Pot odds explained
One division tells you how often you have to win for a call to pay for itself. Here is the sum, the table, and the two things it does not cover.
What pot odds are
Pot odds are the price of staying in the hand. Someone bets; you either pay it or you fold. The question is whether what you would win is big enough to be worth what you would pay.
The sum is one line. Your call, divided by the pot after the bet plus your call, is the share of the time you need to win for calling to break even. If the pot holds 100 and someone bets 50, your call of 50 goes into a pot that will hold 200, so you need to win 50 ÷ 200 = 25.0% of the time. Win more often than that and the call makes money in the long run; win less often and it loses money, however the hand happens to end this time.
The price of every common bet
| Bet | You call / you win | Equity needed | Outs on the turn | Outs on the flop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quarter of the pot | 1 to 5 | 16.7% | 8 | 5 |
| A third of the pot | 1 to 4 | 20.0% | 10 | 5 |
| Half the pot | 1 to 3 | 25.0% | 12 | 7 |
| Two thirds of the pot | 1 to 2.5 | 28.6% | 14 | 8 |
| Three quarters of the pot | 1 to 2.3 | 30.0% | 14 | 8 |
| The size of the pot | 1 to 2 | 33.3% | 16 | 9 |
| One and a half times the pot | 1 to 1.7 | 37.5% | 18 | 10 |
| Twice the pot | 1 to 1.5 | 40.0% | 19 | 11 |
Outs columns: the fewest outs whose chance of arriving (from the outs chart) reaches the equity in the previous column — one card to come after the turn, two cards to come after the flop.
Reading the table
The pattern is worth remembering: a half-pot bet asks you to be right 25.0% of the time, and a pot-sized bet asks for 33.3%. That is why a flush draw — 9 outs, 19.6% to arrive on the river — calls a half-pot bet on the turn comfortably and cannot call a pot-sized one.
Two warnings. The outs columns assume every out is live and wins the hand, which the outs chart explains is not always true. And the two-cards-to-come column only applies if you will genuinely see both cards — if calling the flop means facing another bet on the turn, you are paying for one card, not two.
What pot odds leave out
Pot odds compare one call with what is in the pot right now. They say nothing about the money still to come. A draw that is priced slightly too expensive can still be worth calling if hitting it wins you a large bet later; a draw that is priced well can still be bad if hitting it will be obvious and nobody pays you. Start with the break-even number, then adjust for what the rest of the hand is likely to be worth.