Hi guys,
I am struggling to understand the preflop math for no limit holdem. I bumped into a statement at pokernews.com saying that:

So, the question is:
Is it really the way to figure out equity of your holdings?
How to improve your preflop math skills in general? And the best resources available?

Best to try to create a preflop hand chart. At very least have 2 charts, 1 chart to show what hands you will be opening with for each position, 1 chart to show what hands you will be continuing (call/3bet/fold) with for each position vs each position open.
Actually the last part probably split into 9 different charts.
Research to find out what hands you will be doing what for each position.

There are lots of probability charts out there to get a feel for what 'can' happen with any 2 cards. The statement does a good job of that for you as you have 3 ways you can connect 'very well' with a Flop, being 14% of the time 'total'. What the statement doesn't tell you is that you get the same 14% chance whether it's J4 or A9. Do you treat J4 the same as A9? I hope not ...

If I hold A9 and you hold J4, and we both miss the possible 'huge' hands (74% of the time) then A9 is ahead 100% of those times!!

The statement also opens the door up to an implied odds discussion. In order to 'justify' playing this hand you need to be able to acquire at least 6 times the amount of chips you are putting into the pot initially (when you do hit) just to break even on your decision. If you need to call 10 and the player only has 40 behind then this is 'never' a good call based on the math alone.

Somewhat ignoring the direct Villain range v Hero range discussion you need to look at 2 other things when playing 'bad' hands ...
1) How often can I steal the pot if the board misses my opponent's range?
2) Will I get paid if I hit?

These are things that aren't fully definable but do have 'math' associated with them.

If you are new to poker it's pretty easy to advise, and hopefully pretty easy for you to see, that playing J4s is not good for your game without a whole bunch of other factors falling into place. And even then you wont find too many advising you to do so, instead they will 'want' you to do so when they are at the table against you!! GL

Thanks for the explanation. I will dig deeper into the topic. Is there any useful charts for this purpose?

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