Need fundamental help with pot odds etc.

Ok, I love hold em' and I have read several books (repeatedly) on the game. However, I have learning disability in math and so I'm feeling that I may be doomed. I'm hoping someone out there can help me come up with exercises to help me practice calculating pot odds, implied odds, etc. This is especially true when I'm playing on line. I don't have time to work the problems. I know that until I get this part I'm serious fish food. Any help will be appreciated.

[autobet]

Say there is a $10 pot.

If you bet $5 on a bluff, you are getting 2-1 (10-5)for your bet. If you are successful 1 time in 3 you will break even. You will lose 5 twice and win 10 once.

From your opponents point of view he is getting 3-1 for a call. The 10 in the pot plus your 5 bet. (15-5)

You should master these simple problems before you start with implied odds/reverse implied odds problems.

[UATrewqaz]

Say the pot has $190 and your opponent bets $10 (making it $200)

the board is currently

A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Your ignorant opponent starts laughing and flips up A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] and says "BEAT THAT AHAHAHAHAH!"

You hold Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

At this point it becomes a very simple math problem.

There are 4 cards in the deck that make you a winner (the T's). Any ten that falls will give you a straight beating his three aces. Any card that is not a ten and you will lose.

The pot is offering you 20-1 (you must call $10 in order to have a chance at winning $200).

The odds of you making your straight are 4/47 (it's actually 4/45 because we have seen our opponents cards but normally you have not). There are 4 cards out of 47 unseen that make you a winner, this is very slightly over 8%, which translates to about 10.5 - 1.

Thus you should call the bet, because the 20-1 the pot is offereing is better than the 10.5 -1 of making your draw.

Basically pot odds show if a play has positive expectation. You will win/lose the pot the same % of hte time, however hte pot must be so big in order to make it profitable. THink about it like this, ifyou had a 1% chance of winning a 200 million dollar lottery would you buy a ticket for $1?

If yes then why? I mean, 99% of the time you wasting a dollar, why play? Because the reward for winning is likely enough to make it a profitable decision.

I had a hard time grasping the idea also, but you have explained it well. Thanks

[oh3648]

Heres an excercise plagarized from another plagarist

The Pot Odds is the relationship between the money in the pot and the price of a bet you must make to call. If the pot contains $36 and the size of the bet you must call is $6, we divide the $36 by $6 and we get 6, which means that the pot odds are 6 to 1.

Here is a little experiment that you can try to give you an idea of how the number of players can affect your winning with a hand that has the exact same odds.

This experiment simulates how the number of players will affect a hand that has odds of 3:1 against you. First of all, get a deck of cards and take out the four Aces, twos, threes and fours. You will have 16 cards. Then get coins or chips to use for the experiment.

There will be the four players in the game. Put out a stack of chips out for each player. Each player puts one chip in the pot. Shuffle the 16 cards and deal a card. You can be player number one. Each time an Ace is dealt you win. If a two is dealt then player number two will collect the money in the pot. Likewise if a three or four is dealt the respective player will win the pot. Put another chip in the pot for each player and deal again. Keep repeating this until all 16 cards have been dealt. Notice what the results were.

Each time you win a hand you win three chips. (One from each of the other players)
Each time you lose a hand you lose one chip.
You played 16 hands.
You won four hands and lost 12.
You won 12 chips for the four hands you won and lost 12 chips for the 12 hands you did not win.
You broke even.
The odds of winning were 3 to 1 and the pot odds were 3 to 1.

Now you will repeat the process but player number four will not bet. Anytime four wins put the three chips from the pot (yours and the two other player's chips) aside.

At the end of the 16 hands notice the results
You won the same four hands. But this time you only won 8 chips.
You lost 12 hands and lost 12 chips.
You are down 4 chips.
Your odds of winning were still 3 to 1, but the pot odds were 2 to 1.

Now put out another stack of chips. This time number four will again play as in the first round and a fifth chip will be put in the pot to simulate an additional player who will not win.

At the end of 16 hands:
You won four hands but this time you won 16 chips.
You lost 12 hands and lost 12 chips.
You won 4 chips.
Your odds of winning were 3 to 1, but you pot odds were 4 to1

With this example you can see how a hand offering the same odds can be profitable when played against a larger field but be unprofitable when you are playing against a limited field.