How to Calculate Pot Odds in No-Limit Hold’em

🧠 What Are Pot Odds?

Pot odds help you decide if a call is worth it.

You’re comparing:

🔸 The cost of the call
🔸 To the potential total pot you could win

You’re basically asking:
“Are the odds of me hitting my hand better than the price I’m paying to see the next card?”

🎯 Pot Odds Formula

Pot Odds (%) = (Amount to Call) / (Total Pot After Your Call) × 100

🔢 Example 1: Flush Draw on the Turn

Your hand: Ace♣ Jack♣
Board: 6♣ 10♥ 5♣ 2♦
You have a flush draw (9 outs).

Pot: $100
Villain bets: $50
You need to call: $50

Step 1: Total Pot After You Call

$100 (pot) + $50 (villain bet) + $50 (your call) = $200

Step 2: Pot Odds

$50 / $200 = 0.25 → 25%

Step 3: Your Chance of Hitting

You’ve got 9 outs, and there are 46 unseen cards
→ 9 / 46 = 19.6%

✅ Decision

You need 25% to break even, but your draw is only ~19.6%
Fold, unless you think you can win more money on the river (implied odds)

🔢 Example 2: Open-Ended Straight Draw

Your hand: 8♠ 9♠
Flop: 6♦ 7♣ K♥
You can hit a 5 or a 10 → 8 outs

Pot: $80
Villain bets: $40
You need to call: $40

Step 1: Total Pot After Call

$80 + $40 + $40 = $160

Step 2: Pot Odds

$40 / $160 = 25%

Step 3: Hit Chance

With 8 outs:

• Turn only: 8 / 47 ≈ 17%
• Turn + River: ~31%

✅ Decision

If villain is only letting you see one card (turn), fold.
If you’re confident they’ll check turn and let you see river, then call is good.

🔢 Example 3: Set Mining Preflop

Your hand: 6♠ 6♦
Villain raises to $6
Pot before your call = $9
You must call $6

Step 1: Total Pot After Call

$9 + $6 = $15

Step 2: Pot Odds

$6 / $15 = 40%

Step 3: Set Odds

You hit a set on the flop ~11.8% of the time

❌ Decision

Your pot odds are not good enough. You need to win 10x what you call when set mining.
So you’d want villain to have $60+ behind to make this a profitable call.

🔢 Example 4: River Bluff Catch

Your hand: Ace♠ 9♠
Board: Q♠ J♦ 3♣ 7♣ 2♥
You missed everything — just ace-high

Pot: $200
Villain jams $100
Call = $100

Step 1: Total Pot After Call

$200 + $100 + $100 = $400

Step 2: Pot Odds

$100 / $400 = 25%

✅ Decision

If you believe villain is bluffing more than 25% of the time, calling is +EV.
Pot odds work even when you don’t have a draw, just depends on bluff frequency.

🧠 Odds of Common Draws

⚡ Quick Trick: Rule of 2 and 4

• Multiply outs by 2 to estimate odds with one card to come
• Multiply outs by 4 to estimate odds with two cards to come

Example: 9 outs

• Turn only: 9 × 2 = 18%
• Turn + River: 9 × 4 = 36%

✅ TL;DR

1. Use the formula: Call / (Pot + Call)
2. Count your outs and convert them into % chance of winning
3. If your chance to win is greater than the pot odds → Call
4. If not, fold unless implied odds are juicy
5. Use the “Rule of 2 and 4” as a shortcut in real time

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