3 of 14

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 4

out. To be honest your chances really aren't that good because even if you do have the best hand, your hand is weak enough that a solid bluff might get you to fold.

Having position gives you information to help you make better decisions.

2. The second thing to take into account are your odds. There are two types of odds in poker. Those are pot odds and implied odds. Pot odds are the the absolute odds of your hand being able to win at the end compared to the size of the pot. There are charts that you can study which will give you the odds of any two cards beating any other two cards, but that is too deep to go into in this article. You should know though that after the flop you can quickly approximate your odds by calculating how many cards are in the deck that can give you the winning hand and then multiplying that number by four on the flop, and by two on the turn. For example, if you are holding two clubs in your hand and the flop comes up with two clubs there are nine clubs left in the deck. With two more cards coming, that gives you an approximate 36% chance to catch your flush. After the turn there is only one more card coming so you have about an 18% chance to get another club. Now we look at what percentage of the pot a bet is and compare. If you are heads up with a $100 pot in front of you, and your opponent makes a $50 bet then you are getting 3 to 1 odds. The $100 pot plus his $50 bet means you have to put in $50 to win $150. Since your chance of catching a club are two to one, you are getting great odds! If the turn card comes up though as a heart, you now have a pot of $200 with an 18% chance giving you basically four to one. Another half pot bet, $100 now, is not giving you the odds you need to call.

Now let's look at implied odds. In the above example we looked at a hand that did not have the pot odds to make the call. Using the same example though, let's say your opponent bets $100 on the turn and you do call, making the pot $400. The river brings you a club giving you the flush you were after. Your opponent continues with his half pot strategy by betting $200. There is now $600 in the pot, and you decide to re-raise your opponent an additional $200. If he calls there is now a pot of $1200. You now turned that bad call on the turn into a good call because that $100 call turned into an additional $400 in winnings giving you the four to one odds you needed. The odds were implied though because you had no guarantee you would make any more money at

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about The best Texas holdem poker hands?
We want to hear your view. Write now!