Understanding Easy Poker Odds

Playing online poker can sometimes be all about the poker odds. You hear the term pot odds, implied odds, long-shot odds, etc. What do they mean? When you are playing online poker there will be situations where knowing the odds will help, but for now we want to keep it simple.

There are many ways to use pot odds to help make good decisions when playing online poker.

For example, let’s say you have a four flush after the turn and believe that a flush will win you the pot. The odds of making the flush are approximately 4-1, so you need pot odds greater than 4-1 to make it worthwhile to call a bet. Let’s say there are two opponents in the pot with you and one of them leads out and bets. That person bet $20 and now the pot has $120 in it.

You call with your $20 bet because you are getting 6-1 odds. They are greater than the 4-1 odds of you making the flush. Let’s say though that the second opponent raises another $40. Now there would be $160 in the pot and you would have to put in $60 to call. Your online poker odds are now only 2.6 to 1 and a call is not in your best interest.

Sometimes when re-raises are involved it looks like you may be getting better odds than you really are. Let’s take that last example. Let’s say you decided to call the raise and now the first opponent re-raised even more. Now you odds are going down each time. You are getting more money in the pot, but it is costing you more. It sometimes is tough to calculate all of this quickly so be aware that numerous re-raises or a large all-in raise may put the odds at a big disadvantage to you.

Let’s say that first opponent went all-in for another 1,000. Now you have to call a $1000 bet for a pot that might only be 1,300 or so. Instead of the original odds of 4-1 now you are just getting over even money and a call is not a good idea at all.

Sometimes poker odds can get a little complicated but we want to keep things simple. The basic idea of poker odds is to remember that you want greater odds in the pot than it costs you to make your hand. If you can remember this one point it will help you the next time you have to decide whether or not to call. Sometimes pot odds and implied odds can be a little difficult to understand, but remember that they are just one point for decision-making. If you continually call pots without the odds to support the call, you will lose money in the long run playing poker. Poker is a game of odds, people, skill, and definitely luck. Keeping the poker odds simple is always a good idea.