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Fragmentary Information

Unlike other games, like chess, poker is a game of fragmentary information. You do not know your opponents’ cards. This lack of information prevents you from always making the perfect decision. Sklansy writes about this self-evident insight in his Fundamental Theorem of Poker:

"Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponent’s cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they loose. Conversely every time oppo-nents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played it if they could see all your cards, you lose. From “Theory of Poker”.

There are situations when not caring about your opponents is not dangerous to your play. For example, you hold a high pocket pair and a harmless flop with only low cards is being revealed, or you hit a really strong made hand on the flop. But more often than not, your hand is vulnerable and far from being the nuts. Of course you want to make the best possible move also in situations like this, so you want to estimate the approximate strength of your opponents’ hands. This method is called hand reading. Good hand reading will close the gap of lacking information (your opponents’ cards) a little bit.