800 into a 9100 chip pot. You’ve got the odds on your side in isolation… but this is starting to feel like sunk cost.
…or is it?
Let’s freeze in that moment. Someone made a ridiculously high bet off of just blinds… usually meaning that they have (or are representing they have) a medium pocket pair. They know they likely have the best hand preflop, but after more cards come out they probably won’t. That first player was probably trying to just buy the blinds, plus maybe some sucker that jumped in with trash.
The second player, however, made a value bet. While their raise was high compared to previous bets, they knew that at least one or two players would feel obligated to call after already putting so much money in. This player is intentionally growing the pot bigger instead of trying to elicit folding. This usually means they think they have the winning hand, or it is very likely that they will be the time the river is flipped.
They are trying to price other players in with pot odds… make it so they simply can’t fold over such a small amount of chips relative to the size of the pot. If you call, you’ve paid 2700 chips to access around a ~10k chip pot. While it’s likely that this is worth it to see a flop with your upside chance of almost quadrupling your chips in the middle of the table, tread lightly. If your opponent understands pot odds, they may be keeping you on the hook and just building up their pot without scaring you away.
It’s important to keep in mind here that there are three cards on the flop. With a hand like 10/J suited, you’re likely to know whether you have a real hand or not after the flop. With the turn and river only being one card, be very cautious about following value bets to those cards. If you haven’t gotten a hand worth playing in the first five cards, it’s unlikely you’re going to make one with those last two. A good player who knows they have you beat will just bleed you the rest of the hand to grow their pot.
Simple Gameplay. Complex Nuance
Poker overall is a very simple game in concept, but the combination of playing card randomness and incomplete information makes it so a lifetime of playing poker would still not be enough for anyone to totally understand the nuance and intricacies of the game.
In this article we’ve only scratched the surface of quick odds calculation in poker. Even knowing these few things though, you can estimate what’s worth it to you much better than just playing blind. Poker is about incomplete information… the more information you know about the game and theory, the less disadvantage you take from not knowing what’s in other players’ heads.
That’s all for us in this week’s Thinking Poker. We’ll be back in a few weeks to talk more about the fundamentals of all things poker!
Practice makes perfect… hit the tables today! Play Now
Rakim’s epic entrance into web3 and exclusive alliance with Gala Music continues.
We just dropped the second NFT track from Rakim’s eagerly anticipated upcoming studio record, “G.O.D.S. NETWORK REB7RTH,” which will officially release on Friday, July 26th.
Leading up to the album drop, we’ve got a series of limited-time exclusive “REB7RTH” NFT tracks.
On July 5th, we dropped “Pendulum Swing,” Rakim’s first-ever fully orchestrated posse cut, featuring a stellar lineup including Kxng Crooked (Slaughterhouse), LA the Darkman (Wu-Tang), Caninus (Refugee Camp), and Chino XL.
You’ll now find the second limited-time exclusive track from the new record in the Gala Music store. Limited to only 100 copies, “GOD’S PLAYGROUND” is a reward enabled NFT that can generate $MUSIC on a daily basis for owners based on the platform success of the track. Any true hip-hop fan would be wise to collect this NFT set from Gala Music.
Another piece of “thought provoking excellence” as demonstrated by a beautifully orchestrated roller coaster of emotions. Rakim undertakes vocal duties, scratches and production duties on “GODS PLAYGROUND” to show the listener the full range of his versatility. Paired alongside Underground Legends, .38 Spesh, Fred the Godson (RIP) and Skyzoo, the collective focuses their message on the importance of not getting caught up in the rat race of life and maintaining your composure throughout all of life’s obstacles in order to truly succeed in any and all walks of life.
The game has begun, legends! Have you taken your seat at the table?
Legends Reborn is not a complicated game to jump into… you can grab one of the pre-made decks and be having a blast at the tables right away after starting up the game for the first time.
That having been said, there’s a lot of nuance to deck building for those who like to dig in deeper and grow their strategic chops. No one controls the hand you’re dealt… but you can control what goes into your deck.
Calling All First-Time Deck Crafters!
We recognize this may be a review for some of the legends out there. Don’t worry, higher level classes are on the way!
