Tag Archives: Explained

Forex Education For Beginners – Best Practices Explained

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Forex has a bad reputation among some traders as a kind of online gambling scheme where the house (the brokers) makes money, while you lose just about everything that you risk. No doubt, this has been the case for many traders, but forex itself isn’t the cause of this low success rate – it is a lack of understanding and knowledge that has doomed so many traders to failure. As with any business, trading currencies requires knowledge and patience to deliver its returns. To acquire the knowledge, and gain experience, you must study hard, but given how much useless information there is online on forex trading, the question of who to ask and where to seek acquires a critical nature.

Ultimately, the best forex education for beginners is practicing in the heat of the action without risking much. Since forex is about probabilities, no textbook on golden rules can provide us the foolproof blueprint for a constantly successful trading strategy. Most successful and experienced traders admit that knowing what not to do is just as important, if not more important than knowing what to do in the world of forex. And on the list of lessons on forbidden practices, emotional trading is the first item.

To avoid the dangers of trading too much, and to prevent your feelings from making your trading choices, you must get the best forex education. You can’t open a door without a key, and the key to riches in forex is study. There have been traders who failed in spite of a good education, but there will never be anyone who succeeds without learning and studies. So make sure that you arm yourself with the best knowledge available on currency trading.

Mahjong Learing Basics – The Game Objectives Explained

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It doesn’t matter which game you are planning to learn, the first step in mastering a game is to learn the objectives of the game and Mahjong is no exception. In mahjong, your primary objective is to collect combination of tiles. There are many tile combinations in Mahjong and most of the combinations have a name too! Some examples include chow, pung and kong.

Chow is the combination of three constituted sequences of tiles in the same suit. Pung is the combination of three identical tiles from the same suit, and a kong is the combination of four identical tiles. Throughout the game, you will be trying to get these combinations done as early as possible! This may sound like an easy task but mahjong is designed to give tough challenges to players.

Mahjong is played in hands. Four hands make up a round and four rounds form a game. Basically a minimum of 16 hands make up the game. The hand can be more than this, if the east wind player wins. Each player gets 13 tiles and in each hand, they will deal a fourteenth one. There are two options for the player: the player can either keep the tile with him or leave it if the tile is useless to form a good combination.

Forming the combination does require a 14th tile and when a player forms the completed hand, it’s known as Going Mahjong. The hand should include four combinations of pung or chow or four kong tiles with identical tiles to form the hand. The player who forms the hand loudly calls out ‘Mahjong’ to inform his fellow players that he won. Now, it’s the turn of other players to calculate and settle the score from their hands.

This is the objective of mahjong and there are multiple techniques to accede their hands really fast. It’s a good idea to learn the basic fundamentals of playing Mah Jong. Since a lot of gaming techniques can be found, it’s a good idea to choose a technique that sounds easy-to-use. Once you learn a learning technique, it’s easy to adapt other techniques very easily. In the past, mahjong was considered illegal in some jurisdictions because the game was widely used for gambling. However, Matt John can’t be considered as a gambling game as a lot of skill is required to play the game professionally and win each round!

Poker Mathematics – Part 9 – The Bluff Formula Explained

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We need to start with the standard B/E Formula.

B/E Formula for Fold Equity

The basic B/E Formula is Win Value = Lose Value or Win Value – Lose Value = 0

If you introduce b, where b = B/E Fold Equity %, the formula changes to

Win Value x b – Lose Value x ( 1 – b ) = 0

AND

Lose Value x ( 1 – b ) = Lose Value – ( Lose Value x b )

Therefore the formula Win Value x b – Lose Value x ( 1 – b) = 0 can be expressed differently and converted to the formula for both a Cold and warm Bluff.

Win Value x b – Lose Value x ( 1 – b )

equals

Win Valuex b – (Lose Value – (Lose Valuex b))

equals

Win Value x b + Lose Value x b – Lose Value

equals

b x ( Win Value + Lose Value ) – Lose Value

Therefore

b x ( Win Value + Lose Value ) = Lose Value

And

b = Lose Value / (Win Value + Lose Value) where b = B/E Fold Equity

If we consider the pot and a bet to try and win it, the win value = money in the pot and the lose value = the bet cost (cost of bluff).

We use this to build our formula for both Cold and Warm B/E Fold Equity

B/E Fold Equity = Cost of Bluff / (Money in Pot + Cost of Bluff) (This is the Cold Bluff Formula)

B/E Fold Equity = Average Loss / (Money in Pot + Average Loss) (This is the (warm) Semi Bluff Formula)

Average Loss

If we go back to basics and the standard B/E formula for the fold % in a Cold Bluff

Money in pot is Cost of Bluff = Cost of bluff / (Money in pot + Cost of bluff)

If we move to the Warm or Semi Bluff formula for the fold %, the Cost of Bluff is replaced by Average Loss (our true bet cost or EV when called), but what is Average Loss?

Average Loss is equal to our (winning) equity in the current pot and (winning) equity in villain calling cost, less the losing equity of our bet cost

(Current Pot x Equity) + (Calling Cost x Equity) – (BC x (100% – Equity))

However the (BC x (100% – Equity)) can be expressed as

BC – (BC x Equity)

Therefore the Warm or Semi-Bluff Formula can now be expressed as

(Current Pot x Equity) + (Calling Cost x Equity) – (BC – (BC x Equity))

OR

(Current Pot x Equity) + (Calling Cost x Equity) – BC + (BC x Equity)

The equity figure is a constant, amending the formula

Equity (Current Pot + Calling Cost + Bet Cost) – Bet Cost

The Current Pot + Calling Cost + Bet Cost is equal to the Final Pot and this reduces the Average Loss formula to

(Final Pot x Equity) – Bet Cost

Therefore if we replace the Cost of Bluff in a Cold Bluff with the Average Loss in a Warm or Semi-Bluff, our Ratio and Formula to determine the villain fold % is

Money in Pot: Average Loss equals Average Loss / (Money in Pot + Average Loss)

OR

Money in Pot is ((Final Pot x Equity) – Bet Cost) equals ((Final Pot x Equity) – Bet Cost) / (Money in Pot + (Final Pot x Equity) – Bet Cost)

We have hero covered after calling a squeeze bet preflop – how often does villain need to fold on the flop to make a bluff profitable?

