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It may seem like odd advice to give a poker player who favors community card games like Omaha or the crowd favorite, Texas Hold’em, but one of the best ways to succeed at the game is to avoid seeing the flop. It seems counter intuitive because you only start out with two cards, and really any two cards can be massively improved with the flop. While and Eight and a Two are often thought of as the worst hand in Hold’em, the argument can be made that it rules if the flop comes down with three deuces. So why wouldn’t you want to see as many flops as you can? Because poker is a long term game.
If every poker game only lasted five hands, or fifteen hands, then it would make sense to see every flop if possible, because you only get five or fifteen chances to make money. Poker, however, is a long term game. Hundreds of hands are played, especially for online players where the speed is hugly greater than casino poker. Keeping your “flops seen” percentage low means keeping your money, and managing your losses is the key to making money long term with poker.
If you win a few massive pots, it won’t take long for those pots to be siphoned away if you play every hand to the flop and beyond. If, however, you play just the RIGHT hands, the CHOICE hands, then you will win more of the hands you play. Your win percentage goes up when your flop percentage goes down.
So, the next time you set out to play some poker, keep this in mind: you want to doge the flop. The only time you want to see the flop is when you have a choice hand, the kind that might just win even if it does not improve when those three cards hit the table.
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