1 vs the table odds

I'm not sure how to start trying to figure this out, but I have a hypothetical situation;

At a full (6 or 9 players) No Limit Texas Hold'em table if all players went to the showdown how often would the best hand pre-flop actually hold up?

I can't really answer the question, but it prompted me to wonder about something similar.


A quick Google search tuned up this Hold 'Em Ranking page.

Pocked Aces win about 85% of the time when heads up, but only 31% against a full table.

Contrast that with 7-2 off-suit winning about 32% when heads up, but 2% against a full table.

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any easy way to do this without coding your own poker analysis tool.

I found this poker calculator that creates random hands to test.

http://www.cardschat.com/poker-odds-calculator.php

But to answer your question using this, you still have to repeatedly record the "best hand" equity percentage by hand and average it.

Out of my personal curiosity, I did this 100 times for a 6-max game:

Low "Best Hand" equity: 19%
High "Best Hand" equity: 64.5%
Average "Best Hand" equity: 30.2%
Std. Deviation for "Best Hand" equity: 8.5%

To me, ~30% seems reasonable for a 6 max game at least.

I've read a lot of Harrington, Negreanu, Sklansky and (ugh!) Hellmuth and I'm trying to work on a successful strategy for play where so many people are willing to keep calling with weak draws. Obviously, premium hands win their respective percentages, but I'm talking about a strategy that creates a positive flow of chips my way. I'd rather win less hands with more money than lose hands that someone didn't know better to fold.

For the past few weeks I've tried reducing my bet size. This has helped to build the pot because more people are staying in with a $1-$3 raise rather than the atomic $15 hit. So I'm still in some pretty good sized pots and most of the money has come from other people. It's certainly a lot easier to lay down two pair to four suited cards when I'm in for $7 - $10 rather than $25.

I know there are some other very good card players here - any other successful strategies?

Strategies for Limit or No Limit?

I suck in a NL cash game, decent in tournaments, but I'm a pretty good Limit player.

Quote: Mission146

Strategies for Limit or No Limit?

I suck in a NL cash game, decent in tournaments, but I'm a pretty good Limit player.

Yeah... I like NL. And also tournaments. The aspect of paying on the front end lets me relax and play well rather than sweating my cash stack size.