Hero Hand 9d8d

Villain Squeeze Range 10%

Flop 2d5h6h

Effective Stacks 58.05

Current Pot 23.50

Final Pot 139.60 (23.50 + 58.05 + 58.05)

Bet Cost 58.05 (This is also the calling cost)

Equity 33%

(The flop equity is from Poker Stove and increases by 1% if you ignore the flop cards).

Average Loss is (139.60 x 33%) – 58.05 = 46.07 – 58.05 or – 11.98

Fold % is 23.50: 11.98 equals 11.98 / 35.48 or 33.76%

Therefore the opponent needs to fold more than 33.76% to make the semi bluff profitable and the true bet cost is 11.98 to win 23.50

Texas Hold Em Poker Hands Explained

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The different Texas Hold Em Poker hands are exactly the same as normal poker hands. If you don’t know these don’t worry because I am going to explain them all. There are ten different hands that you can have. In order from worst to best, they are: low, 1 pair, 2 pair, 3 of a kind, straight, flush, full house, 4 of a kind, straight flush and royal flush. I will explain each of these in detail. The person with the highest hand wins.

When people talk about cards in text they will type the number of the card, and also a letter denoting the suit. H=hearts, D=diamonds, S=spades, C=clubs. Jack is J, Queen is Q, King is K and Ace is A. So for example a nine of clubs is 9C and a queen of hearts is QH. Some people put a hyphen ‘-‘ in between, some not. For multiple cards in a hand some people will just use a space i.e. 7D 8D 9D 10D JD or some people will use a hyphen i.e. 7D-8D-9D-10D-JD. Sometimes people wont put anything and this is usually hard to read. It takes a little getting used to but you should be able to decode most peoples explanations with little effort.

Now for all of the Texas Hold Em Poker Hands:

Low: This hand is very bad. A low hand is essentially nothing. You have no good hands. An example would be 7D-5S-4C-3C-2H. Its nothing. Although for the most part this hand is very bad, if two people have a low hand the person with the single highest card wins.

1 Pair: This is the first hand you will usually make. A pair is having a single pair of a type of card. The number must match and obviously the suit won’t be able to. An example would be 2H-6H-10C-JC-JS. So in this example the player has a pair of jacks. When two more more players have a pair the person with the highest pair will win.

2 Pair: This is a fairly good hand you can usually get quite easily. 2 pair is just like have a pair two times. An example would be AC-7H-7D-QC-QH. So in this example the player has a pair of 7’s and a pair of Queen’s. When two players both have 2 pair the player with the single highest pair out of all of them wins. It doesn’t matter if his second pair is lower then the other players.

3 of a kind: This is a good hand that you can make quite easily if you start with a pair in the hole. This hand is simply having three cards all of the same, like JH-5S-8C-8S-8D. This player has three 8’s so has 3 of a kind. If multiple players have 3 of a kind the player with the highest wins.

Straight: Here we deviate from the standard number matching. A straight is any five consecutively numbered cards. It doesn’t matter what suit just the numbers must be consecutive. For example 7D-8H-9S-10C-JH. If more then one player has a straight the player with the highest overall card at the end of the straight wins. An Ace can be used as either a low ace, like 12345, or a high ace, like 10JQKA. It cannot be used in the middle. QKA23 is not a valid hand and would be considered a low hand.

Flush: A flush is simply any five cards with the same suit. It doesn’t matter the number of the cards they just all have to be the same suit. An example would be AS-2S-6S-JS-9S. See how they are all spades? That is a flush. If two or more players both have a flush the person with the highest overall card will win. So having just one Ace, King or Queen in your flush tends to pay off.

Full House: A full house is a 3 of a kind plus a pair. An example is KD-KH-3S-3C-3D. See the 3 of a kind of three’s and the pair of king’s. This hand is very good but harder to get. The more important numbered card is the one in the 3 of a kind. If there is a showdown the player with the higher number in their 3 of a kind will win.

4 of a kind: As the name suggests, this hand is having 4 of the same kind of card. Like QC-QD-QH-QS-10C. Four queens makes 4 of a kind. Like with all the other hands, if two players have a four of a kind the player with the highest numbered card in their 4 of a kind will win.

Straight Flush: This hand is extremely hard to get and is a combination of the straight and the flush. So the numbers of the cards must be consecutive and all the suits must be the same. James Bond wins with a straight flush in Casino Royal. An example is 4S-5S-6S-7S-8S. Consecutive numbers plus all spades. If more then one player has a straight flush the player with the highest numbered card on the end of their’s will win.

Royal Flush: This is just a straight flush but at the top end. Its essentially the highest straight flush you can get. Its the ultimate: 10H-JH-QH-KH-AH. Nothing beats this hand. This is the best hand you can get.

Still with me?

So I have explained all of the different Texas Hold Em Poker hands that you can get. I put them in order from worst to best. Of course, each better one beats any one under it. So a 3 of a kind beats a pair automatically, and a flush beats that easily. Take the time to read through them again to remember them better. Its worth memorizing these so you immediately know who has won a poker hand, without having to refer to anything. Always remember, when two people have the same hand the winner is the person with the highest overall card making that hand.