Recently, I got a question from one of my students. It stated, "What precisely is pot odds and is Texas hold’em pot odds technique worth pursuing?"
One thing to keep in mind, any type of Texas hold’em probabilities can and usually do have quite confusing. On the other hand, let me break pot probabilities down in incredibly easy terms. Please note that we are only discussing Pot Odds. Not outs, implied probabilities, straightforward probabilities or something else like that.
In short, pot probabilities are the odds you get when determining the ratio of the amount of money in the pot to the amount of money it will cost you to call the wager.
For example, let’s say you’re heads up with Gambler A. If there’s $150.00 in the pot after the flop and Gambler A places a 20 dollars wager it’s going to price you only 13 per cent of the pot to stay in the hand. If your likelihood of succeeding is greater than 13 % it’s a no-brainer to call because you’ll have great pot probabilities.
That’s all there is to it really. Hold em pot probabilities boils down to one point. If your chance of succeeding is greater than the ratio of the pot size to the bet then you have excellent pot odds. If it’s lower than you could have bad pot odds.
One a lot more thought about Hold’em pot probabilities. You are still betting the player far more so than anything else. Play the gambler far more than your starting hands or the size of the chip stack and even, yes the pot odds.
If you are able to learn to read your opponents well you can utilize pot odds to help justify or solidify your determination. But Hold em pot probabilities don’t have to be an end all whenever you generate a poker judgement.
Knowing and understanding how Holdem pot odds work might be a useful and successful technique. Except again don’t generate Holdem pot odds your only strategy.
