Pot Odds

In Texas Holdem, pot odds denote the ratio of the current size of the pot to the cost of the contemplated call. This means that if the pot is $200 and you must call $20 in order to stay in the pot, then you get 200-to-20, or 20-to-2, which can be expressed as 10:1 pot odds. Understanding pot odds is very important for a skilled Texas Holdem player, so let’s take a look at the following.

When the flop is dealt on the board, a player will generally be in one of 3 situations, as follows:

• A player’s hand is totally missing the board:

Your Hand

Board

As you can see, your pocket cards have completely missed the board, so you should either check or fold. Another possibility to consider is bluffing.

• A player hits the pot and now holds a strong hand:

Your Hand

Board

This hand’s worth betting or raising. However, you should keep an eye on your opponents’ moves and try to understand whether there are better cards around.

• A player has a drawing hand:

Your Hand

Board

As you can see, a spade can make you a flush, while a King or an Ace will complete a top pair. When drawing, you can use several handy tools that help you make decisions. One of the most important tools in this situation is pot odds. When you are betting, or calling a bet you try to win the money, which are already in the pot, but how often should you win, in order to make your play profitable? For example if it costs you $10 to bet or call, while the pot is $100, then you’d be able to fail nine times out of ten and still break even. Therefore the essence of the Pot Odds is that you are paying a part in order to win a larger amount of money. That means that if you’re more likely to win than you actually have to pay, then your moves are definitely winning in the long run.

Your Hand

Board

Take a look at this example. Your outs are four Aces and four 9, which means that you have eight outs total. In order to calculate your chance (expressed in percentage) of hitting the desired out on the next card, just take the number of outs, multiply the result by two and add one. For the given example it will be as follows: 8 (the number of outs) * 2 + 1, which means that you have a 17% chance of hitting one of your outs on the turn. For easier calculation this can also be expressed as 38-8, since there are 38 cards that will miss your hand and 8 that can give you the desired result, which means that you’re getting approximately 4:1, so the pot odds must be 4:1 or better, in order to make your draw profitable. Therefore, if your pot odds are roughly 4:1 (paying $10 to win $40), the calculation of the Expected Value will go as follows:

(-$10 * 38/46) + ($40 * 8/46) = -$8,26 + $6,95 = -$2,17

What does this result mean? It means that if there is $40 in the pot, while you have to pay $10 in order to stay in the pot, then you will lose a little more than $2 each and every time you do this.
However, if the pot is $100, then you are getting the following result:

(-$10 * 38/46) + ($100 * 8/46) = -$8,26 + $19,56 = $11,3
In this case you average $10 profit for each and every call you make.

Remember that understanding the pot odds concept is essential to play winning Texas Holdem Poker. Texas Holdem and especially Limit Texas Holdem is taking a comparatively small edge, repeating it over and over again and making a profit from it. That’s why, in the long run, making negative plays will turn profit into a loss.

So, we’ve understood that the first example leads us to a $2,17 loss, but is it always a loss? That depends on what actually happens after you hit the flush, which means that you should also understand the Implied Odds article available on our site.

One more thing to mention is that it’s rather hard to make complex calculations during a fast-paced game. Fortunately, you can use our Pot Odds Calculator that’ll quickly compute profitability of your moves.