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Poker is gambling. Any game that involves money and relies on luck - to any degree at all - is gambling. A poker player who tries to convince himself that he is not gambling is like a person trying to convince himself that his shoes won't ignite while standing in a campfire - both will eventually get burned. The job of the gambling poker player, then, is to do his job best to manipulate luck in his favor - through the manipulation of odds. By increasing the chances that he or she will win at any given moment in the game of poker, the poker player does not by any means have a guaranteed win, but certainly has a better shot than the person who is ignoring odds. One way to manipulate luck is to give yourself more than one way to win.
A better than basic understanding of pot odds is required to be successful at poker in the long run, because making a move when the odds favor you guarantees that you'll be profitable at some point. You may not win the particular hand you are taking action in, but you may only need to win it one time out of three to be profitable. Taking that into consideration, when you are on a draw hand, consider going on the attack to give yourself more than one way to win.
When you make a bet of the right size while holding a draw hand, you have two chances to win. First, you may win if your opponent folds. Second, you may still win if your opponent calls and you make your hand. This is a simple concept in poker, but there is a little more to it than just playing drawing hands aggressively. If you are drawing to an "idiot" flush (a low flush easily beaten by a higher card) then the "two ways to win" rule may still apply, but it is a lot weaker than if you are drawing to win with a nut flush. Play your draw hands aggressively in the right spots and you will be on your way to manipulating the odds in your favor.
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