Recently, I received a question from one of my students. It stated, "What precisely is pot odds and is Texas hold em pot probabilities strategy worth pursuing?"
One issue to remember, any kind of Hold em probabilities can and usually do receive incredibly confusing. However, let me break pot probabilities down in really simple terms. Please note that we are only discussing Pot Odds. Not outs, implied probabilities, basic probabilities or anything else like that.
In short, pot probabilities are the probabilities you have when determining the ratio of the quantity of money in the pot to the quantity of money it will price you to call the wager.
For example, let’s say you’re heads up with Player A. If there is certainly one hundred and fifty dollars in the pot following the flop and Player A places a $20.00 bet it is going to cost you only 13 percent of the pot to stay in the hand. If your likelihood of succeeding is greater than 13 per-cent it is a no-brainer to call because you’d probably have beneficial pot probabilities.
That’s all there would be to it actually. Holdem pot odds boils down to one thing. If your chance of winning is better than the ratio of the pot size to the bet then you could have very good pot odds. If it’s lower than you might have bad pot odds.
One more thought about Hold em pot odds. You are still wagering the gambler a lot more so than anything else. Bet on the player additional than your starting hands or the size of the chip stack and even, yes the pot probabilities.
If you are able to learn to read your opponents well you’ll be able to utilize pot probabilities to support justify or solidify your judgement. But Hold’em pot probabilities don’t have to be an end all whenever you make a poker decision.
Knowing and understanding how Hold’em pot probabilities work may be a useful and successful technique. But again don’t generate Texas hold em pot odds your only method.