Understanding Pot Odds

Pot Odds are a very important aspect of any poker strategy, yet also fall into the category of the most underutilized element for less experienced players. Ask any professional poker player, and they’ll tell you that they have been calculating the Pot Odds so long, that it is like second nature to them. While most poker players have at least heard of the concept of Pot Odds, it’s surprising how few actually comprehend the value and purpose of understanding Pot Odds.

What Are Pot Odds?

Pot Odds are the ratio of the current pot size in relation to what a player must wager to call a bet. For example, if the pot has $50 in it, and the player must call $5 to stay in the pot, his pot odds are 50 to 5. Broken down, that becomes 10 to 1, or 10:1 Pot Odds.

The best way to make sense of Pot Odds is to convert them to a percentage. This makes the Pot Odds much easier to work with. Don’t worry; it is a mathematical process, but not a complicated one. If you think all professional poker players are geniuses at math, think again. If they can calculate Pot Odds in the heat of a fierce tournament, so can you. It just takes a little practice.

(Note: if the calculations below seem too complicated, skip down to “I Don’t Understand Pot Odds, Can You Make It More Simple?”)

Start with the size of the Pot - $50
Add it to the Size of the Bet - $5
You get a sum of $55
Now divide by the Bet - $5
55/5 = 11
Your Pot Odds are 11%

Pot + Bet / Bet = Pot Odds %

Okay, so now you’re thinking that’s a pretty low number – is that bad? What do I do with it and how does it help me? We’ll get to that, but first we need to come up with the “expected value”. When you compare the Pot Odds ratio to your chances of actually winning the pot, you get the expected value.

Your chances of winning depend on your Outs. An Out is any card that gives you the better hand. Let’s try a Straight for example. If you have combined Hole Cards and Flop of 5-6-7-8-K, you would need a 4 or 9 to complete the Straight. That means there are 8 cards that will help you. Now, you’ve seen 5 cards in the deck, meaning there are 47 cards you have not seen (assuming you are playing Texas Hold’em, of course). This equals 8 cards that will help you and 39 (47 – 8 = 39) that will not help you. The ratio is 39:8.

Let’s work our percentage magic on this one.

All Cards / Cards that will Help = Chance of getting Help

Start with all cards remaining – 47
Divide by cards that will help – 8
47/8 = 5.875%

Fractions and decimals are not always the easiest to calculate in your head, so just getting pretty close will usually work. For instance, in this example, basic math tells us that 8×6=48. Therefore, 47/8 must be slightly less than 6 (5.875). We can assume the chances of getting your card are “slightly under 6%”.

I Understand Calculating Pot Odds, But Do I Bet?
There’s a basic rule to whether you should call the bet or not, and here it is…

If the Pot Odds are HIGHER than the Ratio of ‘Chances of Hitting an Out’, BET!

In the examples above, we have Pot Odds of 11% and Out Chances of 5.875%. The player should make the bet.

I Don’t Understand Pot Odds, Can You Make It More Simple?
I will certainly try If you can create a ratio that always ends in 1 (10:1, 5:1, 8:1, etc), you can calculate Pot Odds and Expected Values.

Let’s work some other examples, and this time we’ll bypass percentages to speed up the process.

Pot Odd Examples

1. The Pot has $100 and requires a $10 bet to call.
Pot Odds are 100:10
This example is easy to break down – 100/10=10
The odds are 10:1

2. Pot has $150 and requires $25 to call.
Pot Odds are 150:25
150/25=6
Pot Odds are 6:1

3. Pot has $68 and requires $4 to call.
Pot Odds are 68:4
68/4=17
Pot Odds are 17:1

The HIGHER the Pot Odds are, the better for the poker player.

Now for the Chances of Hitting an Out! This works basically in the same manner. To speed up the process, a player should always know how many cards he has not seen (cards left in the deck). Here’s an easy way to remember… (this is based on Texas Hold’em, btw.)

Pre-Flop: 50 cards left
Flop: 47 cards left
Turn: 46 cards left
River: It doesn’t matter, there are no more cards coming!

If playing Omaha, the following would apply…

Pre-Flop: 48 cards left
Flop: 45 cards left
Turn: 44 cards left
River: Still too late!

Since the values are always the same, this should be easy enough to remember.

Here’s another example…

Your hand Post-Flop: Ah-3h-7h-Jh-7s
Your Outs: Any Heart (9 in deck), Any 7 (2 in deck)
9 + 2 = 11 Outs
47 Cards/11 Outs = 47:11
Broken down: 47/11 = 4.27:1

Again, to make it easier, we know by basic math that 11 goes into 47 a total of 4 times, with a few left over (4×11=44). We can say the chances are “above 4:1, but under 5:1”. This speeds up the process of determining expected value, and once you get more experienced in understanding Pot Odds, then you can try to break it down further.

The LOWER the Ratio in ‘Chances of hitting an Out’ are, the better for the poker player.

So the conclusion is, a HIGHER Pot Odds Ratio with a LOWER ‘Chances of Out’ Ratio results in: YES! The player should make the bet.

Like I said at the beginning of this article, Pot Odds and Expected Values come as second nature to professional poker players. Not because they are so amazingly good at math, but because they have been doing it for so long. A little practice is all it takes to begin understanding Pot Odds.