[Henke]

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I feel I am a good player and I spend a lot of time studying the game but I do not understand the math part of the game: pot odds, implied odds, "4:1 odds for turning a flush".

I understand how to basically get pot odds but what is considered good? 7:1? 3:1? 15:1?

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What's good depends on your hand. For example, let's say you have A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 4[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], and the flop contained two hearts. The river was a blank. You now have 9 cards that will give you the flush (9 outs) which gives 37:9 (or about 4.11:1) against you improving to a flush. This means that the pot odds are in your favour if the pot is bigger than 4.11 times what you would have to call. So if you would have to call $1, the pot would have to be bigger than $4.11, otherwize it's a loosing call.

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Why is it ok to keep drawing sometimes based on odds, even if you lose in the end and lose a lot of money?

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Let's continue with the example from above. Say the pot contains $5, and that you have to call a bet of $1 from your only opponent. We can also simplify things and say that your opponent won't call another bet on the river if a [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] falls, and you won't call his bet if a non heart falls. On average, you will loose this pot 37 times and win 9 times out of 46. From this we can calculate your expected value (which sort of means the "average gain or loss"):
EV: 9/46*5-37/46*1=0.1739
This means that on average, this call would make you $0.1739. If the pot only contained $4, you would instead loose about two cents on average when you made this call.

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I have heard stuff that said "In order for this call to be correct, he must collect 22 bets from his opponents in order for the call to be correct"

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That means the odds against him making his hand are 22:1.

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Sorry im speaking from how I think. i play very well and do great in most games I play but I dont use any math so I feel it help me a lot. Can someone give me a quick lesson. Thanks... if you have any misunderstands on what I asked Ill try to help you out! thanks!

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I think you really need to give this some thought, because this is the foundations on which poker is built. Poker is not a card game, it's a game of money and odds.