I am going all in!

''Poker is only about pure luck''. ''Poker is nothing but gambling''. ''Poker involves only psychology''. When you think of poker games these clichés immediately come to your mind as all professional players tend to use terms 'luck', 'gambling' and psychology' in tournament reports. However, only few us knows that all three are crucial besides several other factors at the same time. 

I have to say I love poker. I have been playing this wonderful game for over a year now. There are numerous kinds of poker, but I prefer Texas Hold'em where each player is given two cards and 3+1+1 combination of cards on the table means the flop, the basis of the game. Firstly, three cards come, that is called the flop. Then, the fourth card is called the turn, and the last one is the river. Before the three cards come, players can decide whether they call the big blind, raise it or they simply fold the hand because of some reason (reasons vary player to player). 

Poker is not an easy game. While playing you have to pay attention to many things such as movements of other players, motion of their eyes, their behavior when a player raises the blind, whether someone talks oddly and so on.  A poker player must have good senses and reading ability to know when to call, raise or fold depending on the situation. Many people claim mathematics is not involved in the game and they are wrong. Players make complex calculations taking the number of players into consideration as well as the number of folded hands and, most importantly, how many possible outs are there. Let's make it simpler. If you have an 'ace' and a 'jack' of all spades and the three cards are 'seven', 'nine', 'king' with two spades then you are drawing for a flush as you have many outs (the flush means that you have any five cards of the same kind). Then you calculate and decide the following step, because the turn or river card can give you the flush if one of them is of spades. 

Doyle Brunson, the 'Big Papa of poker' says it is necessary to be aggressive. He means that players should call bets even if they are in the worse (or better, who knows) position. I do not agree with him. I am a calm and cautious player who contemplates others and tries to make every effort to read others. I prefer to lay down my hand when I feel something suspicious goes on. Sometimes my instincts tell me that a huge bet is definitely not a bluff which means immediate fold to me.

So poker is about luck, gambling, psychology, observation of other players, complex calculations and inside instincts which all have to work at the same time. Just one bad bluff, only one call that is so risky may ruin the game for you with the loss of your buy-in.