Speculation
Back when the gold rush was in full swing, or the oil industry was just getting it’s legs on the ground we had what was called speculation. That is, people would survey an area and based on an examination would predict what kind of a yield in profit the land would make be it gold or oil. Well in online poker, we do the same thing only on a much smaller scale. We’re not surveying land, but we’re surveying cards. And we’re playing these cards on the chances that something good will come. We’re speculating in the same sense as the gold rushers and the oil refiners. A lot of people call these kinds of poker online hands come hands, since you’re essentially betting on what will come. Let’s say you have AQh. And the flop comes Kd-8h-10h. This puts you in a very speculative position. You’re hoping to see a heart come to complete your flush, but at the same time, you have to be able to determine what’s worth continuing (i.e. if the land looks good enough to continue) or if you have to give up and play poker online another time. Just as the speculator of the days long past did, you have to look at the risk versus the reward. Is it worth it to dig for days only to find a small ore of gold that would barely pay your mens’ wages and leave you with very little? Of course not, you’d rather find a piece of land that would pay your workers and you a hefty sum. In poker, this analogy can be applied to pot odds. If you’re getting good pot odds to continue to draw, or speculate, then you’re making a correct play. You’re men (the cards) are doing the work for you, and you’re hoping they’re good enough workers to yield you a return on the money you’re investing in them. But again, you’re only speculating, since they may not find anything. In our example above, the AQh may not find it’s fifth companion heart on the landscape that is the turn and river. And thus your speculation didn’t yield. Again, this is where pot odds come in. Even if you don’t hit your speculative hands, if you play with the right odds in mind, or perhaps even semibluff your big draws, you can make money on your speculation, and that’s essentially how you play your big drawing hands.