Pot committed
Pot Odds
How do Poker odds work?
First you have to understand what outs are. Outs are cards that can improve your hand. For example, if you have 4 hearts to a flush there are 9 hearts (13-4) that can improve your hand.
The odds of hitting a hand based on the outs are detailed in a cheat sheet at the bottom of this page. The following 3 examples don't show you how to calculate the odds against hitting a hand but how to use odds to your advantage.
Example 1
Your cards:
The Flop:
You have 9 outs here giving you 1.9:1 odds against hitting your flush (with 2 cards to come). See the table at the bottom of the page for the outs to odds.
Pot: £100
Opponent bets: £100
Your pot odds: 2:1 (current pot divided by the bet)Your pot odds need to be greater than the odds against hitting your hand to call.
Odds against are 1.9:1, pot odds are 2:1. In this situation, CALL.
Example 2
Your cards:
The Flop & Turn:
Again, you have 9 outs here giving you 4.1:1 odds against hitting your flush (with 1 card to come). See table.
Pot: £300
Opponent bets: £150
Your pot odds: 3:1 (current pot divided by the bet)Your pot odds need to be greater than the odds against hitting your hand to call.
Odds against are 4.1:1, pot odds are 3:1. In this situation, FOLD.
Example 3
Pot: £10
Opponent bets: £1
Your pot odds: 10:1
Odds against hitting your Flush (1 card to come): 4.1:1 (see table)You will lose 4 times costing you £4, and win once, winning £10, for a £6 profit.
Say there were only £2 in the pot, and it cost you £1 to call. The flush chance is still the same. You will lose 4 times, costing you £4, and win once, winning the £2 in the pot, for a -£2 loss.
Odds Cheat Sheet
I highly recommend commiting the following to memory (round the figures up to whole numbers to make it easier) even if it's just 9 outs downwards:
| Outs | 2 Cards to come | 1 Card to come |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | .4:1 | 1.2:1 |
| 20 | .5:1 | 1.3:1 |
| 15 | .9:1 | 2.1:1 |
| 14 | 01:01 | 2.3:1 |
| 13 | 1.1:1 | 2.5:1 |
| 12 | 1.2:1 | 2.8:1 |
| 11 | 1.4:1 | 3.2:1 |
| 10 | 1.6:1 | 3.6:1 |
| 9 | 1.9:1 | 4.1:1 |
| 8 | 2.2:1 | 4.8:1 |
| 7 | 2.6:1 | 5.6:1 |
| 6 | 3.1:1 | 6.7:1 |
| 5 | 3.9:1 | 8.2:1 |
| 4 | 5.1:1 | 10.5:1 |
| 3 | 07:01 | 14.3:1 |
| 2 | 11:01 | 22:01 |
| 1 | 22.5:1 | 45:01:00 |
Flop Odds
(# of outs on flop X 4) - 2 = Odds of winning the hand
Ex: (10 x 4)-2 = 38% chance of winning hand
Don't call a bet unless you are getting around 3 to 1 on your money.
The above example is for when you want to figure your odds on the flop. If you want to figure out the odds and pot odds on the turn you simply do this.
Winning Percentage and Pot Odds on the Turn
Here is how you figure out your pot odds and odds of winning after the turn card hits. Take your number of outs you calculated times 2 and then add 2 to that number. This will give you the odds of winning the pot after the turn and hitting your card on the river. The formula written out is below.
Turn Odds
(# of outs X 2) plus 2 = Odds of winning hand after turn card
Ex from above: (10 x 2) plus 2 = 22% chance of hitting winning card on river