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all if the club came up. A tight player for example may not have bet the river when a third club came up, and may have folded to a $400 bet from you. You still would have won the pot, but it would have been smaller. If you played that same scenario over and over, the number of times you lost compared to the number of times you won would cost you money in the long run instead of winning you a profit.

When we couple position with odds we see why we need stronger hands in the beginning. In position you can get a feel for where you stand in the hand, and better calculate your odds based on what your opponent has done. Using the same flush example as above look at the different perspectives based on position. If you are out of position you have to decide whether or not you are going to bet on a draw. If you do bet and are raised, are you going to continue losing money in a hand that you know is second best? If you don't bet, but do call your opponents bet then you are tipping your opponent off on the turn if you check again. You are pretty much shouting that you have a flush draw. In position though you have several more options. Say your opponent makes that $50 bet on the flop. Instead of calling you can raise! Now they have a tough decision to make of whether or not to call, and an even tougher decision on the turn of whether or not to bet. There is a good chance you just bought yourself a free card.

Keep in mind though that the example I have given you is a very obvious one. Flush draws are fairly easy to spot, plus it is not uncommon to have a flush that gets beat by a higher flush costing you a LOT of money. In the beginning use pot odds and position to get information, and to save yourself a lot of money. The idea is to play winning poker.

3. When looking at odds we also need to look at stack sizes. I'd like to continue with the same example from above. If your opponent did not have the $400 left for the river betting then you would not have been able to make enough to justify your call of $100 on the turn. You needed that entire $400 to break even in the long run on that implied odds call. Stack sizes are always important. They also differ from cash games to tournament games. In a tournament you are going to have to take some chances since the blinds are constantly raising. What may have been a bad call on the turn for a cash game, may have been a great call in a tourney if it was giving you the opportunity to take out an opponent. Implied odds are better in

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