Pot Odds?!?

I know this may same completely amateurish, but i still have not completely grasped the concept of how to calcualte pot odds and their importance. Could someone please be so kind as to explain in detail how to calculate pot odds. This information will be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot


Rob

When faced with a fold-call decision, pot odds are the #bets in the pot divided by the cost of the call.


So there is 5bb in the pot when an opponent bets on the turn and a 2nd opponent raises, there is now 8bb in the pot and it costs you 2bb to call, so your pot odds are 4:1. Compare that with your estimation on whether or not you will win and you get a RAW base calculation to which you apply lots of other criteria (such as whether the 1st player will 3-bet, whether or not you will win even if you make it, how much money you figure to win if you hit, how much you figur to lose, etc. etc.)


- Louie

You calculate what odds you're getting from all the money in the pot as against the odds of winning the pot.


Suppose it's your turn to act, there's $100 already in a Texas Hold 'Em pot and you consider calling a bet of $10 - that means the pot gives 10:1 odds. (If there's some of your money already in that $100 pot, it doesn't matter, it's no longer yours, it belongs to the pot.)


Suppose the odds of you winning that pot are 2:1 against. OK, you're asked to bet 1 to win 10 ($10 to win $100) which is gonna happen 1 time every 3 times on average, according to the odds your hand has (2:1). This is a good bet! Look:


Losing 2 times means you're out 2 X $10 = -$20


Winning 1 time means you're up 1 X $100 = +$100


The difference defines how come out of that situation every 3 times you play, on average. And that is $100 - $20 = $80, which means you'll be winning $80 on average by betting those $10. So the pot odds tell you to go ahead and call.


If you're drawing and believe that the pot is yours if you hit, then the odds of winning the pot are the same as the odds of making your hand. If, for example, you have a 20% chance of making your hand, which means that the odds against hitting your hand are 4:1. You're getting 10:1 odds from the money in the pot, so it's again a good idea to call that $10 bet in.

I'm glad this question was brought up. I'm a relative newbie and have read some poker books. While I know how to calculate pot odds/implied odds, I am confused when, for example, someone said that after the flop, a hand is a 4.5 favorite against another. Can somebody tell me how to calculate this or a book to learn how to calculate these odds. Help suggestions will be appreciated.

--"While I know how to calculate pot odds/implied odds, I am confused when, for example, someone said that after the flop, a hand is a 4.5 favorite against another."


--Let's say we're comparing one hand against another hand. Hand A is a favorite over Hand B when Hand A wins more times then it loses against Hand B, on average.


Say we're playing Texas Hold'em. We are comparing the 2 Hands at any stage of the game: pre-flop, after the flop, or after the turn. If we're comparing the 2 hands, say, pre-flop, we're comparing the overall probabilities of each Hand winning the contest, with every combination of a 5-card board coming up. If we're comparing the 2 hands after the flop, we're taking into account any 2-card combination of turn & river that might follow the specific flop we have in front of us and comparing the winning probabilities of each Hand.


Let's say we're talking after the flop. If Hand A wins 75% of the time after a specific flop is dealt and Hand B wins the other 25% of the time (I have eliminated pushes from all the examples), that means that Hand A is a 3:1 favorite to win over Hand B.


If we wanna compare more than 2 hands, the same logic applies and the odds are calculated for every Hand against the field of all the others. If Hand A wins 75% of the time after a certain flop while Hand B wins 15% and Hand C wins 10% of the time, (so Hands B and C win between them 25% of the time), that means that Hand A is a 3:1 favorite to win over the field of opponents B and C.


Hand C is a 9:1 underdog to win the pot.


--Cyrus

I think I got it. Now a real dumb question: How do you estimate or calculate that a certain hand will win X % of the time? For example I have read somewhere that before the flop, 2-2 is a slight favorite over A-K, I don't remember the exact number. Is there any book in the market that teaches or shows all these odds and calculations? Thanks again.

-- "How do you estimate or calculate that a certain hand will win X % of the time? For example I have read somewhere that before the flop, 2-2 is a slight favorite over A-K, I don't remember the exact number. Is there any book in the market that teaches or shows all these odds and calculations?"


-- Calculating the odds against making your hand are relatively easy and straightforward: You flop a pair in Texas Hold'em, make it 2 pairs by the turn, what are the odds against making a full house by the river? You divide the number of cards (: 4) you need to make your hand, in other words your outs, out of the total number of unknown cards (: 46). 4 out of 46 is almost 8.5%. You convert the percentage into odds and have your answer, which is a bit worse than 11:1 against.


But to get an answer to questions such as "Which is the favorite in 22 v AKs and by how much?" one needs to resort to computer power. That's how the specific odds for that hand were obtained and posted here. The experts who can respond imediately to such questions do NOT calculate instantly myriads of combinations. They just know the numbers by heart, having memorized them through practice.


Mike Petriv's "Hold'em Odds Book" has both the methods, in simple form, and all the elementary odds. "Hold'em For Advanced Players" contains all 2-card hands' pre-flop rankings according to global pre-flop expectation.


--Cyrus