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A sufficient poker bankroll is necessary to act as a cushion against variance. Some players may believe that, with just a few positive results at a $1/$2 no-limit hold’em game, they are ready to jump into a $2/$5 or $5/$10 game, regardless of their bankroll size. Poker Variance Calculator The cashgame variance calculator and simulator for poker is handy and easy to use. Just enter your winrate, standard deviation and the amount of hands to simulate. You’ll most certainly get insightful results.

Objective ranking of all big poker sites by their deposit bonus.

Official poker hands ranking overview with an explanation of which hand wins in Texas Hold’em. Including PDF overview for printing.

Overview of the most common poker probabilities and odds, including preflop odds, outs and formulas to calculate winning chances.

Poker Guides

ICM or “Independent Chip Model” is a method used to calculate the monetary value of chips in a poker tournament. This article explains how the ICM works.

When can I go all-in with a specific hand and how tight should I be in the push fold phase of a tournament? The Sklansky Chubukov tables provide a rudimentary answer to these questions.

When can you profitably go all-in with a hand? Which hands can you call an all-in with? Equilibrium pushbot charts help you develop good all-in ranges.

Chinese Poker rules, strategy and tips & tricks. This article explains how to play Chinese Poker, how to set hands and when to surrender.

Poker Tools

The cashgame variance calculator and simulator for poker is handy and easy to use. Just enter your winrate, standard deviation and the amount of hands to simulate. You’ll most certainly get insightful results.

The Poker Tournament Variance Simulator calculates variance for poker tournaments, MTTs and SNGs. Enter your tournament(s), hit calculate and let the simulator do its magic.

The Online Poker Rake Comparison and Rake Calculator shows how much rake players effectively pay when playing online poker cash games and which poker sites are the least and most expensive.

The pushbot trainer helps you to understand ranges in push-or-fold poker situations and visualizes the Sklansky Chubukov and Nash Equilibrium rankings.

The advanced ICM Deal Calculator can be used to determine ICM and chip chop distributions for deals in tournaments and simplifies poker tournament deal negotiations.

Other Tools & Stuff

How long does it take to achieve the legendary rank in Hearthstone? This handy simulator will answer to this question and show how long it will take to reach legendary depending on your win rate and your current rank.

Play Chinese Poker online against three AI players, analyse your play and find better strategies. This Chinese Poker App works in the browser and requires no download or registration.

Best Online Poker Sites

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Poker Variance

When it comes to anything that involves chance, there are swings in fortune you can’t legislate for. Naturally, the smaller the percentage of luck, the less likely you will see pendulum like swings in fortune. But, even in sports like football, chance can have a big say. Whilst poker is largely a game of skill, there is an element of luck that cannot be ignored. This is particularly true when focusing on the short term. On any given day, a weaker player can catch great cards or bad beat or cooler their stronger opponents. In this article, we will seek to explain what poker variance is, how it affects players and how to deal with it.

Beginner Texas Hold’em Question

What is Variance in Poker?

Variance is the difference between what you expect to occur and what actually happens. These can be summarised as swings or ups and downs involved in poker. Poker hand analysis software can highlight the variance easily with graphs.

What Influences Poker Variance?

Variance impacts everyone. Like the rain, it falls on everyone and does not discriminate. However, there are factors that can play a part in variance.

Style of Play

Playing a LAG poker style is likely to incur more swings and greater variance than playing a tighter game. This is because of the inherent risk of playing more hands and less than premium hands.

Tournament Type

The more entrants, the greater luck involved. This is especially true when blind increments are quicker too. Think about it, SNGs with 9 people are far less swingy than playing the Sunday Million with thousands of entrants.

Format

An obvious one here but worth making the point. No limit is more volatile and swingier than limit games. With the option to bet larger in relation to stack sizes, variance goes up.

The Negative Impacts of Variance in Poker

Variance takes it’s toll on lots of players. From micro to mid stakes, many can’t handle it and negatively impacts them:

Tilt

Many players suffer bad luck then proceed to go on tilt and lose even more, thus making it worse. This is a big problem for players at low stakes. They have the potential to be great players but tilt off buy-ins at the first sign of bad luck.

Moving Between Stakes

There’s a lot of players that have no clue on bankroll management. They continuously move between stakes due to variance and take hits to their confidence. If you exercise a cautious approach and have plenty of buy-ins, you should be able to handle variance. I suggest setting up a poker spreadsheet to keep on top of you results and monitor performance.

Changing Your Game

Some people go the other way when variance hits. They question their game and strategy. Instead of tilting, they go into a shell, bluff less, value bet wrong and play too nitty. This is just as bad as tilting as it has longer lasting consequences. You may lose less from playing conservatively but remember, money you fail to pick up through accurate value betting and bluffing is the same as money lost.

How to Overcome Poker Variance

People deal with negativity in different ways. I always say it’s best to think of the long term. If you are doing this and not focusing on the most recent session, you will be better for it. Professionals accept that not every session will be a winning one. This is the burden that pro’s bear for playing a game with chance involved. If you can’t handle it, forget about playing professionally.
Overcoming variance can be achieved by playing a happy song after a tough session to help your mood. Or, saying to yourself you will get the same fortune. My suggestion to think of the long run is ideal for consistent winners.

Poker Variance Calculator

Variance isn’t All Bad

We’ve focused on the negative aspect until now, but remember, variance isn’t just the bad swings. Simple probability maths dictate you should receive your positive swings too. This means you will run good and win more than you ought to aswell. This is a comforting thought, particularly if you’re on a downswing or usually win. As stated earlier, poker variance doesn’t have favourites per se. The sun shines on all, just as the run falls on all.
It’s important to recognise when variance has been on your side. If your software is showing that you actually should be losing or breaking even, you need to work on your game. Good players cannot be results orientated in the short-term and variance can’t always bail you out. That’s why continuing to work at your game is important. I recommend regular hand history reviews to our students, so they can have impartial feedback on how they are playing.

Poker Variance

Final Thoughts

Poker Tournament Variance Calc

Remember, poker variance is what keeps the weak players coming back. Occasionally, they win and that hope of winning again is what keeps them in the game. This is an incredibly important point and worth remembering if you moan about the luck in poker. You don’t want to only play against strong players, do you? Winning money is your goal and to do that, you need to take it from inferior players. They won’t want to play if they never win and the game was 100% skill based.