In this case you're having to risk $20 to win $100, so your pot odds are 100-to-20, or 5-to-1. Pot odds are expressed as a ratio (reward-to-risk). That $100 is the reward you can get if you're willing to risk $20 to call the bet. Calculating Pot Oddsįor example, if there is $80 in the pot and your opponent bets $20, that makes a total of $100 in the middle. Put most simply, pot odds represents the ratio between what you stand to gain in a hand of poker and what you have to spend in order to get it - that is, the ratio between your reward and your risk when making any given decision during a poker hand. One of the first and most important examples of 'poker math' that new no-limit hold'em players need to learn is how to calculate 'pot odds.' In fact, when people talk about the 'math of poker,' a lot of the time they are mostly referring to pot odds and how an understanding of them can help you decide whether to bet, raise, call, or fold.
