NoMercy Monday: Calculating Pot Odds

In this strategy series, CoinPoker’s Chief Community Manager and pro poker player Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier walks you through the basics of the game. Each No Mercy Monday comes with expert advice on how to play,  and it all starts with starting hands.

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Knowing how to play your starting hands, understanding the notion of position, the art of bluffing, and being aggressive, are four concepts that are part of the most important strategies in No Limit Hold’em Poker.

For the past few weeks, we moved on the essential topic of calculating odds. We started with explaining how you can determine your drawing odds, the importance of observation, and adapting calculations based on those observations.

Last week, we went over classic drawing odds and started to examine the concepts of correct and incorrect plays by considering these percentages in relation to pot odds. This week we’ll take a look at a concrete example, showing you how to use these numbers in a real game situation.

How to Calculate Your Pot Odds

Suppose you are holding  and the flop comes with two more hearts, giving you a flush draw. In line with last week’s lesson, you can multiply your number of outs by 4 to see how many outs you have to make our hand:

There are 9 cards remaining in hearts, times 4, equals 36.
Basically, you have a 36% chance of making your hand.

Now, let’s say that the pot is 500 CHP, and your opponent bets 250 CHP. What that means is that it will cost you that much to win a pot of 1000 CHP. In other words, you would need to pay 25% of the pot.

When you compare that to your chances of making your hand (36%), you can see that your drawing odds are higher than your pot odds. That is a green light to make the call at this stage of the hand.

The general rule is always that your drawing odds must be higher than what the pot of offering you!”

If you do not hit our card on the turn, you will need to adjust our calculations accordingly and calculate your number of outs against the new bet from your opponent. The general rule is always that your drawing odds must be higher than what the pot is offering you! Otherwise, you will pay too much money to try to make a hand that is not worth it, mathematically speaking,

Join me weekly in the Hubble Bubble tournaments and Sunday’s Andromeda events to practice your skills and try to win my 10,000 CHP or 25,000 CHP bounties! 

– Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier