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Texas Hold’em Pot Odds – Calculating & Decisions
Learn how to calculate pot odds
Learning and mastering pot odds and the associated decisions you use them to make is one of the most fundamental yet often overlooked aspects of Texas Holdem. While the concept is relatively simply in nature, being able to do these calculations off the top of your head during play can be difficult, but is a skill worth learning. Pot odds essentially measure the value of making a particular call of a bet in a poker game, which is done by analyzing cards that are not on the board (hidden) with the number of possible cards you could hit to win the hand (out cards). By using these two metrics, players can determine the odds against them making a particular draw for a hand and can use this information to determine whether the value of the call that needs to be made is worth the risk in relation to the overall size of the pot. To explain further, let’s take a look at some examples below to give you an idea of how this theory can be used to improve your poker game.
Calculating Pot Odds
The way you actually make the pot odds calculation is quite simple and involves the remaining cards in the deck that can and cannot help you. What you do is divide the cards that cannot help you by the ones that can, which will give you a ratio (ex. 4-1) from which you can determine the likelihood of you making your draw. At this point, the recommended strategy is to only make the call if the pot size is the equivalent to multiplying the odds that you have and if the pot size is that number or greater, than the call would be justified. Below are some hand examples to further illustrate the implantation and use of pot odds during poker play.
Example #1
On the turn, you have a flush draw as you hold two hearts and there are two more hearts on the board. You figure out that there are 46 cards that you cannot know (4 on the flop you know plus your 2 hole cards) and that of those, there are 9 cards that can give you the flush (the 9 remaining hearts). In this circumstance, you would divide 37/9 which would give you roughly 4.1-1 odds of making your flush draw on the river. For the decision to make sense at this point, the pot size would need to 4 times the size of the bet you were facing (ex. $50 bet means $200 pot) for you to be able to justify making the call.
Example #2
You are hoping for an inside straight draw on the turn and figure out that there are only 4 cards that can help you with 42 other cards that will not improve your hand. By using the formula and dividing 42/4, we will come to the realization that the chances of us hitting this hand are 10.5-1 and that for a $100 bet we would require a pot size of $1,500 to justify making the call. This is a fundamental mistake that a lot of players make and it can have major adverse effects on your bankroll.
By studying, analyzing and practicing the techniques outlined in this article, you should be able to practice using pot odds under different situations to tell you the feasibility of you hitting your draw and how that relates to the decision you should make regarding the hand. Proper pot odds knowledge and strategy is an essential skill that every serious poker player must master to rise to the level of more skill opponents.
Drawing odds from a deck of 47 unseen cards
| OUTS |
2 CARDS TO COME |
1 CARD TO COME |
| 20 |
67.5% |
43.5% |
| 19 |
65.0% |
41.3% |
| 18 |
62.4% |
39.1% |
| 17 |
59.8% |
37.0% |
| 16 |
57.0% |
34.8% |
| 15 |
54.1% |
32.6% |
| 14 |
51.2% |
30.4% |
| 13 |
48.1% |
28.3% |
| 12 |
45.0% |
26.1% |
| 11 |
41.7% |
23.9% |
| 10 |
38.4% |
21.7% |
| 9 |
35.0% |
19.6% |
| 8 |
31.5% |
17.4% |
| 7 |
27.8% |
15.2% |
| 6 |
24.1% |
13.0% |
| 5 |
20.4% |
10.9% |
| 4 |
16.5% |
8.7% |
| 3 |
12.5% |
6.5% |
| 2 |
8.4% |
4.3% |
| 1 |
4.3% |
2.2% |
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