When you sit down at a poker table and start playing poker, you are faced with a number of very important decisions – among them, whether to fold, call or bet. One way to determine whether to call is to see if the odds of winning the money in the pot equals or exceeds the odds of you getting the cards you need for a winning hand. Calculating your poker pot odds is an essential part of a long term winning poker strategy.
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To begin with, divide the number of cards yet unseen by the number of outs you have. Outs are the cards remaining in the deck that will allow you to make a winning hand. Subtract one. Now, in order to call, consider the number you are left with. There must be at least those many bets in the pot for a call.
For example, you have two hearts. Two more hearts fall on the flop. There are now 47 unseen cards. You have a total of nine outs (nine out of 13 unseen hearts remaining in the deck) in order to make your flush. Divide 47 by nine and subtract one. There must be at least 4.2 bets in the pot for you to call a single bet.
Another way to calculate pot odds while playing poker, determine the number of outs that remain following the flop. Multiply that number by four. That is your percentage of catching one of your outs. After the turn comes down on the poker table, multiply your outs by two. If you don’t see the card you want on the turn, you may be faced with repeating the process in the next round of betting. Remember, post-turn bets are usually larger than pre-turn best.
Some poker players advocate determining the number of outs required to make your hand using all future cards. For example, if you need one card for a flush, you actually have two draws to that card, not just one. Doing the math, you get 1.5:1 poker pot odds so 1.5 bets would be your break even.
It is much harder to do this math on the fly, especially when you are sitting at a competitive poker table. However, if you can learn the basics of poker pot odds and memorize the out list for different card combinations, you have developed one of the most important elements to a winning poker strategy.
