Pot Odds Poker
What Is Pot Odds
How To Calculate Implied Odds
Implied Odds Formula
Pot Odds Vs Implied Odds Poker

How Different Types of Poker Odds Affect Your Winning Chances in Poker Games

There is a whole other type of odds in poker referred to as reverse implied odds which while outside the scope of this article basically refers to getting yourself into a situation where should you make your hand, it will be second best. Therefore your 'prize' for making your hand is to lose a big pot. Fish are experts at this.
Feb 26, 2014 SplitSuit shows you everything you need to know about pot odds. Pot odds are the most fundamental element of poker math, so understanding it couldn't be.

The same applied to poker. Unfortunately implied odds cannot be directly calculated like pot odds – we have to guesstimate the amount our opponent will be willing to pay us off after we make our hand. If we think our opponent has a very strong hand, and we stand to make a better one, we will have large implied odds.

To succeed in poker, you need a solid understanding of the math. While there are many human elements involved in the game – without knowing about the different types of poker odds, you’ll be left guessing much of the time.

This page is an introduction to many different types of poker odds. It covers different situations and game formats, showing how odds affect your decision making. This includes the odds (chances) of different hands winning pre-flop, along with hand matchups on different flops.

Here is what you will find below:

Odds and Starting Hands

Good poker starts with a solid starting hand strategy. There are several elements to this, including your position at the table, playing style and the known tendencies of your opponents.

When you are dealt pocket aces, you know you have the best hand pre-flop. You will be dealt a pair of aces (or any named pair) once every 221 hands. When you have this hand, your odds all-in against any other hand are as follows:

Aces vs Kings (or any pair) = 81.7%
Aces vs Ace-King = 92.8%
Aces vs 2 Suited Cards = 82.53%
Aces vs Suited Connectors = 76.76%

As you can see, there really is no reason to slow-play with this hand. Your chances against even the best of the hands your opponents could hold are huge.

When your pair is lower, your poker odds pre-flop take a nosedive very quickly. The number of higher cards which can hit the flop to beat you goes up quickly. Let’s take a pair of jacks as an example:

Jacks vs a Higher Pair = 17.08%
Jacks vs Ace-King (or Ace-Queen) = 57.09%
Jacks vs Ace-x (where the side card is 10 or lower) = 71.35%
Jacks vs a Smaller Pair = 81.03%

Many players get in trouble with Ace-King, playing this passively by calling – instead of as the premium hand that it is. This hand is essentially a coin-flip against a pair Q-Q or lower – and has some decent chances against kings.

Starting Hand Odds vs Ranges

Of course, poker hole-cards are hidden, you will not know what your opponent’s hold until showdown (if at all). For this reason, making simple comparisons with two specific hands is less useful than comparing your hand to a range of hands that your opponents might hold.

A typical middle position raising range in a smaller stakes game might look like this:

7-7+, A-Jo+, K-10s+

This means that the player will raise any pair higher than 7’s, unsuited cards Ace-Jack or better and suited Broadway hands King-10 or better. This is a 9% raising range.

If you are sitting in later position with a mid-strength hand, knowing the poker odds of your hand being better than theirs pre-flop can be useful. To find this information you will need a poker calculator. These have in interface allowing you to select ranges, and then compare how different starting hands do against the entire range.

Here are some examples against the range above:

A-A = 84.4% Equity
10-10 = 53.7% Equity
3-3 = 38.7% Equity
Ace-Queen Suited = 51%

The complexity of poker starts here. You know your opponent will behave differently with different parts of their range. If you re-raise, they will fold the weakest hands, call with the mid-range (and some strong hands), and will often re-raise with the top part of their range.

If you want to improve your poker game, spending time with a calculator and looking at matchups between different hands and ranges is time well spent. This will get you thinking in terms of the poker odds of your hand against a range – rather than the impossible to know single matchups.

Introducing Pot Odds

Every time you call a bet in poker, you should calculate the price you are getting in the form of odds. If you call a half pot bet of $30 (the pot is $60 and someone bets into you), you would need to pay $30 in a pot of $90. This means the price of your call is 3-to-1. If you win more often than this price, your call has a positive expectation over time.

Pot odds alone will often have you guessing. It is hard to know how many times an opponent is betting a strong hand, medium-strength hand or is bluffing. As you gain experience, you will be better at putting opponents on a range of hands – comparing the pot odds you are getting to your real chances of winning.

Closely related to pot odds is the concept of outs. This describes the number of cards still in the deck which could improve you to the best hand. You can have very few (a single over-card in your hand will pair 3 times on the turn and river, out of 47 unseen cards). You can also have a lot of outs, for example with a combined flush and straight draw.

This means that you will improve to make the best hand a certain percentage of the time. By comparing your chances of improving with the pot odds, you can decide whether to call, fold or even to raise as a semi-bluff.

Implied Odds in Poker Games

Pot odds give you a snap-shot of the price you are getting in a poker hand. Most of the time, there will be more money in both your stack and your opponent’s stack. You get immediate odds on your call – though if you improve to the best hand, you can make a lot more money.

The money you could make on future streets is known as your implied odds.

A great example is where you call with a small pair before the flop. You know you do not have the correct price against the kind of hands you opponent would raise with at that point. If you do hit a set, you can win many times that small bet. Here your implied odds are huge. You will win a big pot sometimes, making up for all those times you miss the flop and fold.

Note that you will not always get paid off. You will also lose the hand sometimes (set over set, opponent makes a flush and so on). To account for those situations, you need at least 12x your bet left in your stack to make this implied odds call profitable.

Pot Odds Poker

This same concept applies to suited connectors and suited aces.

Reverse Implied Odds

This concept is more advanced – and is the main reason that it is dangerous to play easily dominated hands like Ace-Nine.

The problem with these hands is that when you do hit the flop with a single ace or nine, you will not know whether you are ahead or behind. If you make a pair with the ace, you will sometimes lose a big pot when an opponent shows up with ace-king (for example). If you pair the 9, your opponent(s) could hold a pair of 10’s or higher – putting you in terrible shape.

Those kind of hands are said to have ‘reverse implied odds’. You are calling a bet pre-flop, though you will likely either win a small pot or lose a big one – depending on how things pan out. I recommend avoiding hands which are easily dominated for exactly this reason.

Small suited cards have a similar problem. You will make the best hand sometimes. If the pot gets large after you make your flush, there is a solid chance someone has a bigger flush – giving you reverse implied odds on your initial call.

Poker Odds: How to Factor Opponent Tendencies into the Math

All the examples above assumed a single opponent, and simple match-ups. You

Poker Pot Odds And Implied Odds