Is it possible to card count or do something like it in Texas hold'em?

Question

Is it possible to card count or do something like it in Texas hold'em?

Answer 1

At a full table in texas holdem (9 players) half the deck is used in every hand played to the river (the hole cards 18, the burn card 19, the flop 22, the burn card 23, the turn 24, the burn card 25, and the river 26) so you have to shuffle at the end of every hand.  Every form of poker spread in a card room requires that (if everyone stays into 7th in stud, there aren't enough cards to play a full hand).  I guess theoretically you could count the cards, but to what avail?  It would do you no good.  

There are many other aspects of the game you need to concentrate on such as learning possition (the most important concept in any poker game yet not everybody understands it), your hand values relative to possiton, pot odds, implied odds, etc....

One thing that never comes up in response to questions about texas holdem is that limit is played differently than pot limit, pot limit is played differently than no limit and I am not talking about the bets either.  Completely different stratagies are used when playing these three in a ring game (cash game), limit is the most math intensive of the three varieties because you are almost always getting pot odds with any hand of value.  Tournaments on the other hand are played   different than ring games, your blinds are increasing with time, your chip stack compared to others in the hand or at your table is important, and unless it is a rebuy and you still can rebuy, you can't reload so a bad play might end your tournament.

If you play alot, over time you will gain an edge over others in the game, ironically, I prefer to play good players as opposed to bad players, you can get a good player to lay down a good hand, a bad player won't lay down bottom pair no matter what you do.

Answer 2

No. Card Counting is specific to blackjack. Technically it is also possible to card count in baccarat but you do not actually gain any advantage.

The idea behind card counting is that the ratio of high to low cards remaining to be dealt effects the probability of winning. You can't control the ratio but you can control the amount you wager. You sit there and bet very little when you don't have an advantage then increase your wager when you have a higher chance of winning.

Texas-Holdem is poker. The ratio of high to low cards it not relevant. What you are concerned about is estimating what two hole cards other players have. You do this by reading their body language, what betting or other decisions they make and by remembering how they have played previous hands. You are also looking at the community cards and trying to factor in a bunch of factors that would take too long to explain but which have nothing to do with the ratio of low to high cards in a deck.

Answer 3

no only in games where the cards do not get shuffled

Answer 4

I would say probably not due to the amount of shuffeling they do and the way they do it. Also the number of cards in play varies too much and you never see all the cards all the time.

Answer 5

No, because the deck is reshuffled between each hand, and the only cards you can (legally) see are your 2 and the community 5, so you can't even try it within a single hand.

Answer 6

Not really, since you are only be able to see your two hold cards and 5 community cards at most.  Texas hold'em is a totally different game than Blackjack, so in time you will be able to guess correctly what kind of hold cards your opponents are holding without counting any cards.

Answer 7

It is, but there's no point.  In hold em there are only 5 exposed cards and then, as mentioned, the cards are reshuffled.  So what would you want to count the cards for?