POT ODDS

In poker pot odds would be the ratio of the amount of money in the pot to the amount it would cost to stay in the hand. For instance, when you would bet ten dollars to contest a hundred dollar pot, your bet would be paid of ten to one if you were to win. That ratio (the pot odds) should have been greater than odds against winning.

For a flush draw with one card to come, the odds would be four to one against making the flush. Calling when you were on a flush draw and the pot odds would be ten to one would be a good bet. Calling when you were on a flush draw and pot odds would be ten to one would be a good bet. Calling in the same situation when the pot odds would be two to one would be a bad bet.

Your odds of winning the hand wouldn’t have changed but the payoff would, and that should’ve determined the decision. Poker would be about winning money, not about winning hands. The tables and graphs on poker that will follow provide the statistical data you would need to compute the pot odds both before and after the flop.

The tables and graphs will communicate three main points.

The points are:

1.Straights and flushes will be rare after the flop.

2.Unless there would be a large number of poker players entering the hand, you rarely would have the correct pot odds to play only for a straight or flush.

3.Unless you were to have a 10 or higher in your hand, you rarely would have the best hand after the flop.

4.You would not be getting good pot odds to enter a hand with low cards.

5.The poker player with the best hand after the flop would be a favorite to win.

6.For almost all common drawing situations, odds of improvement on the draw would be less than 50%.

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