Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Pot Odds and Equity


I’m just getting back to the blogs after a tough weekend on the felt. There were things I thought I did well, and things I didn’t do well. I will learn from the mistakes I made, and move on. Sometimes the cards don’t fall your way, so be it.

So you’re making good choices with your hand selection now, right? At low stakes, it’s likely that most of the players around you are not. It doesn’t vary much from the home game, to the charity events, to the casino, at low stakes NLH. There are lots of bad players, who make poor decision with their hand selection, and end up wasting even more money chasing draws that cost them piles of chips over the long run. Wise up, and try not to be that guy.

Where do you begin? Well quit chasing draws! I’m just kidding, well as long as you are getting the right odds. At low stakes NLH, I think more people use “pot odds” as an excuse for making bad decisions. It’s comical. You know what I’m talking about, so don’t kid yourself. There is always someone who peels off a large portion of his stack, chasing a draw, and claims that “pot odds” compelled him to do it. Occasionally, I will ask them, “so what exactly were your odds there?” I don’t recall ever receiving the right answer. Seriously. It’s been my observation that “pot odds” are used as more of a phrase, than as an actual calculation used to make profitable poker decisions.

Pot Odds and Equity, are powerful tools when combined with sound hand selection. Use them to your advantage and keep your stacks going vertical. I’m not going to recreate the wheel here, or plagiarize someone else’s work. Below are two hyperlinks, and I encourage you to visit them. These two links, will explain it a hell of a lot better than me. There are a ton of examples on the web, so if you don’t like these examples, Google has plenty more available!


No comments:

Post a Comment