Poker pot odds

Poker pot odds is one of the most important concepts in Poker strategy. Poker pot odds are defined as the ratio of the current size of the poker pot divided by the size of the next poker potential poker odds bet, from the point of view of the poker play pot oddser about to make the poker odds bet. For example, if a poker players pot odds is facing a $5 raise by his opponent (and must therefore pay $5 to call the raise), and the total amount of money in the poker pot (including the uncalled raise) before his poker potential call is $30, then he is facing 6-to-1 poker pot odds for the call. If he is contemplating raising another $5 (making his poker potential poker odds bet $10), then he is facing 3-to-1 poker pot odds for the raise.

For every poker potential action (fold, call, raise) at every point in a game of poker, the correct strategy is influenced by the poker pot odds facing the poker player pot odds. For example, the lower the poker pot odds facing a call, the more likely it is that folding will be the correct poker play pot odds, and the higher the poker pot odds facing a call, the more likely it is that calling is the correct poker play pot odds (to take an extreme example, if you can call for $1 with a $1000 poker pot, there is essentially no hand that would be correct to fold, because you only have to win one time in a thousand in similar situations for the call to be profipoker table pot odds). Similarly, small poker pot odds favor bluffing, because they make it less correct for an opponent to call.

Frequently poker play pot oddsers develop instinct or judgment about the size of the poker pot relative to their poker potential poker odds bets in various situations and make adjustments, but in some cases it is important to get an exact count. For example, on the next-to-last round of a game when your opponent poker odds bets and you are facing a decision on whether to call with a drawing hand, you need to compare your exact poker pot odds with the odds of completing your hand (though other factors may be involved as well). Another situation is deciding whether to bluff on the final round: game theory shows that one should bluff a percentage of the time equal to your opponent's poker pot odds to call the bluff. For example, in a poker pot limit game if the poker pot is $30 and you are contemplating a $30 poker odds bet (which will give your opponent 2-to-1 poker pot odds for his call), you should bluff half as often as you would poker odds bet for value. With a larger poker pot, you would bluff less often.

Poker pot odds are what you are getting in this instant or immediately while implied odds are the odds of the amount of chips you may win if you get to flop a monster and get an opponent's whole stack or at least a large part of it. Unfortunately, nothing is ever this straightforward in poker as the implied odds assume that nobody behind you will re-raise forcing you to fold your hand. In reality, these have to be reduced downwards to compensate for such occurrences.

As a general rule, unless you are in early position, if you are first to enter a poker pot in mid to late position you should come in with a raise. The reason for this is that there is a high propensity for poker play pot oddsers to fold when faced with a raise. There is a good chance that if you have a poker play pot oddsable hand you will pick up the uncontested blinds just by raising. However, remember that if you are called it is very likely that the caller will be holding a stronger hand!

Poker play pot oddsing the premium starting hands like the big pairs (Jacks and up) and AK are a little different. Because your starting hand is so strong you tend to have more options in the way you can poker play pot odds them but you should remember that with these kinds of hands you should prefer to poker play pot odds against few opponents rather than many. With the small pairs and suited connectors you want multiple opponents or multi way action and to see a flop cheaply as usually you will have to throw it away on the flop and as such you need to get those high implied odds.

With the bigger pairs and AK you are happy to raise and get lots of money in pre flop. Invariably any opponents will be few and they will have to be poker play pot oddsing catch up which is difficult to do with a worse starting hand. However you should not forget that an AK is merely an Ace high and worthless unless it improves so do not get too carried away if you miss the flop and someone poker odds bets into you or raises. No pair is no pair whether you hold a 23 or an AK from the flop onwards. You should also remember that a big pair tends to only win a relatively small poker pot whilst the smaller pairs and suited connectors win bigger ones.

Another key area of no limit poker play pot odds is deception. Whenever you get to fool opponents into thinking you have a different hand from the one you are actually holding they are prone to making mistakes. If you raised pre flop they often assume that you are holding a pair or big poker card pot oddss so by varying your poker play pot odds you can mislead them at a future stage of the tournament (if they are paying attention). Because of this it can be very rewarding to poker play pot odds similar or the same hand in differing ways so when you raise, try and do so in a random fashion. Typically when you enter a poker pot your raise should be around 2 to 5 times the big blind. However if you always raise twice the big blind with Aces and 4 times with Tens, astute opponents will pick this up and use it against you at a later stage. If your poker table pot odds has aggressive poker play pot oddsers acting behind you and they are always re-raising you when you limp, then by all means limp next time with aces so you can re-raise them when they raise you. Similarly, if you notice people behind you are calling your raises with very weak poker card pot oddss, then by all means put a larger than usual raise in next time you get Aces as you are going to make them pay a premium for calling your strong hand with garbage. Perhaps what I am trying to say is that you should vary your poker play pot odds according to your opponents' style of poker play pot odds. By doing so you will confuse them as to what you may or may not be holding whilst at the same time maximizing your effectiveness against them.