Replay Poker's Blog
Play Now

Can Wordle make you better at poker?

March 30, 2022

0 Comment(s)

How does thinking through a strategy for a simple game like Wordle compare to a much more complex game like poker? And how can you use it to your advantage?

Define an objective

With Wordle, you want to keep your daily streak going at the very least, but would probably like to get your average down by finding the answer as quickly as you can.

At poker, the plan might vary. You might want to join a ring table to bank a moderate win, or even a big one. If you join a tournament, you will have decided you want to risk a set amount. Settle on a strategy to return a reasonable amount of chips.

Either way, you can mentally prepare.

Preparation

Whatever your intended objective, you can have a game plan.

You can research the best starting word, get a list of the library of possible words, or brush up on your starting ranges for the variant of poker you are about to play.

You can elect whether you want to play “hard” at Wordle and make all your guesses be a possible solution. 

Alternatively, you might pick yesterday’s word, or use your old faithful favorite one if you want to have a bit of casual fun.

In poker, you decide how aggressive you plan to be. Are you going to wait for chances, or create them with aggressive play? How many rebuys are you going to risk and how will you proceed if you find yourself chip leader.

You could play below your “serious” mode if you just want to relax and chat in a freeroll or a leaderboard tournament.

Observation

What are the important things you’ve seen that you need to remember before your next play? Have you got all the vowels? Are you trying new letters which are common, or are you speculating with rare letters which, if they are right, will narrow down the possibilities?

Who are the calling stations? Is it likely you can steal these blinds? How much should you raise to deter, or encourage callers?

Change of plan

Once you begin to put your plan into action, what if the results are totally unexpected? Part of your preparation should be to have a plan B for finding no letters at all for your first guess, or needing  to rebuy twice in the first orbit.

Maximize your chances

Once you have information to work with, what is the best way to maximize it? Different bet sizing may extract more value from the callers. Placing the E you just found at the end might be a good place to try it, rather than at the start. 

Learn from experience

Long term, in both games, remember the mistakes you made and try not to repeat them. Replay hands to find out where others are making mistakes, or being smart.

If something doesn’t work out the first time, revisit your thinking and decide if it is worth a try another day.

Discover what other players think about the game. There may be strategies they have tried that are slightly better versions of yours.