Hi there and welcome to my blog! I intend for all of my entries to be about poker, and they will be geared towards the beginner player. For this introduction post, I want to discuss odds and using a poker odds chart. Understanding pot odds is very important to being successful playing this game.
A large number of people believe that poker is only about gambling and don’t see that math is also a big factor. But don’t worry, it’s nothing like the calculus you struggled with in college. Players have developed several tools that do the math for you, and the most important tool is the poker odds chart. You will want this chart when you find yourself in a pot and you’re not sure whether or not your hand is better than your opponent’s.
I’ll provide an example. Pretend that you’re receiving poker hands in a $0.50/$1.00 NL ring game and you receive AK. You decide to raise it up preflop to $4, and a loose aggressive player 3 bets you to $14. He does this pretty often, so maybe you should go all-in to try to make it look like you’re bluffing? You do this, and when he calls with 33, you can’t hide your surprise.
Would you rather have your hand or his hand here? The poker odds table shows us that you’re only 46% to win the showdown. This is a specific situation, however, and I don’t want you to start thinking that low pocket pairs are better than high aces. Often, when people learn about poker hands order, they are shocked by the type of hands that are able to win a bunch of money on a regular basis.
Now I think it’s time to go over pot odds. This will be useful when you’re playing a pot and you need to decide whether or not you can call someone’s bet. For instance, imagine you prefer a Full Tilt Poker download and you’re playing a tournament with a large prize pool. In a heads-up pot you flop a flush draw so you decide to bet, but your opponent goes all-in. You suspect that your opponent has top pair. Is it better to call or fold?
If you call this push, with the turn and the river to come you will hit your flush approximately 1/3 of the time. With these odds, in order for it to be correct to call here, the pot should have greater than two times the amount you are required to call. As an example, if the pot is 1,000 chips, you should be calling less than 500 chips to make a profit. If you are required to put in 345, then the call is good. If you are required to call 600, a call would be incorrect given your odds.
You can see that knowing about odds is necessary for both cash games and MTT poker. You are way ahead of the curve if you can work with odds since a lot of the players online and live don’t consider them at all. Anyway, that’s it for my article today, I’ll be back in a couple weeks to write again. Until then, take care!
