Views on Texas Hold'em Poker

Samiksha

1. Views on Texas Hold'em
Here I want to share some of my personal views and the changes Texas Hold'em has brought to me. Originally, I planned to discuss this at the end, but I'm afraid most people won't read until the end. Compared to the specific technical explanations that follow, this part is what I most want everyone to see. If you haven't played Texas Hold'em, and you're planning to, I highly recommend reading this section. Those not interested can skip to the next chapter.

Recently, ""The Disappearing Her"" has become popular, and there's a lot of criticism online about gamblers. However, when it comes to Texas Hold'em and gamblers, most people might have some intuitive images but not a clear understanding. As someone who frequently visits casinos, I've encountered countless gamblers and gained insight into how casinos profit and operate. I have my own understanding of this. Firstly, in China, any form of Texas Hold'em is considered gambling, regardless of scale, and it will be cracked down on. I believe that Texas Hold'em is similar to games like Mahjong and Landlords; it's a card game that combines skill and luck. Many people may habitually define gambling activities based on behavior, such as Texas Hold'em is gambling, blackjack is gambling, Mahjong is gambling, and Landlords is not gambling. However, this is not accurate.

The definition of gambling activities for me is:
(1) Enduring fluctuations that cannot be endured;
(2) Making negative EV (expected value) decisions in the long run, being unaware of one's own mistakes, and not reflecting on losses.

Texas Hold'em perfectly fits these two points. Firstly, let's talk about volatility. Compared to games like Mahjong, if you play a Mahjong game with a 1 yuan bet per point, a game may involve several yuan at most, and winning or losing within ten to several dozen yuan is normal. However, in Texas Hold'em, playing with a 1 yuan big blind (because the minimum cost to participate in a game is one big blind), a single game can involve several hundred yuan, and it's normal for it to reach several thousand yuan or even ten thousand yuan in a day. You may even lose your entire day's investment in a single hand without realizing it. If this were the only issue, it wouldn't be much of a problem. The most dangerous part is that after losing money, most people harbor grudges, increase their investment, and seek bigger volatility to recoup losses. As a result, the investment becomes larger and the volatility becomes unbearable. Some even borrow money or take out loans to play, ultimately leading to financial ruin. This is human nature at play, and many card players can't escape this vicious cycle, becoming degenerate gamblers. Compared to games like Mahjong, Texas Hold'em is more prone to falling into this cycle.

The second point is making negative EV decisions in the long run. In simpler terms, lacking reasonable expectations for the outcome of actions, lacking basic mathematical and statistical concepts, being blindly confident, not knowing one's own shortcomings, and not reflecting on losses. This is a side effect of volatility. Compared to the first point, this one is like boiling a frog in warm water. It silently erodes your wealth, and you attribute your losses to luck, repeatedly. What is a negative EV decision? It means the expected return from your investment is negative. Let me give a few examples. All games in a casino where you bet against the house are negative EV, such as roulette, blackjack, etc. These games are built on unequal rules, and the house edge over you is always greater than 50%. I've also studied blackjack for a while. Even with perfect decision-making, investing 100 yuan may only yield a return of 98 yuan. Some casinos further reduce your winning percentage by reinforcing rules. For example, at our local Holland Casino, in blackjack, you can only double down on 9, 10, and 11; after splitting Aces, you can only draw one card. These rules further decrease your winning percentage. (P.S.: Some may argue that you can profit from blackjack using the high-low card counting method. This requires memorizing cards and is effective in old-fashioned manually shuffled casinos, provided you're not detected by the casino. Nowadays, most casinos use automatic shuffle machines, making card counting virtually impossible.)

Kahn332

Seeing this game, I feel like it's time to start playing.

Shri333

I think the opinions of this elder brother are quite good.