What are poker pot odds? To put it simply, it's a formula that helps determine the ratio between the level of risk involved in a hand compared to the potential reward. Pot odds is something any serious Hold'em player should be familiar with because it helps you make critical decisions and it will improve your game. It expresses a ratio, like 4 to 1, between the size of the bet you need to call versus the total pot value based on increments of your bets. It may sound confusing, but it's quite simple. I'll show you how to calculate pot odds when you are playing heads up. And remember that this calculation method applies to all poker sites you play on.

An Example to Calculate Pot Odds

Lets pretend that there is $20 in a pot and you need to call a $5 bet, then you are getting 4 to 1 pot odds (20/5 = 4 so 4:1 is the ratio). A pot of 50$ where you only need to put in $5 to call represents 10:1 pot odds because 50/5 = 10. Calculating a pot odd is that simple. Now, how is that number used? What does it mean?

You have to compare your pot odds with your odds of winning the hand. For example, if you think you only have a 10% chance to win the hand, you should only play that hand if there is at least 9 times your bet in the pot. (10% = 9 to 1 odds) This is a risk/reward ratio - if you risk losing the bet, you need to have a big enough reward to make it affordable.

When to Use Pot Odds

Pot odds can be used during different situations, including calling bets or drawing to a straight or flush. For example, if you need to call 10$ with a 25% chance to win a hand, there needs to be at least 3  times the size of your bet in the pot, at least 30$ in this case. You will lose 3 of every 4 contests, but win one. If you call 4 times, on average you lose 3 but win 1. Thus, you lose 3 $10 bets for $30 total, so you need to have $30 in the pot each time to break even.

If you are playing weaker hands like suited connectors or a small pair and you're trying to hit a flop and get lucky, calculate the pot odds to determine if it's even worth a try. To have good enough odds, generally you need to have better pot odds than your chance of winning the hand. So if you think you only have a 20% chance to win the hand, you should only play that hand if there is 5 times your bet or more in the pot. This is a risk/reward ratio - if you risk losing the bet, you need to have a big enough reward to make it affordable. When you have a strong hand, you're chances of winning are increased and therefore the pot odds could be greater. For example, if after the flop you have 14 outs, then your chances to win are just over 50% in a heads up situation. In this case, you would call a $50 dollar bet when there's just $100 in the pot. To apply this concept, you need to know how many outs you have, and what that means in terms of your percentage of winning. Refer to the chart below for drawing odds from a deck of 47 unseen cards (heads up after the flop).

If you play against good poker players who use pot odds to determine if they should call a bet or not, then you can put in a bet that gives the player bad odds to call. You want to do consider doing this when attempting to bluff, or when you think you have the best hand. An oversized bet usually means that the player has something, or that he's trying to buy the pot.

You don't need to memorize this chart. There is a simple way to calculate pot odds. First, you need to figure out the number of outs that you have. If there are two cards left to come (after the flop), then multiply your outs by 4. If there is just one card to come (after the turn), then multiply your number of outs by 2. This result represents a rough estimate of your odds of winning. So according to the chart above formula, if I have 5 outs, then the real odds are 20.4% with 2 cards to come and 10.9% with one card to come. How does that compare with using the 4 and 2 multipliers? My chances with 2 cards to come are 20% (5 outs x 4), and 10% (5 outs x 2) with one card to come. It may not be 100% accurate, but it's certainly close enough to let you know where you stand with your current hand. That's all you care about.