Pot Odds and Calculating Outs

Today I will touch on the topic of Pot Odds. Pot Odds refers to the amount that is currently in the pot divided by the current bet amount. For example, if there is $400 in the pot, and a player bets $100, we are being offered 4 to 1 odds. It should become routine eventually to calculate these odds, as every decision you make at the table should more or less revolve around pot odds. To elaborate take this example. Say we are heads up on the flop and our hand is Ace-King of hearts. The flop brings nothing for us but two hearts making us four to the flush. Now lets say there is once again $400 in the pot, and our opponent bets roughly half the pot. We do some quick simple math, 400 divided by 200, and see we are being offered 2 to 1 on our draw. If we call this bet our opponents are getting the better of us, as we are not getting proper odds to chase our flush. However, if our opponent had only bet $100, we are now being offered 4 to 1 odds, and are correct to call the bet. A lot of players tend to ignore pot odds, and I think this is a very bad habit to have.

Next we will discuss "outs." An out would be a card that improves your hand to the winning hand. There is a very basic formula to give us the percentage of hitting our winning hand. I read about this formula in Phil Gordon's Little Green Book, and he calls it the Rule of Two and Four. To arrive at our percentage answer on the flop we simply count our outs (cards that will improve out hand to the winner) and multiply our outs by four. Example, again we hold Ace-King of hearts, two hearts flop, and we suspect we need to draw to the flush to win. First we count our outs, there is 13 hearts in the deck, two in our hand and two on the board, so there is 9 hearts remaining. We simply multiply 9 (Number of outs) by 4 and we get 36, which means we have a 36% chance to win the pot if played until the river. Lets say we play our hand until the Turn, and we miss our heart. We now must recalculate our percentage to win this pot. We again take our number of outs, 9 in this case, and multiply it by 2 since there is only one card to come. After doing the multiplication we will see we are now only at 18% to win this pot by the river. Knowing these numbers along with pot odds can help us make the proper decisions of whether to fold, call, or raise a bet.

Although I touched very lightly on both topics of Pot Odds and Calculating Outs, I recommend studying and memorizing the odds needed to complete all hands to utilize the above information. Until next time, good luck at the tables!

FullTiltPoker Tips on Table Image

Table Images

Today I will attempt to discuss the topic of ones image at the table. When we are talking about ones "table image" we are discussing how the players may view a specific player at any given time. Knowing how you appear to players at any given time is very vital, as it defines which plays we can and cannot make at certain times.

For example, if the players at the table seem to think you enter pots only when you have premium starting hands, they will often times give you respect and fold many of their hands. Conversely, if the players think you entering too many pots, they will more than likely begin to play back at you with more marginal holdings than before. So lets look at some benefits from specific table images, as well as some downfalls.

TIGHT-AGGRESSIVE

First lets look at the table image of a "Tight-Aggressive" player. A tight-aggressive player is one who does not enter many pots, but when he does, you can be pretty certain he has a legitimate holding. This type of player will not get as much "action" as a loose player would, however his decisions after the flop arrives will be much easier than a loose player. Also, when portraying this tight-aggressive image, it will enable that player to "steal" a lot more pots postflop, since many players will be giving him more credit than he deserves. One note is this; when playing tight-aggressive do not expect to get into too many large pots, but rather expect to be picking up a lot of smaller pots after making a bet on the flop. For example, a common situation that arises is this; we raise in middle position with a hand like Ace-King, and have one caller behind us. Often times, regardless of what the flop brings, we will go ahead and make a bet of approximately one-half to two-thirds the size of the pot. This is often referred to as a "continuation bet" and is a very strong tool to have in your arsenal. More often than not our continuation bet will simply take down the pot right then and there without any further action.

