Understanding
Pot Odds is one of the things that separates
the occasional recreational poker player
from the professional poker player. The
basis is quite easy to understand, however
for a novice calculating them often isn’t!
So firstly why do you need to know the
pot odds?
Poker is a game of skill, not a game of
chance. One of the main skills is
understanding value. What this means is how
likely am I to win the hand, and if I do win
the hand how much will I win?
So if I calculate that I have 10 outs
(the number of different cards) which will
probably give me a winning hand, the pot is
$500 and I’m being asked $50 to call, the
value bet is to call. Why?
Because you are getting 9/1 on something
which is in reality only a 3.6/1 chance. In
the long run if you continued to get 9/1 on
a 3.6/1 chance you will make a lot of
money!! Just think if you went to the
racetrack every day and you got odds of 9/1
on horses which in reality won 25% of the
time, you’d soon be rich. Poker odds are
no different.
So how do you calculate the 3.6/1 and 9/1
Well you can calculate your chance of
winning by the number of outs as a fraction
of the cards you haven’t seen. So in this
case you know what the four communal cards
are, you obviously know the two cards that
you were dealt, which leaves 46 cards which
you haven’t seen. So you have a 10 in 46
chance or put another way 3.6/1 (46/10)-1)
of the final card being one that you want
So it's a 3.6/1 chance that you will get
the card that you need. Calculating your
return is easy, what fraction of the total
pot is your bet, so if your betting $50 for
a potential return of $500, that's 10/1.
Obviously this assumes that if you get
the card you’re looking for then you will
win the hand, this is sometimes not the case
as your opponent might be looking for the
same card as you, and this is something
which you should factor into your
calculations.
If this all sounds far to complicated
then there is an easier way to calculate pot
odds in your head, click
on this link for instructions!!
