Online poker strategy is a hot topic throughout the Internet considering that the explosion of poker’s popularity in the past decade. Considering that the inception of televised poker (most notably by ESPN), online gambling websites have invested millions of dollars’ worth of advertising on television networks for the sole purpose of luring poker aficionados to their sites. While advertising for online gambling is just not legal in many states, these poker sites conveniently sidestep the legality by advertising “for fun” sites where customers can not use their own money, with a near-identical domain name registered for actual monetary commitment nearby. As such, online poker draws countless new customers each day and fortunes are won and lost at Internet card tables.

Like any form of entertainment, quality online gambling poker has experts prepared to sell their secrets to the highest bidders. Professional poker players have published lots of books filled with their advice and bookstores have been quick to follow suit, dedicating valuable shelf space to these online guides. Online poker strategy isn’t terribly distinctive from that of table poker, and a novice player will benefit from the tactics of both online and table poker books.

Much of the strategy behind winning consistently at poker relies upon the mathematics of the game. As a player has no real way to understand what cards his opponent is holding, there is no 100% effective outcome for poker players (hence the term, gambling). In contrast, comprehending the math behind the poker shall permit the player to understand situations where calling or folding, based upon nothing but the odds of the game, is in his or her best interest.

All of the math behind poker relies on the simple fact that there are actually 52 cards in a deck. In a game of Hold ‘Em poker, a player receives two cards, in a game of Omaha four, in a game of Stud, five. Thus, while a player does not know which cards will be in the hands of the opponents, the remaining cards (a particular few of that are needed for a successful, winning hand) will be in plain sight for someone to count. Using these facts, a player can determine the total amount of money in the pot to calculate what is called “pot odds”. Pot odds will either favor the player based upon the rewards weighed against the statistical chance of success, or favor folding his or her hand given the lack of a successful hand being dealt.

One example is say a Hold ‘Em player needs a single diamond to make a flush, which may be the very best hand available to any player within this scenario. While you can find 13 diamonds in the deck, the Hold ‘Em player has two of them and you will discover two on the table (as five are needed for a flush). Thus, there are actually only 9 potential diamonds within the remaining cards. In the event the player has two cards, his opponent has two cards, and you will discover four cards on the table, there are actually 44 cards remaining, a 9/44 chance of hitting a diamond or approximately a one in five chance.

Inside this scenario, the pot is $50, with a $5 call for the player with the flush draw. The potential payout is ten to one as the odds are one to five — thus, the pot odds favor calling the $5 for the payout is double the opportunity of winning the hand. While this particular hand might only be won 20% of the time, if it could be played out 100 times, the player would statistically be very likely to lose around $400 while winning around $1000.