Bet odds
The odds on the current bet are important when deciding to bet or raise.
It just depends on the number of callers. It’s much more difficult to estimate than pot odds because you need to anticipate the number of callers.
Raises from players still to act don’t cut down your bet odds, however, except to the extent that a raise might cause a potential caller to fold.
Bet odds are an often ignored part of poker theory.
Most books just suggest you should bet or raise whenever you probably have the best hand, but it that’s the only time you bet or raise, then you’re missing out on a lot of potential profit.
You should bet or raise whenever the odds your getting on the bet (the number of callers) is greater than the odds your hand will end up the best hand.
Throughout the rest of the book, I’ll show you how to determine this in various special situations.
Implied Odds
Implied odds are an important consideration anytime you have action to take-whether it’s calling or betting.
Implied odds can be very difficult to estimate, however, because it involves estimating what will happen on betting rounds.
In the inside-straight draw example I used when discussing pot odds, the existence of iplied odds suggests you can call with a draw to hands like an inside straight even though the pot isn’t offering you sufficient odds.
In the example the pot was giving you 7-1 odds and you were 11-1 against making your hand on the next card, but if you make your hand on the next card, you’ll likely win more than just what’s in the pot now.
If you know, for example, that the bettor will bet again on the turne, will call a raise, and will call a bet on the river, then you’re getting implied odds of 6-1 (bets on the turn and river are twice the size of the bet you have to call on the flop).
That would mean you’d only need pot odds of about 5-1 to combine with your implied odds to give you good enough odds to draw to an inside straight.
Of course there is also some chance that you’ll make your straight and still lose, so I’d compensate for those times.
It’s also important to consider the implied odds that other players likely have.
Drawing hands have high implied odds because they will win extra bets if the hand is made but will not lose any extra bets if the hand misses.
However, you need to be careful not to overestimate your implied odds by counting on future calls that might not materialize.
Flush draws are an example of hands that often don’t have as high implied odds as you might think.
Many players will slow down when a third card to0 straight shows. The flush is just more obvious, and you often should not count on being able to raise.
Luckily you are usually getting sufficient pot odds to draw to a flush and don’t need to count on implied odds.
As a general poker rules, it’s often right to accept pot odds just a notch or two less than ignoring implied odds would suggest.
Pick the Right Table / Picking a Seat / Theories of Poker / Betting Theory: The Odds
A Theory of Starting Hand Value
A Theory of Flop Play: Counting Outs and Evaluating Draws
The Dynamics of Game Conditions / Table Image / Player Stereotypes
Women and Poker / Spread-Limit Games / Double Bet on the End Games / Kill Games
Short-handed Games / Tournaments / No-limit and Pot-Limit Poker
