If you like to play poker online, you have probably heard about the term poker pot odds. In case you’re not quite sure what are to odds or how to calculate online poker pot odds, this article will be handy! Here we give you a clear and simple explanation that will help you improve your results by making rational decisions whenever you play poker online. It will take a little practice before you can estimate poker pot odds at a glance, but it’s very much possible and it will add a winning edge to your game.
With that in mind, read through this article to learn all about online poker pot odds and how to use them to your advantage! We’re covering all you need to know to easily calculate those numbers whenever you play poker, and as you’ll see it’s actually very simple.
What Are Pot Odds and How You Can Use Them to Improve Your Game
Simply put, poker pot odds are the mathematical likelihood of winning, based on the cards you know, the cards you don’t know and the possible winning combinations that may be introduced by the next card. When you know this probability, you will be able to make informed decisions when it’s your turn to call. By adding this rational element to your hunches, you will find you will get superior results compared to what you currently achieve by merely guessing the outcome of a pot.
Pot odds can either be calculated using the ratio method or the percentage method, which is essentially the same approach presented in a different way. When considering ratios you’re looking at ratios such as 3:1, which implies that you will get a card that give you the winning hand for every three times you get any other card. The same probability in percentage would amount to 25% chance of success, meaning that one fourth of the cards that can be revealed next will work to your advantage.
Even though the percentage method and the ratio method are essentially the same approach conveyed in different formats, it’s worth nothing the ratio method is more widespread, possibly because it’s easier for players to gauge mentally. Let’s now look at how exactly should you go about doing the probabilistic calculations during a game of poker.
Calculating Online Poker Pot Odds Easily and With No Effort Involved
Calculating pot odds is as simple as looking at the cards in your hands along with the community cards, and factoring in just how many cards may show up next that will give you a winning hand, versus all the other remaining cards. Another way of looking at this is the ratio between the number of cards you don’t want to show up next and the number of cards you’re hoping for.
Let’s imagine that you’re holding A 8 (hearts) and the flop reveals the cards J 7 2 (hearts). You don’t know what the other players might be holding, but you do know how many cards are yet to be revealed – this includes all cards in the deck plus all the other pocket cards in the hand of other players, so that’s 47 unknown cards. Calculating poker pot odds is as simple as deciding how many of those cards would fail to give you a sequence versus how many would allow to win.
In the example above, there are a total of nine cards that would give you a straight or even a straight flush; conversely, there are thirty-eight cards that wouldn’t. So your odds for this pot would be 38:9, which can be simplified as approximately 4:1.
Being able to calculate the numbers above may seem overwhelming at first and difficult to do in a heartbeat, but it’s something that seasoned players can estimate very expertly with nearly no effort involved. The calculations will get easier and you will get faster the more you practice, and while you’re learning you can rely on computer programs to do the math (assuming you’re playing in a computer).
If you’re playing online, you can easily find a pot odds calculator to help you do the math by punching in a few key variables. A simpler way to get these numbers is by simply checking if your favorite online poker room avails an option to show them. You’ll find that most of the bigger poker rooms online will have an option somewhere in the configuration menu that will activate pot odds, meaning you can see the odds tied to any pot on the fly as the game progresses. It’s a really useful option, and you should start using it right now!