Texas Holdem Pot Odds
Thinking Implied Odds Will Impact Your Bottom Line
Often when you're playing Texas Holdem you find yourself looking intensely at the pot trying to figure out the amount of chips in there. You're trying to figure the outs and odds and whether or not you should call a bet or not. You hear a lot of players say things like, ?I called because I was getting pot odds.?
You rarely hear a player say I called because of implied odds. The reason being - in a game of No Limit Texas Holdem a player can go All-In at anytime which is something you can't quantify that easily. But understanding implied odds and using it selectively can dramatically impact your bottom line. Let's take a look?
What you need to do is build a profile of the players at your table and figure out which ones are likely to pay you off. Once you have done this... it's time to incorporate this "implied thinking" into your game.
For example, you call a $50 pre-flop raise with 7-8 suited and the flop comes 6-9-K. Your opponent, who you know is an aggressive player with a lot of chips, bets the pot ($100). Now, based on the pot odds you can't call $100 to win a $200 pot, when you're over a 3-to-1 underdog to hit your straight, with two cards to come.
In fact, your opponent most probably won't let you see the river card, so you're a 5- to-1 underdog with one card to come (see Outs and Odds to see how we arrived at these numbers)
Let's look at how you can make this hand work and why your winning nights can be 3x more profitable then the amounts you lose on losing nights...
First things first, these type of plays are to be used selectively and under optimal conditions. With that said - my thinking here goes like this - because real money No Limit is such a volatile game, you need to think outside the box and do a few things that may seem illogical at first glance, which is where implied odds come in.
I think you get one or two opportunities a night where you're in a position to extract a lot from your opponent; if you can't take advantage of this you will lose playing no limit Texas Holdem real money cash games, over any longer time frame.
Being aware of the circumstances and recognizing the implied odds will give you more opportunities and help make these situations seem logical. Most importantly, it will put you in a position to get all of your opponent's money more often.
Remember when you first sit down at the table, whether it be online or live, it's best to play by the book, show a few winning hands hopefully, and build your stack up before making these kinds of moves.
Typically, I'll play tight but aggressive early on, try and build up my chips, get to know who I'm playing with before looking towards the implied odds. The better you become at playing Texas Holdem poker, the quicker you will process all of this information in the future.
OK let's get back to the above example...
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Let's say I've been playing for 5 hours, I started with $500, now I have $940. My opponent, who knows I am a good solid player now, has a lot more chips then I have. When I call his early position raise from around back, with no one else in the pot, he probably puts me on something like AQ, KQs, AJs. He thinks I would not make this play with connectors with just the two of us in the pot. So already he's probably misreading my hand.
Flop comes 6-9-K, again, I have 7-8. He bets $100 and is holding A-K. Again based on the pot odds I can't make this call, but because I know my opponent is going to pay me off big time if I hit my card. I'm thinking implied odds here and make what looks like an illogical call. Let's take a look at it from a mathematical standpoint, so you can better understand the thinking behind this play...
Let's say I have 8 outs (all the 5's and 10's in the deck) and let's also say I'm only going to see the turn card. If my card doesn't hit I probably won't see the river since he'll bet me out of the pot at that point. So 8 outs with one card to see gives me about a 20% chance of hitting my card or 4 to 1 odds against me making the straight (see outs and odds and pre-flop odds sections).
I'm calling $100 to win $200 or getting 2 to 1 from the pot when in fact, I'm a 4 to 1 underdog of hitting my straight. A call here doesn't seem to make sense based on the pot odds.
But based on the implied odds (which is how I'm thinking here since I feel my opponent is going to pay me off) it's a different story. I'm still a 4 to 1 underdog of hitting my card but now I feel I'm calling $100 here to win at least $400 or getting better than 4 to 1, correctly giving the odds I need to make this play. Let's look at how I want this hand to play out...
I call the $100 bet and the turn card is a 5. At this point maybe he thinks I have KQs with a backdoor flush draw. The pot is now $300 and he definitely feels his A-K is good and bets out $350. You call this bet and the river card is a 2 with no flush possibilities on board, your opponent bets the river.
You raise and he calls you, doubling your stack. Your $940 is now $1880, not a bad payday for a $100 call on the flop. Turns out the implied odds for your call paid you over 9 to 1 on your $100 investment.
What I just described seems like the perfect scenario but if you're aware of your environment, opportunities like this will present themselves fairly regularly in real money poker. You just need to make it part of your holdem game and have the awareness to take advantage of it.
Remember good players are very cognicent of the implied odds, as well as pot odds. Make it a part of your No Limit Texas Holdem game too!
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To complete your knowledge of the math behind Texas Holdem Poker, read these sections: Starting Hands and Drawing Hand Odds.
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