A strategy post of sorts

There are two ways to win money in a poker hand. First you have the best hand at showdown and win the pot, pretty boring and requires you to have the best hand. Second, you bet everyone out and take down the pot uncontested, all skill no luck...er, not quite. Recently this seems to be all the rage. People are obsessed with "chipping up", winning without showdown, etc. especially now that poker tracking software will give you a pretty graph showing how much you've won/lost (usually won) at showdown and won/lost (usually lost) not at showdown. A couple issues with this.

1. The idea that when you win a pot without a showdown it's "no risk". When you make a bet, you what your opponent has, they have a range of hands they'll fold and a range of hands they won't. When they fold, it's not because you are a genius and outplayed them (necessarily) it's just that they happened to have a hand in their folding range. Just because they fold doesn't mean the bet was good (just like if they call it doesn't mean it was bad)

2. This is more a continuation of 1, but this desire for non-showdown winnings often makes people just play terribly in an effort to win without showdown. In some games it's just right to wait for good hands and value bet them in others it's right to run people over. Don't try to force either one, adjust to the table and each individual player.

3. Winning money without showdown doesn't mean you're playing well. There's a pretty simple strategy that 100% guarantees that your non-showdown winnings will be positive: stop folding. You may not make money but that non showdown winnings line on the graph is going to be off the charts!

Basically what I'm trying to say is that poker is about making the most money, it's not about how you win it. Focus on making good decisions in each hand and stop trying to manipulate whether the money you win comes from winning at showdown and without. I think just about everyone would be better off never looking at the lines on the graph, and instead using the time they'd waste worrying about the lines doing math, going over hands and doing things to actually get better.

Steve