Odds and Pot odds

With all types of poker odds are very important, without a firm understanding of them you have little chance of making any money.

In Holdem half of it is deciding which hands to fold pre flop,which to raise and which to call. What hands exactly depends on a number of factors including the number of players and the tightness of the table.

Pot odds is the chance you have of winning combined with the profit if successful and loss if not successful. The idea is to call/raise if you are getting "pot odds"

For instance, if the call is $5 with the pot at $50 with your chance of winning at 25% it makes good sense to call, you probably wont win this time(75%chance of loss) but in the long run you will be up (One hundred pots the same as this you will lose your $5 seventy five times -$375 but win the $50 the other twenty five times +$1250; making a huge $875 in the long run). Because there are bets every stage of the game you need to make these pot odd decisions every time- the difficult part is working out your expected change of winning. Its not as hard as it seams and with a little help and practice you will get the hang of it.

Good Luck.

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