How can people in land casino calculate pot odds?

These days,I watched the live relay of ept.I just admire those players.I am thinking that when those chips of different colour were thrown into the pot,how can these players calculate the size of the pot.And after the flop,turn,and river,if you take time to calculate pot and pot odds,I doubt you can think about other strategy thing.How can they do that?Its not online,these number will not tell you automatically.

luckytvguy said:

How can they do that?Its not online,these number will not tell you automatically.

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Why do you think most major tourneys have 90-120 minute levels and most people take 3-5 minutes to make a decision?

They quite often ask for confirmation of how big somebody's chipstack is, or how much is in the pot, too.

Yes it really isnt as hard as one would think,
I accually prefer to play live tournaments more than online.
Calculating pot odds live is a basic beginers step to live tournament play.

It's mostly been said above - play a few live games and you just get used to tracking the pot size pretty quickly.

Most casinos have a policy against the dealer counting the pot for you BTW (unless it's a pot limit game, where the information is essential) because it slows the game down too much.

umm

LOL at the comment about chip colours.The bet amount is always announced,so it is not hard as you think.Pretty simple math and you can bet a Pro knows his odds fairly quick,otherwise why would they be a Pro?

Being an ex-dealer, there are little tricks to calculating the size of the pot, especially when raises are involved. Otherwise it just takes practice to maintain the size of the pot in your head. In my local casino, the only time the dealer was required to keep track of the pot was in pot limit games. The better players usually know what the pot size is in order to calculate the pot odds.

After reading some interesting books most pros know just because they have been at the tables forever. Some are more concerned about leverage play than actually calculating the pot odds. I also read that some frequently take an educated guess and bet based on that guess. But who knows how honest they are being in books.

OzExorcist said:

It's mostly been said above - play a few live games and you just get used to tracking the pot size pretty quickly.

Most casinos have a policy against the dealer counting the pot for you BTW (unless it's a pot limit game, where the information is essential) because it slows the game down too much.

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I always wondered why they wouldn't count. But they'll spread the pot out and it's pretty easy to get a good estimate. Also just betting patterns in small pots like you remember raise 5x and got 3 callers pot is now 20 BBs stuff like that.

OzExorcist said:

It's mostly been said above - play a few live games and you just get used to tracking the pot size pretty quickly.

Most casinos have a policy against the dealer counting the pot for you BTW (unless it's a pot limit game, where the information is essential) because it slows the game down too much.

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Yes sorry I didn't make myself clear, I meant in the televised tournaments that I have seen it seems to be quite common to ask how big your opponent's chipstack is, or how much is in the pot.

NoWuckingFurries said:

Yes sorry I didn't make myself clear, I meant in the televised tournaments that I have seen it seems to be quite common to ask how big your opponent's chipstack is, or how much is in the pot.

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All good. You're certainly entitled to know the size of your opponent's stack, and the dealer will count that if the player won't tell you. It's considered essential information to the game, and you can't get it confirmed any other way.

The size of the pot, however, is something you're given all the information for as the hand unfolds (the dealer announces each call and each bet or raise amount) so they expect you to track it yourself.

It's entirely possible that TV tables have a different rule on that, BTW: there's usually an announcer calling all the action for the audience and/or people away from the table tracking every pot, so it's possible they can get the answer quickly without having to physically count the chips in the pot.

NoWuckingFurries said:

Yes sorry I didn't make myself clear, I meant in the televised tournaments that I have seen it seems to be quite common to ask how big your opponent's chipstack is, or how much is in the pot.

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Yeah, if you pay attention closely you see that they always ask for a count of the other players' stacks but when they need to see the pot size they ask the dealer to spread it out.

Yes, what Oz said. Dealer can't tell you size of pot (except in pot limit games) but can tell you opponents chip count. If you play live enough it gets easier and easier to look at opponents chips and get a fairly accurate count of what they have (larger chips are required to be out front and visible to others) and fairly easy to know what is in the pot. Dealer will spread it and you just count.

You should always be taking a running total in your head of all bets and raises if your involved in a hand. Its something you get used to pretty quickly.

At the same time, especially in self dealt games you need to be careful you are not angled. Last night, playing a nl cash game, dude splashes the pot againt me, I say "How much is that €30?", he then says call. He had actually bet 15, shitty angle, I didnt really mind, I had the nuts.