Posted by George | Posted in Poker | Posted on 20-04-2013
Recently, I got a question from one of my students. It stated, "What exactly is pot odds and is Texas hold em pot odds strategy worth pursuing?"
One issue to keep in mind, any kind of Hold em probabilities can and usually do have quite confusing. On the other hand, let me break pot odds down in extremely basic terms. Please note that we are only discussing Pot Probabilities. Not outs, implied odds, straightforward odds or something else like that.
In short, pot odds are the probabilities you have when determining the ratio of the quantity of money in the pot to the amount of money it’ll price you to call the bet.
For example, let us say you are heads up with Gambler A. If there’s $150 in the pot after the flop and Player A places a 20 dollars wager it’s going to cost you only thirteen % of the pot to stay in the hand. If your likelihood of winning is greater than 13 % it is a no-brainer to call because you would have beneficial pot odds.
That is all there would be to it really. Holdem pot odds boils down to one factor. If your chance of succeeding is far better than the ratio of the pot size to the bet then you’ve good pot odds. If it’s lower than you’ve bad pot odds.
One a lot more thought about Hold’em pot odds. You’re still betting the gambler much more so than something else. Wager on the gambler more than your starting hands or the size of the chip stack and even, yes the pot probabilities.
If it is possible to understand to read your opponents well it is possible to utilize pot probabilities to assist justify or solidify your choice. But Texas holdem pot odds do not need to be an end all whenever you make a poker judgement.
Knowing and understanding how Hold em pot probabilities work is usually a useful and successful strategy. But again don’t generate Hold em pot odds your only method.