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Pot odds & equity

8 steps · read as text
money
pot $100their bet $50your call $50
cards
A♥
J♥
K♣
9♥
4♥
2♠
?
unseen
chance
need 25%
have 19.6%
0%50%100%
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There’s $100 in the pot. Your opponent bets $50.

the rule

need = call ÷ (pot + bet + call)

50 ÷ (100 + 50 + 50) = 25%

Call when your equity is higher than what you need.

shortcut

With one card to come, outs × 2 is roughly your equity. With two cards to come, outs × 4.

9 outs × 2 ≈ 18%. The exact answer is 19.6%.

next
02Expected value03Combinatorics→Practice: pot odds
sources & further reading
The Theory of PokerDavid Sklansky · 1987 · book
The Mathematics of PokerBill Chen, Jerrod Ankenman · 2006 · book
Poker Theory and Analytics (15.S50) ↗MIT OpenCourseWare · 2015 · course