If you’ve been studying poker for a little while now, you probably already know the importance of equity when it comes to making decisions in poker.
In theory, you can probably recognize when a hand increases or decreases in equity depending on the runout of the board and your opponent’s range. However, putting all of this information into practice is crucial to a solid poker strategy, which is the cornerstone of winning at poker.
Many players struggle in particular with holding on to their premium holdings too tightly postflop, resulting in them getting into massive pots with the second-best hand (even if it was the best hand preflop).
Overcoming this common leak is essential to make money playing poker, as it allows for better decision-making and control over the pot size.
Changing the Way You Think
Have you ever been in a situation where you had a premium holding like aces preflop, but then everything falls apart postflop with a connected board runout?
If you’re a fairly experienced player, you probably know the pain of going to a flop with aces only to see something like a KJT monotone board. In situations like this, where there is a connected runout, many players struggle to let go of their premiums postflop. They are simply too connected to how the cards they hold look.
Instead of focusing on the hand that you have, you have to change the way that you think about your cards and start to see them as representations of equity, not a poker hand.
This is the #1 change you should make to the way you think about poker, and it will have a drastic effect on your win-rate if you apply it correctly.
While this may seem a little obvious to our more experienced readers, even the best poker players in the world sometimes forget this simple concept in game. It is a slippery slope once you begin to think of your hand as the ever-magical pocket aces, and not just an 80% equity holding preflop.
The cards you hold are really just the front end of a mathematical equation determining your overall equity against the range you put your opponent(s) on. Even professional poker players who’ve been making money for years playing the game still struggle with getting too attached to their premium holdings postflop, because they are unable to separate and detach their equity from their hand.
However, even if you want to start thinking in terms of equity, it can be a pretty daunting task when you don’t have a good grasp for where your equity is at in a hand.
Study and Practice > Everything
So how do you take the guesswork out of determining equity?
The short answer is you really can’t. Poker is a game of incomplete information, and we’ll never know exactly where we’re at in a hand. While not even the best poker players in the world can determine their exact equity all the time, they are very good at guessing their approximate equity in game.
This is because they’ve devoted hundreds of hours to studying their equity in different spots, and have developed a feel for how much equity they have at any given point in a hand. The good news is that over time, you can develop this intuition as well.
To start, look through your poker hand database (if you have one) and find a few spots where you continued with premiums like AA and KK postflop.
If you don’t have any hands saved currently, just go to our YouTube channel . Using a tool like Equilab, assign your opponent a range and calculate the equity that you both have.
Then, using this information, decide whether the actions you took were correct. Chances are you’ll be able to find a few situations where you held onto aces a bit too long, just because they were aces.
Study equity in spots like this long enough and you’ll eventually be able to separate yourself from your hand in most situations, and gain a better intuition for how much equity you have in real time.
Conclusion: Reframing Your Poker Mindset for Better Results
To elevate your poker game, it’s essential to shift from viewing your cards as mere hands to considering them as representations of equity.
The most impactful poker tip is to detach emotionally from premium hands like pocket aces postflop, especially when the board develops unfavorably. Recognize that poker is a game rooted in mathematical probabilities and your cards are part of an equation that determines your standing against an opponent’s range.
Commit to studying and practicing equity in various scenarios—this is the key to making more informed decisions and improving your win rate. Remember, even top professionals continuously refine their understanding of equity, which is an essential part of the strategy to win at poker.
Use tools like Equilab to analyze past hands, develop your intuition, and apply this knowledge in real-time play. By focusing on equity rather than the hand itself, you’ll make more strategic plays and become a formidable opponent at the tables. 📈💪🏻
