[ballen]

I am just learning to figure odds and percentages and am wondering how they are calculated? Do they change depending on how many people are playing? I have been asking a lot of questions lately about luck and bad beats and am starting realy question the traditional poker theory? If you dealt a hundred hands at a 10 person table and everyone stayed in to the river, I think 72 off would win just as often as pocket As. Am I wrong? Isn't most traditional theory based on the assumption most people will fold and you wont have 10 hands competing to the river? A lot of the reading I am doing tells about raising to thin the field to better your odds. So wouldn't it make sense that in order for the traditional theory of tight aggressive play to work, everyone has to play in a similar manner.

[louis]

I'm not the man to ask about calculating, but odds and percentages aren't dependant on how people are playing - it is merely a guide to how strong your hand is relative to how string it would be over the course of 1000, 10000 games etc.

It's true that a lot of hands would win that probably shouldn't have stayed in, but that's the luck of the draw so to speak. Tight play and playing by the statistics will almost guarantee you success in the long run, but the odd deviation and bluff will earn you much more.