This is a very important aspect of the game for every poker player. Luckily, as a Texas hold-em player on FullTilt Poker.net, the pot odds and odds of completing your poker hands are relatively easy to calculate compared to other variation of poker.
In this article, I will just teach you quite an easy way to calculate poker odds at the table. This will give you a fairly accurate idea of what your odds will be. The downside to this shortcut is that it is not 100% accurate, but it is very, very close to the real odds if you were to calculate them the long(er) way.
You may be asking why knowing your odds is so important. This is simple really, by knowing your chances of completing your hand and winning the pot, this will give you good information so that you can make informed decisions about when to call, and in the long run make you a consistent winner.
As an example, if you were to gamble at FullTiltPoker on something as simple as a flip of a coin, you would be expecting 1:1 on your money as there is a 50% chance of it being either heads or tails. If you played this all night you should break even. Now for arguments sake somebody offered you 2:1 on your money based on a coin flip this would make it a very profitable thing to play. In theory you should lose half of the flips – but the ones that you do win, you will be making 2:1 on your money and, in the long run, come out in front.
The first thing you will need to know when calculating the chances of making your hand are your outs. What cards will make my hand?
For instance if you are holding two hearts, and the flop also contains to hearts you are drawing to a flush with two cards still to come. Now there are still 9 hearts in the deck that can complete the flush for you.
In the short cut method I am about to teach you consider each of your outs to be worth 2% then multiply that by how many cards are still to come. So for your flush draw you calculation should be as follows
9 outs X 2% = 18% 18% X two cards to come = 36%
As you can see you have about a 36% (By calculating the long way you will find your odds are 35%, so you can see the shortcut is very close) chance of making your hand, which means you will make it about 1/3 of the times you play it.
Does this mean I should only call one in every three times I flop a flush draw?
No, the answer to that question is you should call based on the pot odds.
Pot odds sound scary but are very simple, they are merely just the money in the pot (plus the bet) in ratio to how much it will cost you to call.
For instance, if there is $40 in the pot and your opponent bets $10 the pot odds are 5:1, which means you will need to win the hand 1 out of every 6 times to break even.
Now you know that you are going to make your flush and win the pot 1 out of every 3 times, so in the long run you will make a tidy profit if your opponent offers you odds like this.
So as you can see if the pot odds are greater than the odds of making your hand you should call as in the long run this is profitable. But if the pot odds are shorter than your hand odds you should generally fold.
Of course this is just a quick guide so that you know how to calculate poker odds for your own use. You will need to consider many more aspects of the hand at Poker Stars.com before deciding whether to call, fold or raise. Things such as “implied odds” need to be taken into account, and of course the obvious things such as if your opponent is bluffing.
I will go into more depth about pot odds and ‘implied odds’ in the coming weeks, but for now I want you to get just a general idea about how to use pot odds and give you the basic calculation to assist you in your game play.
Keep updated for more articles about pot odds and ‘implied odds” in the coming weeks
Position at the table at a site like Full Tilt.com is an underestimated part of poker game-play, and – if you know how to use your table position wisely – you’ll save a lot more money. I’ll start by defining just exactly what position is: basically, it’s your place at the table relative to the dealer button.
Poker Terms to know:
- Under the Gun – First person to act pre-flop. (Person after big blind)
- Middle Position – 2nd to 5th after BB.
- Late position – anything after middle position, right back round to the dealer button.
- Full-Ring – This means the table is full, it has 10 players.
- Short-handed – Fewer players, ~5 or 6.
Under the Gun.
You really cannot limp with anything shy of a good poker hand. How do you know what a ‘good’ hand is in this particular situation? Put it this way: is this the sort of hand that you’d call a raise with?
A lot of players at FullTiltPoker and other poker strategy articles will tell you not to limp, at all. I can’t agree with this strategy whole heartedly; to the contrary, I feel a call (under the gun) of moderate suited connectors is usually not a waste of money. The underlying principle is that because there are so many players still to act, it’s more likely that a raise will occur and you’ll be forced to muck your mediocre hand.
Middle Position.
Generally, raise with pockets over 7’s, and any AJ or higher (AJ, AQ, AK). Of course, you must also keep in mind (when raising) who has already called. Note how many callers have called before you. If there aren’t any, raising with your big Ace is not so strongly advised. You still want to see the flop.
Late Position.
Again, you must observe the number of callers prior to you. Are there a lot of limpers? Play your weaker hands.
As a general rule, you must remember that small blind and the other early positions are the worst positions to be in, and the dealer is always the best seat. (last to act.) You must also understand though, that there are large advantages in acting and betting first – it is much harder to call a bet, than it is to make one.
