Usage of Nash Equilibrium in poker

The game of poker is a card based game, which has developed into many various kinds, in terms of the number of cards dealt, how many cards are on the deck visible for all players, and what remains hidden, over the past few decades. Despite its differences, poker of any kind shares one major significance; the factor, that either sets one winning or losing, is based upon decisions made in the long run. The utmost degree of such decisions resemble economic components, since the most elementary acts, such as raising the bets and folding one’s cards, may be regarded as a case of supply and demand. And one of them, which is the topic of this essay, is Nash Equilibrium, commonly used in games with no more than two players involved which is also known as „Heads Up“. Nash Equilibrium sets two players, with the very same count of chips, against one another in a situation where each player can either bet, all of his or her stack only, or fold. After this particular match is finished, the players‘ stacks are equilibrated again and this whole process is being repeated for sake of the long run. This algorithm is also known as „Fictitious Play“ (Dudziak, 2006). Most importantly each of the players ought to take in consideration the opponent’s decision, based on which they reach a convenient consensus, meaning, in order to maintain Nash Equilibrium, they both must correctly presume the upcoming action (Osborne & Rubinstein, 1994). Thus it is foreseeable that one or the other side, oftenly, faces a difficulty while striving for an equilibrium.
Practically, in a situation where both sides dispose of no more than 10 big blinds, which is considered too low stack, for one, to do anything else but either bet all in or fold his or her cards, Nash Equili...

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...hand, pocket kings, he or she would have faced pocket aces in 60% of the cases and hence the situation is losing in the long term. On the other hand, if the tighter range consisted of pocket aces and a combination of two low subsequent cards of any color, instead of ten, there would have been 22 combinations so the opponent could call more often for value.
It is very necessary, though, to play with every single hand upon the Nash Equilibrium rules, not just with some, if one decides to follow. If, for example, top pairs served the purpose of trapping the oponent by simply calling the blind or min-raising the bets, but not going all in straightaway, rest of the range would be weakened and bluffs more likely to be called (Harrington, 2005). It is advisable to use Nash Equilibrium, unless our opponent does so, because there is no better way to fight him or her then.