pot odds in texas holdem poker

After you have read a thousand books on hold'em and looked through so many starting hand charts that you can't see, you might wonder if there is ever any truly advanced strategy out there for you to learn. Well, there is, but remember, advanced tactics and techniques in hold'em are not so set in stone as to write about. Advanced hold'em techniques and tactics come with years of experience and practice. There are a few things that are teachable though and one of them is pot odds. Some people overlook pot odds and others rely on it way too much. Here is the best way to look at pot odds:

While pot odds are a concept that every poker player must be intrinsically aware of, it is a mistake to waste valuable mental energy and over think them. Use pot odds as a guiding foundation for the critical relationship between the amount of money in the pot and the odds of completing your hand, not as the guiding principal to your total game.

With that in mind, let's discuss how we know our pot odds and how to use them to our advantage to increase profit potential.

What are pot odds?

Pot odds are a fairly simple concept. The basic idea is we want to know how much money the pot is offering us compared to the bet we have to make to win the pot. We then compare this with the odds we have of completing our hand. If the pot is offering at least the same odds as the deck is of completing our hand, then it is said to be a good bet. If however the pot is offering less than the chances we have to complete the hand then it is a bad bet. Here is an example:

• You hold AT and the board shows JQ47. You are playing in a typical $2/$4 hold'em game and with one card to come there is $60 in the pot. A player to your right has bet into you. It is now time to decide whether or not it is a good move to call their four dollars. The odds of you completing your inside straight draw (by hitting the king on the river) are about 11:1. The pot fortunately is offering you 15:1 on your money. Now, this example is one of a pretty rare situation, but in this case, drawing to the inside straight would be correct because the pot is offering you proper odds for completion of the hand.

How to not over think pot odds

As we stated earlier in the article, many people think about pot odds way too much. They spend more time thinking about odds than whether or not what they are about to do is a sound move. With that in mind, here are a few things that will help you figure out pot odds while also keeping your focus on other aspects of the game:

• The amount of players in the pot has a massive influence on pot odds. If every person at the table is in, then you are probably justified in drawing to just about anything. While this is always true, the more players generally mean the higher the return the pot is offering.
• There are several great places online where fifty percent of more of the players see the flop. In games like this the pot is almost always offering good enough odds to at least take a look at a speculative hand.
• Lastly, remember to play the game of poker and not the game of odds. There is no need to be calculating how much money is in the pot and how many odds you have when you know you have a solid hand and it is just a matter of out playing your opponent. Use pot odds to help you clarify in a close (or not close) situation.

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