[Texas72]

Do you think it's ever possible to play perfect poker, especially in a tourney situation? You can't ever know that you didn't fold the winning hand, that you bluffed as much as is ideal, etc.

What's perfect poker to you?

[UofTNick]

I, personally, don't think that it is possible to play 'perfect' poker. Obviously you can play really well, and that should translate into wins - or at least final tables - but to me, perfect means that there is absolutely nothing that you could have done better. That means that if there was a hand you folded pre-flop, but it turns out that if you had raised you would have won it, then you didn't play perfectly.

I know that this a very strict, closed-minded, unrealistic view of 'perfect' - but that is how i think of perfect. Perfect to me implies that there is nothing better

Maybe i'm being a harda$$, but to me, perfect poker just won't happen. ever.

Like i said before though - you can play very solid, good poker - and that happens all the time. That's what the pros do. That is why they make so many final tables, and why they are pros. They consistently play very good poker.

So, maybe I should lower my standards when it comes to the term 'perfect', but this is just one guy's opinion. I'm sure some people feel that perfect poker is possible, and that is fine with me. Everyone is entitled their own opinion - otherwise we wouldn't have this discussion thread

Ok, now I'm just blabbering......


- Nick

[Slayre]

If every decision you make, is the correct decision, everytime, then you have perfect poker..

Folding whatever would have been the winning hand, preflop, is not a factor.

With that said, you can play perfect poker, and lose... which is what makes the game so interesting.. there is that bit of luck involved, that 'forces' you to 'not' play perfect poker.

[JasonKirk]

Of course it's possible to play perfect poker, especially in tournament situations. Just ask Phil Hellmuth.

[Texas72]

Yea, cause that's who I want to emulate!!

I tend to agree with Nick. I think you can play great poker and win a tourney, but it's almost impossible to never make a mistake. There are blinds you should have stolen, winning hands folded, etc.

[beriac]

Perfect poker, pure and simple, would require perfect information. Obviously we don't have that.

Second best, and perhaps a better working definition of perfect poker, would be "the best one could possibly play given the circumstances". Okay, but it depends on so many factors... often on the margin it comes down to your read of some other player, and whether he's really hit his straight on the turn or not. Most of us are not CIA agents, so we probably can't profess to tell when a person is lying 100% of the time, so anyone who takes a chance and calls the would-be straight-hitter's bet is taking a chance -- and so is everyone who folds to it!

I think there are too many judgments that require instinct, reads, tells, etc to play anything close to "perfect poker". Too many decisions that could be made by coin toss. All we can do is do our best and try to improve...

[vinny]

I think you can play perfect poker, its all about the zone, everything has to be right at that moment in time. Every poker player will at some point experience that moment, if youve got your strategy polished and your at the top of you game there is no reason why you cant be in the zone!

[M. Åhman]

"The best one could possibly play given the circumstances" is (?) to always:

1) Know or being able to calculate the exact card-odds.
2) Know or being able to calculate the exact player-odds.
3) Never give a tell.

The first is (theoretically) possible. The number of cards are finite as is the number of players, so the number of combinations that could happen card-wise is countable. "Ace of hearts is dealt, then 2 of hearts, second player gets..." is one of those combinations.

If you're not doing any reading of players (by using previous life experience) the second is possible and could then maybe be called "mathematically" perfect poker. It includes using all information of how often your opponent has been folding/calling/raising and with how much.

After you calculated the percentages for you folding, calling, raising with 50, raising with 51... you need a random-number source. Randomize your next move and how long time to wait before clicking the mouse and your play will be impossible to read.