This will not do! We want to take a quick opportunity to walk folks through the basics before we dive deeper into strategy.
If you haven’t played Legends Reborn much yet, but are ready to dive into deck building tactics, read on to learn how to craft your first decks!
Choosing Your Deck
From the main menu, you can select “Deck Editor” to hop right into refining your deck. You’ll notice that there are some preset selections in place. These are great starting points, and you should totally play around with these to get a feel for the style you like to play.
Once you’re ready to start your own destiny… choose to create a new deck and start lining up your strategy!
If you don’t have any cards, no need to worry! There are always time-limited cards available, and you can grab a free daily pack every day to pad your reserves!
Grab these free packs each day from the “Shop” on the main menu.
Deck Building Basics
Every deck starts with a Hero. This is you… the player of the card game. Not only are you choosing whose skin you’re playing behind, but you’re choosing an overarching theme for your deck.
Each Hero Card comes with five cards. These are special Hero-specific actions that you can take at critical moments throughout the match. They’ll often be game-changing if played right, so choose a Hero based on what you think will combo well with the deck you’re hoping to build.
After you select a Hero, it’s on to Creatures. In every deck you get six Creatures. Their stats will determine how your deck plays, so pay attention to which roles work out better for you so you can adapt in the future.
After Creatures, you’ll choose six Action Cards for each Creature in your deck. These Action Cards will be selected from a pool based on that creature’s combat role. These Action Cards are what you will draw from each time your Creatures attack.
You want to choose Action Cards that synergize with each other, but also ones that complement several of your Creatures if possible. Remember, you never know what order you’ll draw cards in. You want as many opportunities to win as possible!
Refining and Improving
Once you’ve selected all your cards, name your brand new deck and you can get to playing! You can click “Summary” from the deck builder menu to get an overview of your deck that you just made.
This summary will show you all your Creatures and you Hero, but crucially will let you quickly reference your Mana Curve. Take note of this. If you ever find yourself with too many high mana cards to play, you may need to switch out for some lower cost cards. Likewise, if you find yourself with just too much mana and no cards, then you probably need to get some higher cost Actions in there.
Don’t be worried if you don’t have too many choices the first time. Time limited free cards swap out frequently, so you can experiment with a lot of different cards over time. As you play, you’ll unlock more cards and also be able to pick up that free pack every day. Before you know it, you’ll not only have a lot of cards to choose from, but know how to use them all!
As we said above, we’ll be back later with some more advanced strategy – but get in and give building a deck a try today!
If you’ve had experience with TCG deck building before, you know how engaging and fun the strategic customization can be. If you haven’t… well, you’re missing out! Luckily for you, Legends Reborn is free to hop into right now!
Gala Film is thrilled to announce an exciting upcoming feature called “Film Boosts,” launching alongside the creation of the $FILM token on GalaChain. This innovative addition to our platform will empower fans to play a crucial role in advancing and promoting their favorite films, creating a deeper connection between artists and their supporters.
What are Film Boosts?
Film Boosts offer an unprecedented way for fans to support and promote their cherished films using the $FILM token. By holding $FILM against a specific film title, fans can elevate the film’s level within the Gala Film ecosystem. This elevation enhances the “watching weight multiplier” of the film’s moments and unlocks exciting “level ups.”
Benefits for Artists and Fans
The Film Boosts system offers dual benefits:
For Artists: As films climb through various levels, they unlock significant opportunities and perks. For instance, reaching level 10 could grant a feature on the platform’s homepage, while level 20 might initiate an expanded marketing campaign. Film producers, actors and cast members can reward their most dedicated fans with exclusive benefits such as discounts on products, access to limited edition merchandise or even opportunities for personal meet-and-greets.
For Fans: This system incentivizes deeper engagement, allowing fans to receive unique perks and a closer connection with the artists they support. Locking tokens against a film provides on-chain proof of dedication, enabling artists to independently recognize and reward their most loyal supporters without centralized control.
Boosting, Not Staking
Unlike traditional staking mechanisms that yield financial returns, Film Boosts focus on enhancing fan experience and engagement for the benefit of the entire ecosystem. This decentralized approach empowers artists to directly interact with and appreciate their fans, fostering a vibrant and supportive community within the Gala Film ecosystem.
