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Im writing a little program to calculate ods in Texas Hold'em, however i am having some difficulties.

The problem is that i can figure out wether or not to take into account the number of players you are up against. I would normally do this, but when trying to find answer on the net i get the inpression that you should just forget about the other players.

It is tempting to go with the last statement as it will make the math somewhat less complicated, but i have a hard time believing that this is the right way to go about the problem.


Any comments?

The only thing that matters, the cards you're holding, and the cards on the table. That's how odds are calculated in poker. It doesn't matter how many other players there are. You CAN'T see their cards, so they might as well still be in the deck.

The only effect the other cards would have is orthogonal to your card set - IE, the chance of anybody having higher than combination X for two people is twice minus the cross-section of the chance any single person has. For the power of your combination however, that barely matters. You could take it into account, but I doubt you'll get anywhere further.

I thought about this for a minute after I first replied.

I think what you might be hung-up on is two different sets of odds. When you watch ESPN and they show you a percentage (the percent chance that player has the hand won) is completely different than the odds you will get a card to form the combination pair, straight, flush, 3-of-a-kind, etc.

Those odds (the ones on TV) take into account that we know what multiple players are holding. If poker players knew those odds(and therefore what the other players were holding) there would be no point to the game.

A simple odds calculating program doesn't give you a huge advantage. In fact, established players already know those odds, and don't need a machine to calculate them for them.

Poker is a great game because it involves luck and *skill*. There is no substitute for learning the ins and outs of the game, like placing feeler bets when you're not holding anything (betting 2X the big blind with no odds in your favor). This strategy actually yields results. Although the percentage of hands you will win with this strategy from people simply folding away their cards varies greatly depending on the personality and strategies of the other players, you WILL win multiple hands this way. When you play poker in real-life(as opposed to on-line) this also lets you get a *feel* of the other players. Playing on-line is much different because the face-to-face element is missing. This makes the dynamics of bluffing much different (and much more difficult IMO).

It's likely a lot of on-line players use odds calculating techniques, but again I don't feel this is a great advantage for anyone. It might be if you're playing against people who are clueless, but like I said, good poker players already know those odds.