Learning how to add logical thinking into your game with pot odds:

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Pot odds are an important aspect of poker that you should always be aware of. When you hear about odds in Texas Hold'em or poker in general, you will probably think about the odds of hitting the hand you want. What are the odds of completing a straight? What are the odds of making a flush? What are the odds of flopping top pair? What are the odds of making a set or three of a kind?

Pot odds are basically a measure of the money you are putting into the pot vs the current amount of money in the pot. Simple on the surface. If the game is 3/6 structure, and there are 12 bets in the pot, that's a total of $36 in the pot. Let's say it's the river, which means the betting has gone up to $6. If there is only one raise and no one playing behind you, then the pot odds are 36:6, or 6:1. That means, you'll get $6 to each $1 you put in to see the river. In reality, what that really means that in this same position, you need to win 1 out of 6 times to break even. If you win once, you get that $36. If you call 6 times at the river with one raise, you spend $36. Thus, if you only win 1 out of 6 times, you end up breaking even ($36 - $36).

Everytime you are at a decision, you always must take into account pot odds. When you're heads up against someone, the pot odds are going to be smaller, toward a 2:1 ratio (with almost half of that being your own money really!). If there are many callers at the table, then the pot odds will grow substantially for each caller, especially as you go down the river.

Consider the following: 10 calling stations calling one raise all the way down the the river. There is a pre-flop, flop, turn and river, or (3*10) + (3*10) + (6*10) + (6*10) = 30 + 30 + 60 + 60 = $180 pot. Can you calculate what the pot odds are for you to call at each round of betting? If not, the odds are.. pre-flop 10:1, flop 20:1, turn 20:1, river 30:1.

Now let's suppose you're holding pocket 2's and the board shows no possible straight or flush possibilities. Is it worth it to go in on this pot? YES! The chance of making a set on the flop involves hitting your deuce from the remaining 50 unknown cards. Your odds, thus are 50:2, 49:2, 48:2, which comes out to about 12%. After that, on the turn, you got a 47:2 chance of making your set, which is about 33:1. To hit on the river, that's another 33:1 chance. However, with the weird way that probabilities are calculated, from pre-flop to river, you have about a 10:1 odd of making your set.

10:1 is not very good on the surface, but when you compare that to pot odds, there's some magic that begins. 10:1 odds are the chance of you making your set, meaning 1 out of every 10 times you'll make trips. On the pot odds, by the river, the pot is at 30:1 pot odds, which means you need to only win 1 out of 30 times to break even.

In summary:

Hand odds: Will make set 1 out of 10 times

Pot Odds: Will need to win 1 out of 30 times to breka even


See where I'm getting at here?

Now that you're armed with this knowledge, start calculating your own odds and see what you can do. Good luck!

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