Pot Odds - Your Secret Poker Weapon
By ian mcintosh, Sat Dec 10th

Pot odds is one of the most neglected aspects of Texas Holdempoker, especially by the beginner and intermediate player. Somepoker beginners have heard the term and a few even have a basicconcept of what pot odds are, but very few of these players knowhow to put them to good use in a game.

However knowing how to calculate and use pot odds is one of thecrucial weapons that serious players have in their armory,one that most definitely separates them from the amateur.

Poker pot odds are often associated with complex mathematicalcalculations and the less serious player can feel overwhelmed atthe prospect of tackling such a subject, but don’t fret, do youreally think that to be a serious player you need to be agenius at mathematics? Do you think all the pros are?

Well of course the answer is that they are most definitely notall geniuses, but what they do have is a method of calculatingthe odds quickly and easily to see if they are in their favor inany given situation. So let’s look at a simple, basic way ofcalculating the odds, remember it needs to be quick and easy sothat it can be worked out quickly and accurately in the heat andpressure of a game.

Poker pot odds can be broken down to this simple one liner:

“If the odds of you getting the card you need to make your handare less than the pot odds, you should bet.”

There are two sides to this equation which I will try andexplain, “odds of you getting the card you need” and “pot odds.”Firstly “odds of you getting the card you need”, this one isfairly easy to understand. It’s best explained using the exampleof a flush or straight draw, so we’ll use a straight draw toillustrate it.

You’re in a Texas Holdem game and your pocket cards are Q T, theflop is J 4 9. In order to make a straight you need to geteither a King or 8 on the turn or river so you have eightpossible cards that can make your hand, four Kings and four 8s.These are known as your “out” cards.

You’ve seen five cards out of the deck, your own two pocketcards and the three flop cards. That means there’s 47 cards youhaven’t seen. So the odds of you getting the card you need are:

Cards that won’t help you : Cards that will help you

Out of the 47 remaining cards, eight of them will help you and35 won’t, so the “odds of you getting the card you need” are35:8 or 4.375:1. Now for the pot odds.

The basic formula is:

The size of the pot : Amount you need to put into the pot.

So if the pot is sitting at $100 and you need to bet $20 tocall, your pot odds are 100:20 or 5:1.

In this case the pot odds (5:1) are bigger than the odds of yougetting the card you need (4.375:1) so you should call the bet.This is known as getting "value" for your bet. If you are doingthese sums quickly you can think of 35:8 as being about four anda half to one, it’s good enough for a quick calculation.

This is a simplification of pot odds

and there are otherconsiderations like – will the players after you in the round ofbetting add to the pot? This would make your bet an even betterproposition as it would increase the pot odds but it is ofcourse an unknown factor.

Understand pot odds and you will take your game forward to thenext stage and prepare yourself for the big league.

About the author:Article by Ian McIntosh of Love-Texas-Holdem.com Check out the site for the latestinformation on Texas Holdem tournaments and freerolls as well asfresh weekly articles you can use for your site. Please feelfree to use this article on your website, newsletter or blog aslong as this resource box is left intact and there's a live linkto the site.