Using Percentage Play in Poker

In order to be able to make a percentage play, you must first understand when the percentages are in your favour, for more information regarding this, please refer to the poker odds guide. The underlying principle behind making a percentage play is that you are getting the correct odds to continue with the hand based on your percentage chance of winning the hand by the river. This does'nt mean, however, that you should choose to make the percentage play every time, there are many other factors worth considering also, depending on the specific situation you find yourself in. Despite this, understanding that the play you are about to make is a solid percentage play is invaluable.

This means, in terms of strategic play, only considering the correct percentage play is a very shallow and oversimplified way of playing poker, normally you must consider many more factors when making decisions at the poker table, but there are a few situations where one of the only factors that needs to be considered is whether you are making the right percentage play.

For example, you find yourself in a multi table tournament, there are 53 players left with the top 50 players getting paid, you have a small to medium sized stack which is just below the current average, there are a number of players with much smaller stacks than yours, you could comfortably fold your hands until there are only 50 players remaining, virtually guaranteeing you get into the money. You decide to call with a small suited connector from late position seeing as 5 players have limped into the pot behind you. On the flop, you pick up a flush draw, making you roughly a 35% chance to have the winning hand by the river, assuming nobody has a bigger flush draw and that you will need to make the flush in order to win in a showdown. Three players who each have a much bigger stack than yours bet/call an amount that will put you all in, giving you close to 4/1 pot odds based on the dead money in the pot added to the money that was wagered on the flop; you are getting more than enough pot odds to chase your flush, but you run the very real risk of finishing outside of the money if you don't hit your third flush card to make your flush. In this situation, you might choose to ignore the correct percentage play for the strategic reason of ensuring you finish in the money. This is an example of a situation where making the percentage play may not be appropriate based there being more important factors to consider.

There are many situations where the primary factor is making the correct percentage play, though. Consider the same example as before, but this time you are the overwhelming chip leader, you have more than double the chips of the next biggest stack at your table. Same as before, you chose to limp in with your small suited connectors and make a flush draw on the flop, on the flop the same three opponents make the same sized bet/call as before, giving you more than enough pot odds to see the next card. In this situation, you might choose to place more importance to making the correct percentage play because the other factors are'nt as important due to your sizeable chip advantage. You can easily make the correct percentage play, knowing that you will have enough chips left not only to make the money, but most likely still reach the final table.

It should be understood that percentage plays are about accepting the correct odds (or better) based on your percentage chance of winning by the river; this does'nt necessarily mean that it is the correct strategic choice to make. You must consider other factors when there are other factors that are worth considering. Many players will use other factors when they are still outside of the paid places in a multi table tournament, but then place more focus on correct percentage play once in the money.