Having a nightmare with pocket Kings
Those of you who are familiar with my obsession to get the best out of starting hands will probably have come across my formula to deal with having pocket jacks which finally ended up with me creating an equation (for those who have never come across this here it is P =( 1/3S – C)/R, where P is the pot, S is the stack, R is the raise and C is the seating arrangement and position of play) to remove any possibility of fear in playing these cards and most of all increasing the chances of winning since pocket jacks, hooks or whatever name you want to call them.
I am now rethinking this as I and others have been having a bad run with pocket Kings. The reason for this is that one person I know has had 7, yes 7 losing hands with pocket Kings. I myself have had a run of losing with pocket Kings. Sometimes I have lost to really silly cards such as pair of fours, pair of sixes etc.
So the question becomes is this some random situation where all of a sudden there is a spate of continuous beatings of Kings or could there be a problem with the software which is serving up these hands? Why would two different people have the same bad run with a pair of Kings? The maths behind it is quite clear and yes the odds wil get beaten from time to time, but, as a player it is getting to the stage when if you have the opportunity to throw away pocket Kings it is sometimes advisable to do so especially if you are going to be forced to go ‘all in’ pre-flop!
It might be part of the mystical theorem of variance. In this theorem you will win some hands and you will lose some hands even if you play absolutely correctly. However, if you get a cluster of losing with absolute premium hands, then you do question whether there is more to the loss than variance?
OK, some people reading this will say learning to lose with premium hands is what poker is all about and I should get used to it and move on. My argument in return would be to ask the question supposed there is a problem with the software? Online poker on the whole is not bent, well should not be bent as taking a percentage from the pot, fee etc is always an earner. There can be problems with the software. Once upon a time there was problems with the software in virtual horses and many people made serious money taking advantage of the glitch (putting the bet just after the off on the leading horse by the fence was one), so even the best software designers in the world can get it wrong, why not at online poker?
In the end it is not going to be solved via this blog but in future please keep an eye out for this and let me know what you think. It maybe a mistake on my part so I will not name the company in which this ‘problem’ has occurred as it will be not fair, however, lets keep our eyes open to see if we need a formula to counteract losing with pocket Kings.