Odds or Bods?

What type of player are you?
When playing either online or live do you actually calculate the odds of your hand winning when you play or do you play the person? I know some of you are going to say it's a combo of both; but predominately which type of play do you use?

If I know the person I'm playing against, I would play the person. If it was a complete stranger or only played against them for a short time, I play the odds. :icon_boun

IN NL the person in Limit much more mathmatical approach

When you play the odds do you actually think out what they would be?

In limit yes I do. Actually easier than most people think. Memorize an out chart and you will be fine. As long as you can count the number of bets in a pot. Start with 4 flush(4.11:1) and open ended straight draws(4.75:1) if you memorize those first you will see how much easier the numbers are during a game. ESPECIALLY online you need to memorize the out probabilities because you have such a short amount of time to make key decisions.

I think I posted this before but a quick way for me to figure odds is to multiply the number of outs by the number of cards left to be dealt and double that. example is I have 2 hearts in my hand and the board flops 2 hearts. There are 9 outs (hearts left) times 2 cards left to be dealt (the turn and the river) and double that 9*2*2= 36%. This calculation is not exact but close enough for me while I'm playing.

I'm predominantly a limit player. If I'd scale it, I'd say I'm 4 parts odds and 1 part player. If I know that a player is prone to folding pre-flop and suddenly raises for the first time this session, I'll watch out, but at the end of the day, it's calculating outs and maximizing winnings accordingly for me.

I'm a no limit player and I always calculate the odds first, and use that info to figure out whether to stay in a hand or fold depending on my read of the other players. For example, if I have a flush draw, depending on the players I may want to raise before I catch it to try and take down the pot. On the other hand, if I'm at a very loose table, my semi-bluff wouldnt work, or I could get re-raised, so I may want to actually make a hand before I start betting.

Wow. I never really calculated odds before, (blond). I like Alon's simple version. I'm gonna have to try it in some games later. I'll let you know how it works out for me. I play the person mostly. And yes you can do that fairly easy even online.

I am one of the players who plays the odds. I mostly play online so i dont anyone who i play. I use the odds and also my gut instinct.

That is a 36% chance all the way down to the river, after the turn it becomes an 18% chance. It isn't 36% after the turn..only 36% after the flop.

To be a successful player you should always use pot odds when considering a draw however you need to consider the type of person and their style and stack when you are going to try and reraise or put a move on someone.

twizzybop said:

That is a 36% chance all the way down to the river, after the turn it becomes an 18% chance. It isn't 36% after the turn..only 36% after the flop.

Click to expand...

Right. After the turn you would only have one card left to draw (the river) so it would be 9x1x2=18%. Also I would say when looking at odds after the flop that is sometimes more realistic to figure the turn by itself then the river by itself. An example is the odds for hitting an outside straight draw after the flop is roughly 1 in 3 if you stay for both the turn and the river but if you only look at the turn and then fold your actual odds were roughly 1 in 6. This is something I keep in mind when in with an aggressive bettor.