When it comes down to it, the game of poker really is a metaphor for life. Players are constantly put into situations where they have to make important decisions and much like life, those decisions can drastically alter the way the rest of the session plays out. Also, like life, in poker there is never one single best solution to a problem. The player must plan and pick his spots wisely in order to survive in a tournament or be successful in a cash game.
This series of columns will tackle the topic of poker by presenting instructional advice, guidelines, strategies and hand analysis designed to help the beginner up through the veteran achieve their true potential at the tables.
I have been playing poker for over six years and there are still things I learn from time to time. Immersing yourself completely in poker is really the only true way to learn it. I have read countless books on poker and played in many tournaments, the most prestigious being the $10,000 buy-in main event at the 2006 World Series of Poker, which had a field of more than 8,000 people and holds the record for being the largest land-based tournament (as opposed to online tournaments) of all time.
I hope my experiences and analysis of the game will help you to become a better player and dominate those home games and local tournaments, if not the World Series of Poker itself!
The first topic I wanted to cover in this anthology is one of the most important poker fundamentals and one that should be used constantly whether you are playing cash games or tournaments – pot odds. Pot odds are the odds you are getting on the call you are contemplating making and while it sounds simple, these calculations are the crux of poker decisions. Say that there is $100 in the pot and you are facing a bet of $20, so to stay in you must call that $20 bet. Based on this example, we see that your odds in the hand are $100-to-$20, or, 5-to-1, which are quite lucrative.
Taking this concept further, we can see if the odds justify staying in the hand for the exact hand we are playing. Say that you’re playing Texas Hold’em and you have AYour browser may not support display of this image. KYour browser may not support display of this image. and the flop comes 5Your browser may not support display of this image. 6Your browser may not support display of this image. JYour browser may not support display of this image., giving you the nut flush draw. You currently have nine outs (the nine remaining spades) that would likely give you the best hand. So what are the odds of making your hand compared to the pot odds if there is currently $100 in the pot and you are facing a bet of $20?
First, one must know what the odds are of completing a four-flush, as we only need one more spade in the next two cards. Mathematically, the odds of making a flush in this situation by the river or turn combined are approximately 2-to-1, or a 33% chance (this topic I will cover next week). Put another way, you will hit the flush approximately one out of every three times for this situation. Therefore, you must have pot odds of greater than 2-to-1 in order for your call to be profitable.
We know that with $100 in the pot and the current bet being $20, your pot odds are more than sufficient to justify making that call. If the pot odds were only 1-to-1, over time you would actually be losing money by making this call, because the one time you hit the spade on the turn or river does not contain enough profit to make up for the other times you didn’t hit it.
Pot odds are clearly an extremely useful tool when calculating whether to stay in the pot or not. While there is much more to poker than just pot odds, knowing how to calculate them is the first step to becoming a serious player. Until next week, keep hitting those tables!
More information on pot odds and anything else discussed in this column can be found at www.twoplustwo.com or www.cardplayer.com.
