How to Calculate Pot Odds Articles | Poker

By: Richard Bleuze

How to Calculate Pot Odds

If you want long term success as a poker player, then you must have the ability to quickly and accurately calculate pot odds at the table.  

Outside of plays made purely on a read or feel of their opponent, all decisions in poker are made through an evaluation of the odds.  Thus, you need to be able to calculate the pot odds as well as your equity.  If the odds are greater than your equity, you are making money; if the odds are less, then you are losing money.

Your first step is to count the pot.  This is not as easy as you would think.  Especially, if the pot has grown large.  Thus, it is best to keep a running count of the total pot as the hand progresses.  It will be much simpler for you to calculate the pot odds.

I suggest that when you are keeping track of the pre-flop action, it helps to ignore the blinds until after they have acted.  It is much simpler this way to calculate the pot odds. 

If you start at UTG, it's pretty simple: UTG raises to $15, cut-off calls ($30), button calls ($45), small blind calls ($60), big blind folds ($65).

Create a ratio: In the same scenario as above, the pre-flop raiser bets out $50. What are the pot odds to the player in the cut-off?

First, you have to add the bet to the total pot, making the total pot $115. The player must call $50 for a pot of $115. This creates your first ratio: $115-$50. Now to make things easy to work with, we want to make the right side of the ratio 1.

115-50: If you want to turn the right side into a 1, you need to divide it by itself (50/50=1). What you do to one side of a ratio, you must do to the other, so 115/50 = 2.3. This makes your new ratio 2.3-1.

You can do this calculation in your head. At the table you do not need to be exact; getting yourself close will do just fine. To divide two numbers, take out the largest possible chunk that the divisor goes into without a fraction.

We know that 100/50 = 2, and 150/50 = 3. Since 150 is larger than the number, the largest chunk we can take out is 100. We now know our first number is a 2. That just leaves us with 15 (115 - 100).

Approximately how many times does 15 go into 50? Well, 15 X 3 = 45. That is as close as we can get, since 45 is closer to 50 than 60. That gives us our second number (the remainder) of 3. Put the two together and we have: 2.3.

Let us say the cut-off calls.  What are the pot odds to the button now?  Try to do that up in your head right now. If you are having trouble, here is a step-by-step numbers walk-through:

Pot = $115 + $50

Pot = $165

Odds = $165/$50

50 * 3 = 150 (first number is 3)

165 - 150 = 15

50/15 = close to 3

Odds = 3.3:1

Hopefully you caught on to the most important shortcut. Once we calculated the odds for the cut-off, and he calls, the odds to the button will be exactly better by one: 2.3 + 1= 3.3. There is no need to recalculate if a player only calls; just add one. Once another player raises, only then must you recalculate.

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