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SplitPot66

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Kevilfish

You generally use pot odds when you are drawing to a certain hand, either a straight or a flush.

Examples;

Say you have JQ, the flop is K5T. The odds of hitting your straight (A or 9) can be worked out by multiplying the actual amount of cards you have by 2.5 and then again by how many cards are to come (1 or 2). You will have 4 Aces and 4 nines = 8 outs, multiply by 2.5 = 20 multiply by 2 (2 cards to come, turn and river) = 40% chance of hitting your straight. The odds are 6/4 on the flop. On the turn, the odds will be halfed (as there is only one card to come) so the odds are 4/1 (20%)

If you are chasing a gut-shot straight, you will have 4 cards to hit, multiply by 2.5 = 10% multiply by 2 (number of cards to come) = 20% which means your odds on the flop is 4/1 and your odds on the turn to hit the 10% chance is 9/1. You are unlikely to be given the correct odds to call for a gut-shot straight but there may be implied odds which I'll explain later.

If you are chasing a single card flush, you will need to hit one of the 9 remaining cards = 22.5% multiply by 2 = 45% which means the odds on the flop is 21/20, on the turn is 31/10 (22.5%)

If you are chasing 2 cards to hit a flush, you need to hit one of the 9 cards on the turn and the one of the 8 cards on the river which is roughly 20/1.


Implied odds can be used if you are not getting the correct mathematical odds to call when drawing to a straight or flush. How this works is you calculate roughly how much the pot will need to reach to give you the correct odds if you were to hit your hand on a later street.

Example;

If you have a gut-shot straight draw on the flop, the pot is 500 chips. The odds of hitting is 4/1.

If the other player now bets 300 chips, the odds you are getting is 8/3 (2.667/1) - not the correct odds but what you have to think is will this pot reach 1500 chip (this is the return on a 4/1 bet if you stake 300), the total pot after the flop if you call will be 1100, it is quite likely the pot will reach 1500 as it is only 400 more. Therefore you will have implied odds for this bet.
Now, if you miss the turn card, the chance of hitting is reduced to 9/1, if the other player now bets 500, the actual odds you are getting is 16/5 (3.2/1) - again not the correct odds, the return on a 500 bet on a 9/1 shot is 5000, if you were to call the pot, it would be 2100, it is very unlikely the pot will reach 5000 unless you happen to have a read on the player that they are playing a strong hand (trips or top 2 pair etc) or that the other player calls the majority of large bets, even so, you will generally not have the implied odds to call this bet most of the time.

If he had bet only 200 on the turn, the odds you would have been getting was 13/2 (6.5/1), the return on a 200 bet at 9/1 is 2000, after you call the pot will be 1500, it is likely the pot will reach 2000 on the river if you hit so you would have had implied odds in this instance.

Also note, if a player pushes all in, you cannot have implied odds as there will be no betting after you call (unless there are other players in the hand).
If there are other players in the hand to act behind you, you could use this as implied odds.


Other factors that should also influence your decision.
-If you feel your opponent is weak you can also raise/push all in, this gives you 2 chances to win the hand, either your opponent folding or you hitting your card, it will also put a difficult decision on your opponent if they have a marginal hand.
-If you are on/near the cash bubble, even though you may be getting the correct odds to hit your draw, it may not be the best time to be calling off chips to hit cards, sometimes it is better to fold and get into the money and go from there.


Hope this helps and good luck at the tables.