In this section we aim to look into the statistical side of poker. Hopefully we can present you with some useful and interesting maths, whilst keeping the explanations readable and relatively simple. We've tried to present the information in easy to read tables, with the explanations afterward, easy to skip if you don't want to get into it too deeply. There's something for everyone, from beginner to pro, so jump in!
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The first thing most beginner players need to understand is that statistical mathematics play a huge role in poker. You wouldn't play the stock market with no idea about the companies involved, so why would you play hands with no idea of the maths behind them?
Maths can also help you to come to terms with bad beats - remember those two red aces you pushed all in pre-flop with on the bubble of that big tournament, when you got called by two black sevens, and bubbled as he hit his seven? - Well using our favourite odds calculator PokerStove, we see that you had 79.823% equity, winning 79.69% tieing 00.13% and losing 20.05%.
In real terms this means that if you have that exact situation 5 times, statistically you should win 4, and lose 1! So really, if you win all 5, you've been lucky, as you should be losing at least one.
Hands often aren't as big a favourite as you think, take AK suited all in pre flop against J10 off-suit. This time your equity is only 65.049%, meaning that you lose at least one in three!
There's no point bemoaning your bad luck over these bad beats, the mathematics show that you have to lose these kind of hands quite often, and understanding these odds will make the losses much easier to take.
Have a look at our Mathematics contents page, where a mine of useful Poker Maths is waiting for you, and if you're new to percentages in poker, be sure to play around with some hands in Pokerstove or similar odds calculator.
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