No Limit Holdem 101: Holdem Math Part 3 (Pot Odds)

This is intended to be a series of articles about playing on-line no limit holdem cash games. There will be times where I venture into live poker and times where I venture into SNGs, MTTs, Satellites, and games other than no limit holdem, but for the most part this will target no limit holdem cash games.

For the fourth installment of this series, I am going to tackle one of the most important aspects of poker: math.

When I first wrote this article to encompass everything I wanted to discuss about the math of holdem, it was so lengthy it was almost unreadable. So I’m going to break it into several parts.

The third math topic I’ll cover is pot odds.

In “The Poker Players Bible”, Lou Krieger defines pot odds as “The ratio of the size of the pot compared to the size of the bet the player must call to continue the hand.”
And it really is that simple to calculate simple pot odds. Let’s look at one quick example to illustrate. You are playing a ring table with blinds of $0.05 and $0.10. You are the big blind. The action folds around to the small blind who raises to $0.30. You call the raise. There is now $0.60 in the pot. After the flop the small blinds bets ½ pot ($0.30). The total pot is now $0.90. You have to make a call of $0.30. So you are being asked to put $0.30 into a pot current containing $0.90. Your pot odds are “the ratio of the size of the pot” ($0.90) “compared to the size of the bet the player must call” ($0.30). That’s 90 to 30 or 9 to 3 or 3 to 1.

That’s pretty simple, right?

Well you just know I’m not going to write that short of an article. I’m going to make it more complicated than that just so you have the pleasure of reading more of my meticulously written words. (For the humor impaired, that was an attempt at humor.)

In reality, it is that simple. All I’m really going to add here is that you need to consider all possible betting when you make your decisions. For instance in a three player pot with you being the second player to act, don’t overlook that fact that there is another player to act and his actions can change the landscape. You can’t count on his actions enough to add his call or raise into your mathematical calculations, but you should be aware that the way that player acts could effect the way the hands plays out as well as the size of the pot.

The other important fact to consider is future rounds of betting. Don’t overlook that if you are making this decision after the flop and you make the call that may well be faced with another decision after the turn should your draw fail to hit.

Okay. That’s enough on pot odds or at least this aspect of pot odds.
In the next installment, we will talk about the basics of the next mathematical concept, implied odds.