QA- What are the right odds?
Annie,
Hello I am new to NL poker, and I hear the term “right odds” to call or play a hand. Can you explain what the right odds are? Thanks, Brian.
Brian – It’s all about the chances you have of making your hand and the amount you’ll get paid if you hit. Let’s say you have Q-J, and you’re looking at a board of A-K-7-2. You need a ten to complete your hand, and there are four of those left in the deck. Since you can see six cards out of 52, then, your chances of catching a ten are 4/46, or about 1 in 10. Now let’s look at the pot. Say there’s $200 in there, and someone bets just $10. If you call, you’ll be getting a possible return of 21-1on your money. Since you’re only 9-1 against hitting your hand, you have “the right odds” to call. On the other hand, if someone bet $10 into a $10 pot, it would still cost you $10 to call, but you’d only win $20 if you win. That’s a 2-1 return on your investment – not nearly enough to chase a 9-1 shot. So the easy way to think about it is this: Measure your card odds against your pot odds. If pot odds are bigger than card odds, you have “right odds” to call. Even easier, just use this rule of thumb: “If the pot is small, don’t call.”
xo
annie
Shouldn’t the number of players left in the hand be taken into account? That is, are pot odds of 4-1 better against 1 remaining opponent than 5 remaining opponents?