Pot Equity and counting bets

Hey everyone could someone either give me a link or explain the concept of pot equity for me. Also in SSHE the author explains that we should count bets instead of doing the raw math and add up what is in the pot. Heres the problem (unless I missed it) the book doesn't assign how much is a bet. Ex. 2 players call, 1 player raises, another reraises, small blind and big blind call, but the other 2 players fold. Exactly, how many bets is it. If you could help me with this I would greatly appreciate it.

THanks
Nate /images/graemlins/spade.gif /images/graemlins/diamond.gif /images/graemlins/heart.gif /images/graemlins/club.gif

[nomadtla]

Though I'm sure others can explain it better the simple explanation is pot equity = % of time you will win that pot.
It is mostly used to help you decide whether or not to bet or just call a particular hand.

EXAMPLE:
I'll use the most common and simple (The Nut Flush Draw)

Preflop Hero has A /images/graemlins/spade.gif6 /images/graemlins/spade.gif on the Button
UTG, MP1, MP2, MP3 all call, hero calls, SB completes, BB checks

Flop: K /images/graemlins/spade.gif8 /images/graemlins/club.gif5 /images/graemlins/spade.gif (7 SB)
SB checks, BB bets, UTG calls, MP1 calls, MP2 folds, MP3 calls, Hero?

See in this situation you have a flush draw and that's about it, you clearly have the pot odds to call, but should you raise for value? That flush draw will hit by the river (roughly) 35% (1:2.8) of the time. Four people have already commited to their hand so you are putting in 20% of the pot (1:5). Therefore you have and equity edge since you are putting a lower %age in the pot then the %age that you will make your hand. So here you are betting for value. There are of course added bonuses of free card and such. But strictly by math you should raise cause you put in less than you stand to make from that pot. Thats a simplified version of pot equity.

I hope this helped

[tiltaholic]

[ QUOTE ]
Though I'm sure others can explain it better the simple explanation is pot equity = % of time you will win that pot.
It is mostly used to help you decide whether or not to bet or just call a particular hand.

EXAMPLE:
I'll use the most common and simple (The Nut Flush Draw)

Preflop Hero has A /images/graemlins/spade.gif6 /images/graemlins/spade.gif on the Button
UTG, MP1, MP2, MP3 all call, hero calls, SB completes, BB checks

Flop: K /images/graemlins/spade.gif8 /images/graemlins/club.gif5 /images/graemlins/spade.gif (7 SB)
SB checks, BB bets, UTG calls, MP1 calls, MP2 folds, MP3 calls, Hero?

See in this situation you have a flush draw and that's about it, you clearly have the pot odds to call, but should you raise for value? That flush draw will hit by the river (roughly) 35% (1:1.8) of the time. Four people have already commited to their hand so you are putting in 20% of the pot (1:4). Therefore you have and equity edge since you are putting a lower %age in the pot then the %age that you will make your hand. So here you are betting for value. There are of course added bonuses of free card and such. But strictly by math you should raise cause you put in less than you stand to make from that pot. Thats a simplified version of pot equity.

I hope this helped

[/ QUOTE ]

just felt the need to correct the odds.

[nomadtla]

Thanx Buddy

[Saint_D]

Nom beat me to the explanation and his explanation is pretty clear. His example is good too.

All I can add is to read the section in SSH on pot equity. It goes into a lot of detail.

-D

[Eeegah]

A quick nit: you also have to factor in a possible split. For example, if you have a 20% chance of winning outright, a 10% chance of a 2-way split, and a 5% chance of a 3-way, your equity is (.20)+(.10/2)+(.05/3) = 26.7%.

[gharp]

nomadtla gave a good explanation of pot equity...

As for the other part, I think you're thinking of "a bet" as an instance of betting. The author of SSHE wants you to count in terms of number of bets for the current betting limit.

In your example we're talking SB (small bets) since it's preflop. So:

[ QUOTE ]
Ex. 2 players call (1 SB each to make 2 SB), 1 player raises (putting in 2 more SB to make it 4 SB), another reraises (putting in 3 to make it 7 SB), small blind and big blind call (putting in a total of 3 each: 13 SB), but the other 2 players fold (still 13 SB)

[/ QUOTE ]

And there's actually still the original raiser who, if he called, would make it 14 SB.

Did that make sense?

[DeuceKicker]

It doesn't really matter how much a bet is, because they change during the play of the hand, and all you care about is how many bets are in the pot compared to how many you have to put in for a call/bet/raise.

So let's take your example:
There are 1.5 SB (small bets) in the pot before the cards are dealt. These are the blinds.

"Two players call" -- Each call is one SB, so there are now 3.5 SB in the pot.

"One player raises" -- 5.5 SB

"Another reraises" -- 8.5 SB (He put in 3 SB)

"Small blind and big blind call" -- 13 SB. It was 3 (small) bets to the small blind, who had already put in .5 SB as the blind, so he puts in 2.5 more = 11 SB. Next the big blind puts in 2 SB (he already had 1 SB in) to make it 13. It doesn't matter that that first two callers have folded, their money is still in the pot. (Let's assume the original raiser also called the re-raise, so the final pot pre-flop is 14 SB.)

Let's assume you're the big blind. There are 11 small bets in the pot and it will cost you two small bets to call. You could also simplify/reduce and say there are 6.5 BIG bets in the pot and it will cost you one BB to call. Calling 2 SB for an 11 SB pot is the same as calling 1 BB for a 6.5 BB pot.

Or you could say the pot contains 11 flargles and it will cost you 2 flargles to call. What we call them doesn't matter; just the ratio of how many are in the pot to how many we have to call.