Posts Tagged ‘deck’

Cards Unseen and Odds

Hi,

I’ve been checking on your site for some tips and strategies. One time as I was reading one of your articles, I thought of something which I can’t directly figured out. Most of the time, you base the establishing of the odds of getting a card on fourth street and then on fifth street on the remaining deck, for an instance 47 then 46. Well to me this is just simple to understand but I have one concern. In case there are nine other players, each with two pocket cards, will the probability of catching `your trips/four of a kind, straight, flush etc., become conditional on your need cards not sitting in another pocket? How do you think one figures out the real statistical probabilities with regards to such?

I’ll be glad to hear from you soon.

Many thanks,
Lance
Lance,

You figure your probability based on unseen cards. Just because the cards “might” be in someone else’s hand, that does not mean they are. I’m sure that the statistical probabilities are available on said scenario, but they are not part of practical poker odds calculations.

Poker “Bots” and Legitimacy

Hi,

I heard from some columnists that some online poker sites use “bots”. Unfortunately, I don’t understand what are they and what their purpose is. All I know is that the sites being mentioned weren’t random.

I’ve been into poker for years now and I know the game is usually more on tough beats, and bad players getting lucky. On my experience, well, there were moments when no matter how I seem to play, the other guy catches the only card to save them, or I will miss what seems like 20 draws. There was also one instance where I’ve caught the only card in the deck that could have helped me. However, all these don’t seem random to me.

Another thing I don’t understand is how will I know if a site is legitimate or not. Any thoughts? Please don’t forget about the “bots”.

All the best,
Tim
Tim,

Poker sites do not use “bots” as players. Sites monitor their users to prevent poker playing bots from being run on their system. Most online sites are also monitored by different organizations to ensure proper operations and to prevent users from being taken advantage of.

Algorithm Issue

Hi,

I’ve been playing poker for more or less 35 years now but in an on and off basis. For many years I haven’t played in high limit pots and haven’t shuffled a deck of cards. Just recently, I tried playing online particularly at Ultimatebet.com. Well, I notice that most of the freerolls at the said site do have 800 or more players and I’ve come in in the top 10 for several times and luckily won twice. Now I feel I’m ready to move up but I’m bothered of playing against computer generated cards. Also, I noticed something days ago, it was about the site’s algorithm. Whenever I have an open end straight on the flop the turn is either one card away from completing my straight or else it pairs a card of the flop. For an instance, I have 9/10 and flop is 8/J/3, turn is 6, K or pair the 8, J or 3. In case one tracks such open ends straights, it will be revealed 81 of 100 hands. At times river follows this trend if the turn paired a flopped card and will be one from completing my straight.

Any thoughts?

Thanks a ton!

All the best,
Dave
Dave,

All poker players at one time or another have noticed the abnormalities that you speak of. It is usually explained away by the fact that you see many more cards an hour online than you do live. However, there are times that things tend to run too much in a pattern to seem random. If at any time you don’t feel comfortable with the way a site is run or how the software handles, you do have the option of going to another site.

Shuffling the Deck

Hi,

Some say it actually takes seven shuffles to randomize a deck completely and normally players shuffle three times between hands. Well, I figured out that in holdem, cards are not usually grouped in any particular order to be a hand. Do you think there’s really a great need to shuffle a lot between hands? Your thoughts on this please.

Thank you in advance.

All the best,
Lance
Lance,

In order to shuffle properly, you probably should shuffle the cards around 5 to seven times to ensure some randomness. You can also do some quarter cutting of decks between shuffles to help randomize more.

Practice shuffling. With some practice you can become fast and 5 to 7 shuffles will take no time.

About Coloring Up

Hello,

I noticed that as the blinds increase, the lower denomination chips are no longer wanted. Therefore most of the time, we turn our $1 chips in for $5 chips. But most of the time we end up having $1 chips. Say one guy has two $1 chip, another guy has 2 chips, and the last has 1 chip. For me each guy should be given a card from the deck for each chip at hand then the guy holding the best hand will take the privilege of having the $5 chip. Am I right?

Another thing, what’s the best hand? Well, I know small straights and flushes are of no value and of help. But how about pairs? Say player A has a pair of 6′s while player B has an Ace-Jack, who has a much better hand?

And about coloring up, can a player actually get more than one chip? Say player A has four $1 chip, players B and C have 3 chips, and finally player D has 4 chips. Player D was dealt A-A-J-10 while players B and C was dealt K-9-6 and J-7-3 respectively. Do you think the player with the pair of aces will have both $5 chips or just $1 chip as the other to player B? What do you think?

Thanks!

Regards,
Ben
Ben,

A player may not get more than one chip.

Reshuffle or Not

Hello,

In a certain tourney, there were two players involved in a particular hand. At the turn, both checked. Player 1 checked at fourth street however player 2 placed a reasonable bet to put player 1 all-in.

Later, dealer thought player 1 folded and so placed the rest of the cards into the muck and then pushed the following cards to the following dealer. Afterwards, player 2 started to have the pot down however player 1 expressed he wanted to call the bet. Well, none of the players had mucked a hand at such point and so two cards were conceived to be still at the top of the pile.

In the end, though no one was totally sure which cards should be dealt, it was agreed to eventually burn and turn over the river card. Player 1 as a result had the winning hand. Because it was already mixed up with the mucked cards of the other players, deck could not be shuffled anymore.

Thanks for your time.

Wiederstein
Wiederstein,

I personally have not come across this situation so I asked help from a friend that is a tournament director for the World Series of Poker. She told me that in the event the deck was mixed up, take the entire muck pile, shuffle it, and then burn and deal out the rest of the hand.

Dealer Mistake

Hi,

Before anything, I would like first to commend you for this nice site. Great job on this one and keep it up!

Well, I’m here now to share something and ask from you a piece of advice or the like. Just recently, I was able to make it to a semi-final tournament for a cash prize. Dealer in the said tournament also played. She was still in the hand when the river came. She then burned a card from the deck and then showed one of her two cards as the river card. Then bets were made and afterwards she claimed that everything she did was done without intention. Some watchers called the director. A few players then expressed they saw her do such thing intentionally. However, some players have no idea at all about what happened.

Personally, I believe that as a dealer, once she exposed her card, with or with intention, she should be out of the hand and any bets she had made should be forfeited. However, the director said that it was with no intention, that it was just an accident and so she could have her card and then go on as nothing happened.

Now, I want to know your opinion. I believe she was careless. What do you think?

Thank you in advance.

Warm regards,
Pearman
Pearman,

I do see why people would say it was intentional. 2 cards are not as thick as the 28 cards of the deck. I don’t see how she made that mistake, but I wasn’t there.