By knowning maths, knowning not to play by maths.

[1800GAMBLER]

I study maths at a fairly high level, pretty much all the important probabilities in poker i can work out there and then, with exceptions to the complex ones which i know.

While these are good to compare to with pot odds and implied odds to justife a call, i'm wondering if anyone uses maths as their most important way of playing.

Say for example, working out the probability the other person has a boat when you have trips. Then seeing it's unlikely and going with it. Although it would bring a long term positive expectation, do you use other facts which influence your poker more than your maths? Or how many people are there here who try to beat it mainly with maths?

Thanks for reading and any responses.

[Nottom]

Obviously, other things have to be considered when making a desision in poker. If you have AK and the board is KK234 your hand is much more likely to be good than if the board is KKQJ9. Hand reading is a big part of knowing what to do and the math is only helpful once you can put your opponent on a much smaller range of hands based on other information.

[SittingBull]

"Amarillo Slim" and Stu Unger used mathematics. However,I don't have any evidence of this.
I use a little mathematics but mostly rely upon my "intuition".
For example,if I'm playing at a table where no more than 3 players are frequently seeing the flop,I do not play drawing hands like medium suited connectors . And I only play small pairs in LP with no raises pre-flop.
My "intuition" tells me that I'm not receiving proper odds to draw.
I do not have to do any calculation.
If the field is large (4 or more),then my "intuition" tells me I have proper odds to draw(Combined with implied odds)
Of course,this "intuition" was a result of pre-calculated
mathematics.
HappyPokering, /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif
SittingBull

[Nottom]

I'm sure there are plenty of big time poker champions out there that don't understand all the mathematics of the game. They make up for this fact with superior hand and player reading skills plus years of playing give people a "feel" for the game. But when it comes down to it, when you are on your flush draw and someone pushes all-in and you know he has a hand... its just simple mathematics whether you call that bet or not.

The math is helpful, but you can't rely on it completely. I think this was wat I tried to post originally, but it may not have come off as such.