Figuring out the pot size...

[tommy2]

I play 3-6 online. I am trying to figure out what the size of the pot needs to be for me to have proper odds to chase a flush with 4 to the flush on the flop or on the turn.

Any thoughts?

[daryn]

say you have 4 to a flush on the turn, and you think your hand will be good if it hits. to calculate the odds of making your hand, you just see how many good cards you have and how many bad cards, and compare them.

you have seen your 2 cards, plus the 3 flop cards and the 1 turn card... so you have seen 6 cards. 46 cards remain unseen. out of these 46, 9 will make your flush, and 37 won't. so the odds of making your hand on the river are 37-9 against, or around 4.1 to 1.

so the pot needs to be offering you at least 4.1 to 1 on your call. now if you're playing 3-6, and you have to call a single big bet of $6 on the turn, then the pot would have to contain at least 4.1*$6 or $24.60 for you to be getting enough odds to call. if it has been raised before you called anything on the turn, you would have to call a $12 bet, so there would have to be 4.1*$12 or $49.20 (or more) in the pot for your call to be correct.

[Paul2432]

if it has been raised before you called anything on the turn, you would have to call a $12 bet, so there would have to be 4.1*$12 or $49.20 (or more) in the pot for your call to be correct.

Be careful in this situation. Your call does not close the action. If you think the original better might reraise (and the raiser might cap) you need more money again. You also need to consider that some of your outs may be tainted. In the worst case of you feeling the betting round will be capped and that two of your flush outs will make someone a full house or quads, and that two other flush outs will make someone a straight flush then you need about 8:1 on $24 or $192 in the pot (the $192 includes the anticipated money yet to come from the other two players re-raising and capping).

Paul