Hutchison Points System

[Valiant23]

Has anyone ever heard of it?

The first question the new poker player must answer concerns which hands can be played profitably. Not too surprisingly, the answer is often, "It depends." But while it can't be denied that the answer to this primary question is subjective and situationally dependent, it is also true that certain guidelines can be useful to the beginner as he or she learns the intricacies of the game. With this need in mind, I have developed a simple, mathematical, system for evaluating starting hands for the four major flop games. Just following the links below will permit you to determine for yourself if such an approach can help you. I hope that you find these systems helpful and that they augment your own analysis. Edward Hutchison Madison, MS

http://pokerprofessor.homestead.com/links.html Basically this chap has beginners(?) strategies for starting hand requirements for the games of Hold 'Em, Hold 'Em High Low (:unsure), Omaha and Omaha H/L where each card or cards in your starting hand is allocated points, and then points are added or taken away depending on certain circumstances. Here are the Hold Em rules;

Various "experts" may disagree on the relative importance of different factors in becoming a successful Texas Hold 'Em player, but high on everyone's list is the ability to make correct decisions about which starting hands are worth playing.

While one can err in the direction of being too tight (i.e., playing too few hands), most observers would agree that beginning Hold 'Em players are much more likely to err in the opposite direction and play too many hands. In all poker variations, especially at the lower limits, the newcomer will pay a higher penalty for being too loose than being too tight. Given this proclivity to play too many hands and the unpleasant consequences of this behavior, it is probably excellent advice for the beginning player to pay special attention to the task of identifying hands that have the best chances of winning the money. There will come a time when other factors, such as the desire to be deceptive, the need to "play the players," post-flop strategies, the significance of position, the importance of "table image," etc., will need to be mastered, but these are complex and subtle issues that are very difficult to quantify. Fortunately for the novice, one skill that lends itself to fairly easy quantification is the question of determining worthwhile starting hands. What follows is a very easy method of using simple math to objectively identify winning hands. STEP ONE: Add the value of your two cards using the scale below: Ace= 16 pts. King= 14 pts. Queen= 13 pts. Jack= 12 pts. Ten= 11 pts. all other cards are worth their face value, e.g., a two is 2 pts., a nine is 9 pts. STEP TWO: If your two cards are paired, add 10 points to the total. STEP THREE: If your two cards are both of the same suit, add four points. STEP FOUR: If your cards are connected (i.e., next to each other in rank, as with a Jack and Ten, a Jack and a Queen, etc.) add three points. STEP FIVE: If your cards have a one card "gap" (e.g., a Queen and a Ten, a Jack and a Nine, or an Ace and a Queen, etc.) add two points. STEP SIX: If your cards have a two-card "gap" (e.g., an Ace and a Jack, a Queen and a Nine, or a Jack and an Eight, etc.) add one point. STEP SEVEN: If you are in middle position add three points, and if you are in late position or on the button, add five points. STEP EIGHT: Call a bet with 30 points or more, and raise or call a raise with 34 points or more. By limiting yourself to these hands you will always be playing premium cards.

Monte-Carlo type simulations prove that any hand that earns 30 or more points under the first six steps of this system will win at least 17% of the hands in a ten-handed game. A random hand, of course, will win 10% of the time under Monte-Carlo conditions where every hand is played to the finish. Thus, a 30 point hand will win at a rate about 70% above chance expectations and this should provide beginning Hold 'Em players a margin of safety as they progress in developing the other skills necessary for greater success in this interesting and complex game.

I must admit I haven't looked at these in detail but the Omaha 'rules' certainly helped me to at least understand which combinations are good. I must be honest I'll be interested in what Gaf and Slappy especially have to say. :ok

[GaF]

Re: Hutchison Points System Haven't read it properly (yet), but first impression - if such a simple automated strategy were successful, why would bots have so much trouble beating the game? My gut feel is that everyone on PL can play better than this strategy..... EDIT Second skim - this isn't a strategy to beat the game - just for determining starting hand strategy - but we all know that anyway, right? :tongue2