Anyone who just finished watching a James Bond movie can likely tell you all about the dramatic flair in which 007 flips the cards down and claims victory over the villain, whether they be a mysterious tyrant with a vast supply of gold paint or a rogue MI6 agent with a mysterious past.  The concept of theatricality and dramatic flair in these types of movies and media has more to do with keeping the audience entertained than it does with accurately reflecting the realities of these types of competitions.  In the world-famous Texas Hold'em poker tournaments, drama has no place, and players are generally considered to be on equal ground based on skill and ability as well as experience.  First and foremost, any professional level Texas Hold'em poker tournament player, whether they work for the CIA, MI6, the Secret Service or McDonald's will tell you that the secret to winning at Texas Hold'em poker and the tournaments and cash games that revolve around the game is to understand the ranks of hands and the odds of any given hand of winning.

But it is not enough to simply understand the odds, as generic numbers and statistics can tell you very little about people and the reactions that they have to the cards that they are dealt.  Statistical logic will tell you that a certain hand has a certain chance of winning on a regular basis.  But simply saying that a certain hand will win 50% of the time is not nearly enough information to go by, as there is so much other external and extraneous data being exchanged that it can be nearly impossible to accurately ascertain the true chances of winning.  Simply saying that a hand has a statistical chance is one thing, but gleaning some type of external information about the contents of your opponent's hand can be the deciding factor.  If some of the junk on the table that you can't use seems like it might work for someone else, then this would naturally change the odds of winning.  In fact, the cards on the table have almost more to do with your chances than the cards in your hand in many cases.  Understanding the rapidly fluid nature of the game of Texas Hold'em poker has much to do with the player's ability to win out against these types of statistical averages that mean little more than a general rule of thumb for players to follow.