The Use of Pot Odds in Poker Tournaments
There are lots of poker tournaments on the Internet. It seems every minute there is an online poker tournament about to start. But what good is having lots of online poker tournaments out there if you don’t win?
To win online poker tournaments you would need to learn about the most basic strategies to use in online poker tournaments. One of the most basic strategies to win online poker tournaments is to use “Pot Odds”.
Pot odds and having a positive expectation to win are two of the basic yet important strategies you may use in online poker tournaments.
Having a positive expectation does not mean you have to be an optimist to win (But being optimistic helps). Positive expectation means that the odds should favor you to win than what you’re wagering. For example when you flip a coin there will be a 50/50 chance that it could either land as heads or tails. No matter how many times you flip the coin the results for heads and tails will remain the same at 50/50.
Pot odds are the odds the pot gives you for wagering. For example there is a $50 pot and you would need to put in $10 to call. You will be having 5:1 odds if you call. This is because to win $50 you will only wager $10. When you make this decision other amounts placed previously in this pot are irrelevant.
Pot odds are important because it relates with your hand odds. This is one key factor to base your betting decision on. If the odds of drawing or holding a winning hand are better than the odds being given by the pot, you should raise or just call. If not, just fold or possibly try to make a bluff.
Here is a more definite example. Let's say you are holding a pair of 5’s. The flop is 8, Q, 2 of different suits. There are 9 other players in the table of the online poker tournament. There is a chance that one of the 9 players may hold an 8 or a Queen. If there is a player that holds an 8 or a Queen, your pair of 5’s will look bad. Out of the 47 cards in the online poker tournament from the deck and other player’s hand there are two more 5’s remaining.
The odds of pulling a 5 on the turn will be 2:47 or 4.2%. The chance of the 5 coming out on the river is 2:46 will be 4.3%. Add them both and the result will be 8.5%. This will equal to 1:11.6 chance to pull out the 3rd 5. It’s best to flop when you have this hand since the pot odds are only 5:1 anyway.
If you don’t fold, you are gambling a hand with a “negative” expectation. In a no limit online texas holdem poker tournament opponents will often raise the pots adequately to lower pot odds. This makes other no limit online texas holdem poker tournament players have no justification to still stay with his or hand.
Confused? Well read through it again as this is a strategy you will need to master to win that poker tournament!
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