Poker is all about making the right decision at the right time, but how is a player to do that, exactly? Until the day comes when all players have their cards face up on the felt when they play, you as a poker player will be playing with incomplete information. Thus, making a right decision is essentially making the right guess, but with knowledge of pot odds you can sort of sidestep this reality and help your game.

Pot Odds is the term used to describe what your potential gain is out of an action in poker, based on how much money is in the pot and how much money you have to risk to get it. In a $1/$2 cash limit holdem game, if there is $20 in the pot and you are being asked to call $4 to get it, you are risking $4 to get $24 (the pot plus the last bet), which is “six to one” on your money. Okay, so know you know you are risking a sixth of what you could gain, but how do you know if that is worth it? You need to know your odds of actually winning.

If you have the nut hand you don’t need to figure this out, you need to figure out how much you should raise of if you should slow play. But if you are drawing to a winning hand you need to know your pot odds. If you strongly suspect your opponent is holding a straight and you have two pair, your only real odds of beating him are if you make a full house. If you are holding King/Four and the board reads King, Four, Ten, Jack, there is only one more card to come, and it has to be one of the two remaining Kings or Fours, so you have four outs. Fifty six cards in the deck minus the four on the board and four in your and your opponent’s hands leaves 48 cards, divided by the four that can help you is twelve, so you have a one in twelve chance of hitting the card you need. This is less than the six to one you are getting if you win, so pot odds dictate you should fold—if you knew for certain your opponent has you beat with a straight. If there were $100 in the pot, however, you would certainly call, even if you knew you were beat at the time