A Brain Will Aid You For Figuring Out Poker Pot Odds (If Required, Borrow A Ally’s Brain!)

by Carmelo on May 6th, 2013

[ English ]

Sorry to say this, but live poker on the internet requires some math. Horrible! Yes, Yes. But I am doing my best to support make this as simple for you as I can. Here’s a Psalm for you personally:

Church of Holdem Psalm #4:

Thy must figure what odds the pot offers thou just before choosing to draw at thy hand.

Have you truly studied poker? If not, there’s work to do 1st. You must understand and know off by heart the odds of your cards getting better after the flop. You will discover plenty of internet sites providing this data.

Don’t be too stuckup about figuring out pot odds. Just have the rough concept in easy-to-remember chunks. Two-to-one, 4 to 1 and so on. See! That was not too awful. Now for pot odds and how you can calculate ‘em.

So, to illustate, here’s a frightening illustration in nl holdem. You have Ad7d. That you are heads-up and there is $30 in the pot. The flop gives you the nut flush draw:

Kc nine diamonds two-d

Except your opponent moves all-in for his final 25 dollars. Can you call or not?

1st, what do you think he has? Probably a king, 2 pairs, a set? You will be most likely behind anyway. Now let us look in the pot and see if you may afford to call. Here comes the math!

There’s thirty dollars just before his bet, and 55 dollars once he’s all-in. It fees you $25 to see the turn and river. 55 divided by 25 is 2.2-to-one. Your odds of hitting the flush are 2 to 1, which implies you might be getting a lot more value from the pot than the amount it fees to call.

Are you surprised at how close this judgement is? I was!

5 dollars less in the pot and you can either call or fold, it would make no distinction to your long-term outcomes. There would be 50 dollars in the pot and it would price you $25, exactly 2 to 1. You’d win one time in three, which means you’d neither win nor lose!

Whenever you operate out pot odds and find them against you, you must fold. Even in cases when it appears close. In the lengthy run, you will be saving cash by folding.

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