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Holdem Pot Odds
by
Bill
Burton
Holdem Pot Odds is essential in that
poker, like other
casino games, is a game of about
math. Understanding the math of the game is very important to playing
winning
poker.
You can have the identical hand and one time it will
be correct to call
and the next time it will be correct to fold. How can that be?
The
answer is
the pot odds.
Poker players get their money in the pot when the pot odds
justify making the call and pass when the money in the pot is not
enough to
call. The relationship between the amount of money in the pot and the
cost of
calling a bet is known as Pot Odds.
Many low limit and higher limit Texas Holdem players have no
concept of pot odds and how it can affect their profitability. They
only look
at their two cards to see if there is a chance that they could win.
They
don't
understand the reasoning for playing drawing hands against a large
field of
opponents. Some hands that are profitable against many players will be
a loser
or break-even hand with fewer players in the hand.
Understanding the
Texas Holdem Pot Odds
Let’s look at an example to see how pot odds can affect your
profitability. Every poker player has heard the advice to “Never draw
to an
inside straight.” In many situations, it is truly the correct advice,
however
not always.
You are playing in a $2/4 limit game. You hold the Ten and 9
of clubs: The board cards are Kd – 7s- 6h – 2c. It will cost you $4 to
see the
river card.
You are drawing to an inside straight. The only card that
can help you is an 8 and there are four of them left in the deck. You
have two
holed cards and there are four community cards on the board so you have
seen
six of the fifty-two cards in the deck.
This means there are 46 unseen cards left. In
poker, the unseen cards
that can make your hand a winner are called your “outs”.
So
for the inside
straight draw you have four outs to make your hand.
Four times you will catch the 8 and 42 times you won’t so
the odds are 42 to 4 or 10.5 against you. You get this figure by
dividing 46 by
4 and you get 11.5. Subtract 1 and you have 10.5 to 1.
In order to make a call of $4 to try for an inside straight
the pot must contain $42 in order for you to break even and more than
that if
you want to make a profit.
Here is where that figure comes
from: You will lose
$42 for the 10.5 times you don’t catch and 8($4 bet x 10.5 = 42.)
The one time you
do catch the 8 you will make
money in the long run if the pot contains more than $42 and you will
lose if
the pot contains less than $42.
Remember, Texas Holdem Pot Odds are the relationship between
the
money in
the pot and the price of a bet you must make to call. If the pot
contains $44
and the size of the bet you must call is four dollars we divide the $48
by $4
and we get 12, which means that the pot odds are 12 to 1. The odds
against
making an inside straight are 10.5 to one.
If the pot odds
are greater than the
odds against making your hand you should call. If the pot odds are less
you
should fold. In this case, you would call.
In this situation if the pot contained $20 and it cost you
$4 you would only be getting 5 to 1 pot odds and it would not be
profitable to
make the call.
Breaking It Down
Let’s break down both situations above. Suppose you find
your self in this situation with an inside draw 11 times and play it
out
according to the pot odds you are getting. For simplicity, we will say
the odds
of making the inside straight are 10 to 1. Which means you will win
this hand 1
time for every 11 that you play it.
In the first situation, there is $48 in the pot and it will
cost you $4 to call. The ten times that you don’t make the straight,
you will
lose $40. (4x10). The one time that you make it, you will win $48 pot
for a
profit of $8. (48- 40 = 8)
In the second situation, there is $20 in the pot. The ten
times that you don’t make it, you will lose $40. (4x10).The one time
that you
do make it you will win $20 pot for a loss of $20. 20 – 40 = minus 20)
The odds for making the inside straight draw doesn’t
change.
It
remains constant but the
profitability of making the play changes with the Texas Holdem Pot odds.
Now you can see why we say poker is a game about math.
Texas
Holdem Pot Odds is followed by a lesson about Suited Cards
OR
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