Pot Odds

Learning how to use pot odds puts an incredibly useful weapon in your poker arsenal. Knowledge of this basic concept is fundamental in determining whether or not you will become a winning or losing poker player. Although possibly sounding complex at first, this guide aims to explain simply how pot odds work and how to effectively incorporate them into your game. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to read this guide from start to finish, which is pretty good considering the knowledge could be saving and winning you more money for the rest of your poker career.

First of all, what are Pot Odds?

Pot Odds simply involves using the odds or likelihood of winning when on a drawing hand to decide whether or not to call a bet or a raise. This is a very common situationin Poker, especially in the game of Holdem, so it will prove to be very useful to know when you should call or fold your drawing hands when in the face of a raise. A familiar situation you will find yourself in Holdem is holding 2 cards of the same suit with another 2 cards of that suit on the flop. In poker this is called a flush draw or sometimes referred to as a ‘four flush’. We will use this as an example in learning the use of pot odds.

Ratio Method

You Hold

Flop

Now say there are two people left in the pot, you and your opponent. There is $80 in the pot and your opponent bets $20. What should you do?

1] Calculating The ‘Card Odds'
First of all we need to find out how likely we are to catch another heart on the turn. This can be done in many ways, but the most popular way is to find the ratio of cards in the deck that we don’t want against cards that we do want.

• There are 5 cards in this hand that we know, our 2 holecards and the 3 cards on the flop.
• This leaves us with 47 cards in the deck that we do not know.
• Out of those 47 there are 9 cards that will make our flush and 38 that will not.
• If we put this into a ratio it gives us 38:9, or roughly 4:1.

2] Compare With Pot Odds
Now we know that the odds of hitting a heart on the next card are 4:1. This means for every 4 times we don’t catch a heart, 1 time we will. Next we have to calculate the same ratio of odds using the amount that is in the pot and the bet we are facing.

• Our opponent has bet $20 into an $80 pot making it $100.
• This means we have to call $20 to stand a chance of winning $100.
• This makes our odds $100:$20 which works out to equal 5:1 pot odds.

So...

This means that we should call as the odds we are getting from the pot are bigger than the odds that we will hit our flush on the next card. In the long run we will be winning more money than we are losing.

Remember! You should only call if the pot odds are greater than the 'card odds' (probability of completing your draw).

If finding the card odds by working them out in your head is too time consuming (which most beginners will) . You can find them more quickly by using Odds Charts. These are handy if you print them out and stick them next to your computer and refer to them the next time you end up with a draw.

Percentage Method

Pot Odds can also be calculated using percentages. Some players prefer to work out the odds in percentages rather than using the ratio odds. This time we will use another example using a straight draw.

You Hold

Flop

This time your opponent bets $30 making the pot $90 in total. We will find out whether or not to call by finding out the pot odds in percentages.

1] Finding the ‘Card Odds’
To find the chance of making the straight on the next card we again need to find the number of outs (‘outs’ are cards that will complete the hand we are trying to make, in this example we are trying to make a straight.). There are 4 fives and 4 tens that will complete our straight giving us a total of 8 outs. Now to find the percentage chance of making the straight we simply need to double the outs and add one.

8 * 2 = 16

16 + 1 = 17% chance of making the straight

2] Compare with Pot Odds
Our opponent has bet $30 making the pot $90. This means we have to call $30 to stand a chance of winning a total of $120, as you can see we have to add our own bet that we will call onto the size of the pot to find the total pot size. This part is very important, as finding the percentage of $30 in a $90 pot will give a very different result that the percentage of $30 in a $120 pot. So using basic mathematics we know that $30 is 25% of the $120.

So...

As we have already found out we have 17% chance of making the straight on the next card, which means that we should only call 17% of what is in the pot. Therefore because we are being forced to call 25% to play on we should fold. We would be losing money in the long run if we called.

Remember! You should only call if the percentage chance of making your hand is greater than the percentage of the pot you have to call.

The percentage card odds can also be found in Odds Charts if you find it easier to use them instead of work them out.  These are useful as a guide as you start incorporating pot odds into your game, or if you have trouble working out the odds in the short space of time you are given to make decisions whilst playing online.

Evaluation
Although upon first glance Pot Odds may appear difficult, they are one of the most basic applications of mathematics in the game of poker. If you base your drawing decisions on pot odds then you will mathematically be a winner in the long run, regardless of whether or not you win the hand or not.

In addition to deciding whether or not to call, Pot Odds can be used to influence how much you should bet when protecting your hand. If you believe your opponent is drawing to a flush then you should bet a large enough sum into the pot to give your opponents the wrong odds to call. Once again regardless of whether or not your opponent wins the particular hand, they will be losing more money in the long run. Which or course means you will be winning more in the long run.

Note: The pot odds examples used in this guide have been in the situation where you have seen the flop and are waiting to see the turn. The same mathematics can be applied for when you are on the turn waiting to see the river, as both odds are almost exactly the same. However, you should remember that there will be one less unknown card left in the deck when working out the odds because you now know what the turn card is.

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