| This is a discussion on pot odds, implied odds, and expectation within the online poker forums, in the Cash Games section; I need help understanding pot odds , implied odds, and expectation......in the SIMPLEST possible form you could put it in....i'm not bad at math i'm ... |
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| pot odds, implied odds, and expectation I need help understanding pot odds, implied odds, and expectation......in the SIMPLEST possible form you could put it in....i'm not bad at math i'm just having trouble understanding the concepts and what-not....please explain thoroughly. thank you!!! |
| Play Texas Hold'em Online Poker | pot odds, implied odds, and expectation | |
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| I am far from an expert and I will use a few examples instead of the technical definition. Pot odds You are holding AK of spades in a 3 way pot of $10. The flop is J65 with 2 spades. You are last to act and for simplicity sake lets say both players ahead of you go all in with $5. The pot is now $20 so do you pay $5 to potentially win $20? In this instance yes you do because the chances of one more spade coming out by the river is about 1 in 3. The pot odds are 4:1 ($20 that could be won/$5 must be risked) and your odds of winning is 2:1 (Two times you will miss the flush, one time you will hit the flush). Because pot odds are greater than odds of winning, this is a technically sound play. I hope that wasn't too complicated, I don't know why I chose such a complex example. So to sum it up, pot odds is what you could win divided by what you have to risk. And that is usually compared with your odds of winning (done by estimating/calculating outs) to make a decision. Implied Odds You are holding 88 at the button. 5 players call, you call as well. This is a situation where you have great implied odds because you are paying 1BB to see the flop. If you miss you can fold and only lose 1BB which will happen 8 out of 9 times. If the flop is AK8, you have a set of trips and can potentially get paid off much more than the 8BB you lose from calling and folding. There is more to implied odds but I will let someone with more experience expand on that and explain expectation. |
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| Implied odds are the reason people play suited connectors or small pocket pairs when they know they are up against a premium hand. Say you have 33 and you know you are up against AA and preflop AA raises to 4x BB, and the player has 50BB and you have him covered. You are only risking 4 BB for the potential to take his whole stack. That's why they call it "implied odds", because you aren't calculating your decisions based on the amount in the pot, but the amount in your opponents stack. However, let's say your opponent only has 20 BB and raises to 5x BB with AA, and you have 33. You should not call because the most you can win is 20 BB, and you are risking 5BB for a 1 in 9 shot. So, implied odds are similar to pot odds, except in pot odds you calculate your risk in relation to the amount in the pot and in implied odds you calculate your risk in relation to your opponent's stack. Hope this helps. |
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| Not an expert (feel like i should say this every time I answer a question), but I have found that when calculating implied odds the opponents stack size and the type of player they are should be taken into consideration. Say you hold hold A10 clubs and the flop comes 5c3dQc. If your opponent puts out a bet of pot size, and you put him on top or middle pair, should you call. Pot odds say no. But what if the pot is only 5% of your stack and your opponent is an absolute donk with a huge stack that will almost definately be getting all his chips in by either bluffing or thinking he has a great hand with middle or top pair. To me, this is an easy call. ps I only play tourneys, not sure about cash games. |
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