With the introduction of Film Boosts, Gala Film continues to innovate, creating a dynamic and interactive platform for filmmakers and fans alike. Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to the launch of this exciting feature and the $FILM token on GalaChain.
Welcome back Pilots! We’re here with another Spider Tanks Showcase. This time, we’re getting sneaky. Stealth abilities are on display!
Too often stealth is an overlooked strategy in the arena. Let’s face it, the arena is a brute force kind of place… but
Stealth Abilities and Strategy Overview
As we discussed in our Movement Abilities showcase, positioning is one of the most important things in any Spider Tanks match. In that regard, stealth Abilities serve much the same purpose – Get better positioning without the opponent ruining your day.
Stealth Abilities, however, can serve a little more niche function than movement Abilities. At the end of the day, movement will just take you closer or further from your target. Stealth Abilities, however, throw in much more confusion. Stealth Abilities not only get you better positioning, but disrupt the opposing team’s coordination and their positioning.
Stealth is a little more nuanced than movement Abilities though. When you’re using a Relay Drone, you don’t really care what your opponents think or perceive… either way, you’re going to teleport. When you’re using stealth, however, you need to take into account what your actions look like from your opponents’ perspective. Deceit is part of the strategy, and if you pull it off it’ll have devastating effects on the opposing team.
A nice, slow moving body makes it incredibly hard to see your outline while cloaked. These two poor Tanks never saw it coming…
Silent Killer
Offensively, stealth Abilities can easily strike fear into opponents. The arena is already chaos, add in not knowing which direction death is coming from and it can be impossible for your opponents to feel safe.
Crucially, that’s part of the plan. In the early moments of a match, your enemies may not know that you’re packing Cloak Drone or a Smoke Canister. Once you’ve lost the element of surprise though, you still have the element of fear on your side. Your opponents will have to be wary of your stealth Abilities all the way through the match. Forcing them to think three dimensionally like this could force them to make a mistake at a critical moment.
This Shotgun gets to walk right up on these two wounded stragglers. It may not have fooled them for long, but I guess we’ll never know.
To capitalize both on surprise and fear, your first strike with deception needs to really count. Not only should you secure a kill or a serious positioning hiccup for the opposing team, you should make your target lose their confidence. If they spend one minute sweating being humiliated in front of their team, you may have already won. Get them out of their comfort zone and it’ll pay off for the rest of the match.
Fade Away
Stealth Abilities are a quick and effective offense if you know how to use them, but they can also be beneficial defensively. If you’re on the run a quick Decoy Drone may not fool the enemy for long, but it can easily make them lose a split second to decide which is which. If an enemy has you in their sights, a smoke canister is just as effective at helping you dodge bullets as it is at hiding you while shooting them.
This Carver doesn’t buy much time with their decoy, but it’s more than enough wasted flamer fuel for the Flea that it has no chance against the larger Tracks.
Even Disguise Drone or Cloak Drone can give you some time to get to safety. If you’re going through a large pack of enemies and you pop a Disguise Drone, you’ll be difficult to follow even for someone that was watching you disguise. A quick cloak when you have a minute where you know you won’t be shot may let you disappear in plain sight. True, they can still see a vague silhouette of your outline… but that’s much harder to follow than a big, showy, multiple ton hunk of metal!
It’s all about positioning and timing, and stealth Abilities let you use distraction and deception to get that few extra seconds here and there to unleash havoc. Defensively or offensively, they can be deadly in the hands of a master.
To dodge bullets, you need to be able to see where they’re coming from just as much as you need to see your quarry to shoot it. Your brain is capable of calculating those ballistics, but only with a point of origin… if the shot is coming from some ambiguous place inside the smoke, however, dancing around it is a lot harder.
Sneak and Destroy!
That’ll be all for today’s showcase, but there’s tons more to cover in the Spider Tanks arena!
Next time, we’ll be back with a Hero Tank showcase – The T-Rex! Have mad skills with this ancient predator? Let us know on Discord or social media for a chance to be featured in the next Spider Tanks Showcase!
