By Oddvar Pettersen
To be successful at poker you should,
at any time during the play of a hand, be able to calculate the odds of
catching your hand to the odds the pot is giving you.
Knowing the probability of making
a specific hand in poker can be done by calculating hand odds. Figuring
out how many outs you have will give you the possibility of calculating
the number of times you will hit your hand by the river.
Lets say your'e dealt A-9 of hearts
in Texas Hold'em and the flop comes up showing two hearts. Your hand odds
for hitting another heart by the river will be approximately 36% or 3 to
1. (you will hit your hand 1 out of 3 times)
You can figure this out by first
finding the number of outs that you have. Outs are the number of cards
remainig in the deck ( not visibe to you) that can help you make your hand.
So if we are using the hand above
as an example and you hold A-9 of hearts and catch two hearts on the flop,
than you have 9 more hearts in the deck that can help you complete your
flush. 2 hearts in your hand + 2 hearts on the table minus 13 hearts in
total = 9 outs.
If you multiply your number of outs
by 4, than you will get an approximate percentage of hitting your hand
by the river (9x4=36%).
Poker pot odds is the a ratio between
the size of the pot compared to how much it will cost you to call a bet
from another player. The higher the ratio between the size of the pot and
the cost of calling a bet, the better your poker pot odds are.
If there are $40 in the pot after
the flop and a player bets $10 and two other players calls his bet then
you are getting 7 to 1 in pot odds. If you are chasing the A-9 flush draw
from the flop , than you are getting a 36% or 3 to 1 in hand odds to catch
your card at the river, so calling or even raising this bet will be a correct
decision to make.
TRUE
POKER GUIDE
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