Pot Odds
January 19, 2008
When you see a flop, you will generally be in one of three situations.
Situation #1: Your hand totally misses the board.
|
|
Your Hand | Board |
You have nothing, so you should check and fold.
Situation #2: You hit the flop well and hold a strong hand.
|
|
Your Hand | Board |
In these situations, you should generally bet or raise.
Situation #3: Drawing hand
The third possibility is that you currently do not hold a strong hand, but it is possible for you to make a strong hand if the turn or river brings you a good card. This situation is known as “drawing.” Example:
|
|
Your Hand | Board |
In this situation, a spade will make you a flush, and an Ace or King will bring you top pair.
When you are drawing, there are several tools that will help you make your decisions. One important tool is “pot odds.” Calculating pot odds is fairly simple. First, you must count the number of outs you have. An out is a card that will improve your hand.
|
|
Your Hand | Board |
In this example, your outs are 4 Aces and 4 Nines, or 8 outs total. To calculate your percentage of hitting an out on the next card, you take the # of outs times 2, then add 1. In the above situation with 8 outs, you have roughly a 17% chance of hitting on the turn.
Once you figure out your chance of hitting a draw, you multiply it by the pot plus the bet to see what the maximum bet is that you can call.
For example, if the bet is $10 and the pot is $90, the bet plus the pot is $100.
Now let’s say you have 6 outs (6 cards will help you). This means you have about a 13% chance of hitting. If the pot is $90 and you must call $10, you should call because you can call as long as you have at least a 10% chance to hit (10/100, the total pot is 90+10). However, if the bet to you was $20, you should fold, because that would require a 18.2% chance of hitting (20/110). For more practice with pot odds, check out our Pot Odds Calculator (coming soon)