 Implied
odds are an extension of pot
odds that help you
decide whether or not a
drawing hand is worth
calling in the face of a
raise. Essentially, the
implied odds of a hand
tell you how much you
expect to win after you make your draw.
Therefore if you expect
to win a lot more money
from your opponent after
you make your draw, you
have good implied odds.
Conversely if you
anticipate that you will
not be able to get any
more money out of your
opponent on future
rounds, then you have
little or no implied
odds.
Unlike
in pot odds, there are no
simple mathematical rules
or formulas to determine
what your implied odds
are. Implied odds are
obtained by having a good
knowledge of your
opponent and the
situation. For this
reason it is easier to
determine the nature of
your implied odds if you
have been playing the
game for some time.
The
more you play, the more
situations you will
encounter and eventually
it will be easier to
obtain an accurate
estimation of your
implied odds. However, if
you are quite new to the
game and this is the
first time you have come across implied odds,
there are two situations
below to illustrate both
when you have good
implied odds, and when
you have little or no
implied odds.
Good
implied odds situation
You
Flop
 
In
this hand you have an
open ended straight draw.
If your opponent bets
into you, then you have
good implied odds because
if you make your
straight, it is likely
that you will be able to
extract more money from
your opponent on later
rounds of betting. This
is because your opponent
will not easily be able
to estimate the strength
of your hand.
Poor
implied odds situation
You
Flop
Once
again you have an open
ended straight draw.
However your implied odds
are far worse in this
situation because if you
do make your straight
when the Ace or 9 comes,
the board will be very
scary to your opponent as
the board could easily
make somebody the
straight. There is little
chance that you will get
much more money out of
your opponents unless
they have the straight
also.
From
the situations above you
should learn that the
more disguised you hand
is, the greater implied
odds you have.
So
how do implied odds
affect my game?
The great thing about
implied odds is that they
have a knock on effect
against your pot odds. If
you anticipate you will
win more money from your
opponent on later rounds
of betting, you can
afford to make calls when
your opponent is not
giving you the correct
pot odds to call.
For
example, if you have the
nut straight draw the
odds that you will
complete the draw on the
next card are roughly 5
to 1. If your opponent
bets $25 making the pot
$100, he is giving you 4
to 1 odds to call. Now if
we to base our decision
purely on pot odds then
we should not make the
call. However, if we
believe that we have good
implied odds, the call
becomes justifiable. This
is because we will be
making more money when we
make our draw, than if we
folded.
The
fundamental rules of
implied odds to remember
are:
- If
you have good implied
odds, you can afford
to call without
correct pot odds.
- If
you have little or no
implied odds, you
should stick to the
pot odds.
Evaluation
Implied odds are useful
for deciding whether to
call a bet after you have
calculated the pot odds.
If you do not have the
correct odds to call a
bet and make your draw,
then a call is
justifiable if you have
good implied odds.
However you should stick
to the pot odds if you
anticipate that you have
little or no implied
odds. It should be noted
that you have no implied
odds if your opponent is
all-in, because there
will be no betting on
further rounds if nobody
else in the pot. Be sure
to be careful when
calling large raises, as
the implied odds that you
are getting may not cover
the amount you have to
call in order to make
your draw. The best way
to obtain a greater
understanding of your pot
odds is simply to play
more poker.
<Strategy
Articles
Take
Me To The Top Online
Poker Room>> |
