What is the difference between the amateurs and the pros?

Here's the reason professional players make money playing poker, while the recreationals are losing in the long run.

When thinking about poker, most people don't differentiate it from casino games. After all - they think - what happens inside a casino is pure gambling. Well this, couldn't be further from reality.

In the short run, anyone can win a poker game. No matter how inexperienced a player is, if they have a big hand, they're looking to win a hand. However, if you look at the results, there are people, who make tens of millions playing cards. Are they simply luckier than others? The answer is no.

When sitting down at a poker table, the pros have their well-planned strategy. They know what to the almost every spot, they have a calculated decision on every street, in each hand. Sometimes they lay down a big draw, sometimes they seem to call with lesser holdings, seemingly trying to hit a miraculous card. But if we really think about it, they probably have a thought process behind this as well. What could that be? The answer is pot odds [3].

According to Wikipedia [4], its definition is the following: the ratio of the current size of the pot to the cost of a contemplated call. To make it even more simple: Let's say there is $100 in the middle and our opponent bets $50. The total amount on the middle is now $150, and if we make the call, we'll looking to scoop $200 for our $50. We quickly divide our $50 with the $200 and get the result of 0.25 or 25%.

This means we need to hit our card at least once out of four times, to break even on the call. For example, if we hold a flush draw on the flop, we have around 36% equity to hit our flush. If we have an open-ended straight draw, we have a 32% chance to improve. As the chance of hitting our straight or flush are higher than our pot odds, our call will show a profit in the long run. Does this mean, we can call with all of our draws in hopes of getting lucky? Not so much.

Let's say, we see the flop of ♥K♥T♦8 holding ♣Q♣J. There is $200 in the middle and our opponent bets the pot (another $200). The pot will be $600 in once we make the call for $200. As we very well know this already, our pot odds are (200/600) 33%. Our chance to improve to a straight? Only 32%.

Even though we have the same open-ended straight draw like we had before, we're now getting a much worse price and therefore should lay our hand down. Making these calculations on and off the tables make it easy for seasoned pros, to come to a decision, but if you're not as experienced with the concept, you might want to get into it on a deeper level.

There are several other aspects when deciding whether or not to call. Amateur players always complain about spiking a miraculous card and still losing. When you count the odds for your hand to improve, you also need to take in consideration, how many "clean outs" you have. What does that mean? Let's say, you called a raise before the flop with a pretty looking ♣9♣8. The flop comes down ♦J♦T♥2. Our opponent bet half pot (which gives us 25% pot odds). Is this an easy call?

The answer is no. There are two key factors here: as there are two diamonds on the flop, even if we hit the ♦7 or the ♦Q for the straight, there is a big chance, one of our opponents holds a flush. We generally should only count with six "clean outs" in this situation.

The other problem is, even if we hit a nicely looking ♣Q someone can easily have Ace-king, for the nut straight. So even in a situation, where we should call, according to our pot odds, we probably have to lay our draw down, as there are too many additional risks with this hand.

Generally speaking, when drawing to a hand, we want to draw to the nuts (the best possible hand). The best players make plenty of money in situations when they hit the nut straight or nut flush and the less experienced opponents hold a lower straight or flush.

Naturally, this is only the tip of the iceberg, there are plenty of strategic nuances between winning and losing poker, but if someone is not aware of the concept of the pot odds, this is where they should start first.

When it comes to poker, the old saying is more accurate than ever: "it takes five minutes to learn the rules but it takes a lifetime to master the game." Poker is indeed a beautiful game and a very hard way to make an easy living. Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever. Enjoy your journey.