Knowing your winning chances

Don’t be afraid of odds. Get to know them here with this helpful poker strategy guide, and have a better understanding of your chances in the game.

It doesn’t matter how experienced a player you are, the cards dealt in poker and your chances of winning are all a matter of odds. This makes mathematics (specifically probability) very relevant, yet you don’t need to be a math genius to understand them. The 3 simple steps listed below will teach you how to understand poker odds according to a basic knowledge of the game.

1. Define the Pot Odds
Pot Odds refer to how worthwhile it is financially to play a certain poker hand. Literally, the odds specify the amount of money you’ve paid to remain in the hand, compared to the amount of money in the pot. For example, if there is $20 in the pot and the player you’re up against has bet $10, then you are essentially being offered $30 from the pot by paying a $10 fee. As a ration, this would be written as “30:10”.

This can be simplified by either dividing the left side by the right (i.e.: 30/10 = 3) and putting the result alongside a 1 (i.e.: 3:1), or by making the right hand side a 1. To do this you must divide it by itself (i.e.: 10/10 = 1), and to get the left side you should just divide it by that same number (i.e.: 30/10 = 3). This means that your pot odds will be 3 to 1.

2. Calculate Equity
Equity refers to your chances of winning in comparison to other player’s chances of winning. To calculate this percentage, simply multiply your total amount of outs by 4 during the Flop, or by 2 during the Turn. For example, if you have a Flush Draw and 9 outs during the Flop, then you will multiply 9 by 4, which is 36%.

This 36% represents your chances at building a winning hand. To turn this into ratio form, you must try to make the right side a 1 in the same way you did for the pot odds. Since percentages are always out of 100, the left side of our ratio will be equal to 100 minus 36, which are 64.

64 divided by 36 is equal to 1.7, such that our final equity odds are 1.7:1. This means you will have 1.7 losing hands for every winning hand.

3. Compare between Pot and Equity Odds
To know if it is worth you pursuing the hand, simply compare between the left-hand numbers of your pot odds and equity odds. If the equity odds number is lower than the pot odds number, then it’s worth it. Otherwise, it isn’t – it’s that easy!