Hand Strength and the Principles of Relativity
For the intermediate to advanced poker player out there…
Many of you will by now know that certain starting hands have a higher probability of winning, and this should go without saying. AA is stronger than 7-2, no surprises there. But what if I told you that these hands strength change, not only with table position, but also with regards to how many people are sitting at the table.
Would you call me a crazy poker player? If you would, I suggest you listen up and read on.
In simple probability theorems, we see that the more chances something has to be beaten, then the less likely it is to be the best. Look at it like this: You have KK. There are nine players. There are now 8 chances that one of the players could be holding AA. Compared to: You have KK. There are three players. Now there are only 2 chances that someone else has AA starting.
Now that of course, is the overly simplistic way of illustrating this principle. On a more realistic term, we would look at the probability that each player could be holding AA based on the number of cards in the deck divided by the chance that any one of those cards were an ace and then multiply it all together then add the individual probabilities of each player’s holding to find the exact probability, but that’s more math than you should ever have to do. So we’ll stick with the simple probability here.
Okay, so what does this all mean to you? Well first, it means that you have more freedom in short handed games. Since you have less to worry about in terms of the other player’s holdings, you have the right to play hands that would be considered weaker in at a full table much more strongly. For example, you probably wouldn’t lead off with a strong bet with A-9 with nine people if you were in first position. But at a table of three, this would be much more acceptable. However, under no circumstances, take this advice to play the 7-2 strong. It sucks, hands down, even if you’re just playing by yourself.
