The ideas of noted poker author and theorist David Sklansky have revolutionized the game of poker. There is one theory that Mr. Sklansky felt was so important that he opened his seminal work, "The Theory of Poker," with this concept. He called it "The Fundamental Theorem of Poker," based on the ideas that there are Fundamental Theories of comprehensive mathematical systems such as Algebra and Calculus. What is Sklansky's Theorem, and how can you apply it to your poker play?
Poker a game of incomplete information
Sklansky's Theorem is based on understanding the key idea that poker is a game of incomplete information. This, he theorizes, is why poker remains so popular. Unlike games like chess or checkers, where no information is hidden and it is possible to objectively determine the right move or moves at all times, poker requires that players make educated guesses as to what will happen next and what their opponents are holding. Sometimes these guesses will be correct, sometimes they won't. Sometimes they will be correct and the guesser will still end up losing, sometimes they will be incorrect and the guesser will win anyway. The mystery factor keeps good players interested and the fluctuating results keep the bad players coming back. What all that comes down to is this idea, Sklansky's Fundamental Theorem of Poker: Whenever you make a play that is different from the way you would have played if you could see your opponent's hand, you lose, when you make a play consistent with a play that you would have made if you knew what they had, you gain. When your opponent makes a play different from what he would have made if he could see your cards, you gain, when he is consistent, you lose. In other words, most of your advantage in poker comes from your ability to put an opponent on a hand and act accordingly, or to deceive your opponents as to the nature of your hand. How does this work in practice? Well, in some cases, the application is fairly straightforward. If you hold pocket queens and your opponent holds pocket aces and you throw your hand away when he raises, clearly you have gained. Even if you would have hit a queen on the flop, correctly making this play over the long haul will be a large positive expectation for you. However the problem is that many players don't necessarily understand what the correct play is. For example, let's say a player is holding the 5 6 of hearts and the board is Q-Q-T-9 with two hearts. There is $100 in the pot and the opponent goes all in for $150 more. Most players, fearing they are up against a full house or higher flush draw, would probably fold in this situation. However, if they knew the opponent was holding A 9 with no hearts, many players would make the call, even though they are not getting the correct poker odds to do so.
Corollary to the Theorem of Poker
Therefore I would offer a corollary to the theorem: Whenever you make a play that is different from the CORRECT way to play if you could see your opponent's cards, you lose, and so on. While this seems like an obvious distinction, it is one that doesn't discount the importance of understanding correct play relative to being able to put your opponent on a hand. Both skills are important, and you must master these and more if you are to be a consistently successful player.
