Poker is a complex game, and it’s not just about the cards. It’s also about the player’s psychology and how they play with other players. This article explores some of the psychology behind poker, including why it’s sometimes better to be a bluffing fish than a deadbeat, the advantages of playing with friends, and how the payoff from risk in both life and poker is not always monetary.
Almost anyone can learn to play poker, even if they haven’t been taught the game by an expert. However, becoming a winning poker player takes discipline and a solid plan of attack. Some winning players, but a small percentage, have some sort of genius for the game. Much like Van Cliburn to play the piano or Picasso to paint, this genius is a rare thing.
The recent boom in poker AI has both confirmed some of the common wisdom of Texas hold’em strategy and overturned some maxims that players had gotten wrong. For example, the first multiplayer poker solvers were able to demonstrate a GTO (Game Theory Optimal) strategy, which means they were able to maximize the expected value of their bets in most situations. The resulting algorithms don’t play poker perfectly, but they are far superior to humans in most situations and have some things to teach us about how to win at the game. This article explains how we can use the knowledge from these computer programs to improve our own games.