If
you have spent anytime watching poker on television, you will occasionally see a
player staring at the pot and mumbling numbers. It appears you’re watching a
human calculator, but what’s actually going on is the player is likely trying to
figure out the pot odds.
Pot odds are the size of the pot relative to the
cost of calling the bets necessary to remain in the hand. Just knowing the math
part of poker won’t turn you into a champion. But pot odds are an important
component in understanding whether a hand is worth betting on or
not.
It’s an absolute certainty that you will be behind in most poker
hands, forcing you to pick and choose your spots when going for a draw and
chasing a hand. But when is the right moment to take a chance on that long shot?
This is the point where knowing how to figure out pot odds comes into play.
Start
out by keeping track of how much money is in the pot so you can quickly figure
out the pots odds when the time is right. Then, use the pot odds to simplify
challenging decisions. For example, if you have a flush draw of diamonds (four
diamonds) after the flop in a game of Texas Hold ’Em, and there are a total of
13 diamonds in a deck, there would be nine other diamonds remaining (13 - 4 =
9). This gives you a 19% chance of hitting a diamond on the next card. Now that
you’ve established the 19% number, take the amount of the pot, lets say 80, and
add it to the amount of the bet to call, lets say 10. The equation would be: 80
+ 10 x .19 = 17.1. Since 17.1 is greater than 10, making the call would be the
right move. In this example, if the pot were 30, the pot odds would change
dramatically: 30 + 10 x. 19 = 7.6. Since 7.6 is less than 10, this would put the
pot odds against you.
That’s
an example of pot odds after the flop. Using pot odds after the turn can be a
bit more complex. The reason is that the hand you’re drawing for may not be the
best one at the table by the time the river card is revealed, which totally
changes the odds. When figuring pot odds, you can only use the next card as the
moniker for hitting your hand.
This is the type of edge that the best
players try to attain on every hand. Pros treat the pot like it’s a bookie. If
you’re not getting the right odds on a horse, a football game or Tiger Woods to
win the Masters, you shouldn’t be in the game. If the risk-reward ratio doesn’t
pan out, there’s no sense in betting on the hand.
Pot odds seem complex,
and like anything, will take time to master. Especially if numbers aren’t your
specialty. But don’t overemphasis the value of knowing the odds. It’s just one
part of the game, and there are plenty of professionals who understand that
poker is much more than crunching numbers.
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