Pre-flop odds

[zigmaster]

When calculating pre-flop odds against a single opponent when you both still have plenty of chips in your stack,h can you just take the odds that are given if the hands are played to the end without any betting as a good general guide with the idea being that the implied odds for when you hit your hand cancel out the times when you don't hit your hand and are forced to fold in the face of a bet.

Thanks

[Pov]

I don't know of a good way - you just have to outplay your opponent and that is easier with certain hands than others. If this were not the case then we could all be experts at poker just by memorizing an odds chart.

The types of hands to look at are those that are easily dominated because they tend to either win small or lose big. Let's say the board comes up K 9 4 rainbow. If you hold AK and we both show reasonable aggression you can be fairly confident you have the best hand and if you have 88 you can quickly ascertain you are beaten and escape. But let's say you now hold K8 instead. Now when we both show aggression you're stuck calling it down when I hold a better King while I can still get away when I only have a non-top pair hand. It's most important to win the hands where we go to a showdown since those pots will be larger. Uhh, assuming you can't just run over your opponent or he doesn't just call down with anything that is.

I hope that made some sense. /images/graemlins/confused.gif