What is Variant in Poker?
A poker variant isa specific set of rules or ‘flavour’ of poker game. The most popular poker variant in modern times is No Limit hold’em with Pot Limit Omaha in second place. There are practically hundreds of different poker variantshowever, some common, some not so much. The variants are often grouped together into categories. For example, a Stud variant of poker is any game that follows the rough format of Seven Card Stud (but with a variation on the basic rules). Hold’em and Omaha are both examples of ‘community-card’variants of poker while Five Card Draw is an example of a Draw variant of poker.
What is Variance in Poker?
Variance refers to the short term deviation of our winrate from our expected results. For example, we might be a confirmed 6bb/100 winner, but it’s rare our winrate will show exactly 6bb/100 over a given sample.This is referred to as variance. Generally, the larger the sample size of hands, the closer our winrate will be to its expected value. Since variance is very large in poker, big deviations from expected winrate are common, especially if the sample size of hands is small (i.e less than 50,000 hands).
What is Value Bet in Poker?
A value bet in poker, is a bet made with a strong hand in the hopes of getting called by worse hands. It’s an extremely important aspect of poker strategy, especially in games where our opponents have a tendency to call our bets with too many holdings. In terms of rough maths, a value bet needs to be good over 50% of the time when called in order to generate profit.
What Is an Upswing in Poker? Meaning, Strategy & Mindset
In poker the term upswing refers to winning more than average over a given period of time. It’s the opposite of ‘downswing’ which refers to a period of prolonged losses. Upswings are generally a good thing but they have also been known to cause mindset issues since players start to fear what they imagine to be an inevitable downswing. Due to rather large nature of variance in poker, upswings and downswings are extremely common.