LOOSE-AGGRESSIVE

Another type of player and/or table image would be the Loose-Aggressive player. In my opinion a loose-aggressive player still has rather strict starting hand requirements when in early and middle positions, but their range of playable hands opens widely when they are in late position. I do no recommend this style of play until you are very familiar with the game and have many hours of experience at the table. The reason I do not advocate this style to a beginner is simple. You will be in a few more pots than you should be, often times with dominated holdings, so your decision making will be very difficult once postflop play begins. The benefits of a loose-aggressive player are rather simple and straight-forward. By being in so many pots, it will be very hard for your opponents to immediately begin to put you on a specific hand. This in turn can be a potentially huge money maker, as when we connect and make a big hand, our opponents will not know what we hold and have a higher chance of being paid off. The downside of a loose-aggressive style is rather simple and was stated above. Our decision making process is much more difficult on future betting rounds, our bets will not get as much respect as we would probably like, therefor making it harder to steal pots. Often times, when playing a loose-aggressive style, players will begin looking us up with middle-pair or worse. This can begin to work for the loose-aggressive player however in this sense; Once we have our opponents loosening their hand requirements, we simply tighten our requirements back up.

High Stakes Poker - Gus Hansen vs Daniel Negreanu

A very interesting hand to say the least. Also, note what the player Antonio Esfandiari announces to the camera about being out of position against two of the worlds best. Also note what hand he throws into the muck, you may be surprised.

The Importance of Position

I remember the first time I entered a poker room, I had overheard a couple of players discussing the topic of position. To a newcomer like myself, I had no idea what these gentlemen were speaking about, however, I later learned the topic they were discussing would be one of the most important factors of deciding whether to enter an unraised pot preflop.

Let me begin with a few common definitions many players use when discussing position. The definitions below are assuming we are in a full handed ring game, with nine to ten players.

EARLY POSITIONS

• The player directly to the Left of the Big Blind will be the first person to act before the flop. This person is commonly referred to as "Under the Gun." A common internet abbreviation for this is simply "UTG."
• The two players directly to the Left of the Under the Gun players are also labeled as Early Position.

The Key Aspects to remember about early position are fairly simple and routine. When playing in early position we have many players that are left to act behind us. Thus, in theory, we need a very strong hand to open for a raise when in early position. Hands like big pocket pairs and Ace-King suited/unsuited are the types of hands you want to be playing with from early position. We really want to refrain from playing hands that are easily "dominated" from early position. A hand that is "dominated" is one in which you share a common card with another player in the pot, but his "Kicker" or second card is higher than yours. For example a hand like King-Queen suited may look like a fine hand from early position. In reality, when we enter a pot from early position with a hand like King-Queen, we have no knowledge of what the players behind us are holding if they call. Someone that is in a later position than us could have a hand like Ace-King and opt to just call our preflop raise, and would be correct to do so in my opinion. The trouble we are now in is this; in the event that we hit our King on the flop, we will have a second best hand with a very difficult postflop decision to make once betting begins. So in general it is best, and correct, to throw easily dominated hands away in early position. Hands like small pairs also become somewhat tricky to play in early position and should be folded as well. This again, is just a basic guideline for playing in early position, and by no means a definitive way of playing.

MIDDLE POSITIONS

• The middle positions are the subsequent three players following the early positions.

When in middle position our starting hand requirements remain fairly strict as there are still a number of players left to act behind us. We again should not be in a rush to open the pot with easily dominated hands, although if the players left to act behind us are "rocks" or generally "tight" players, it may be OK to do so. I will get more into the topic on player profile, table image, and more in another post, and discuss how position relates to our play against specific player profiles. While in middle position, if it has been all folds to me, I will open the pot with any of our early position hands, along with King-Queen suited, Medium, and Small pairs.

LATE POSITIONS

• The seat directly right of the dealer button is commonly referred to as the "cut-off."
• The player whom has the dealer button, if they decide to play the pot, will have the best position possible on all betting rounds.

I would say that we want to play 75% of our hands from superior position, this being late position. The reason for this is simply the obvious. When in late position we gain much more knowledge than anyone at the table when it comes our time to act. We will have seen what everyone has done at the table, (check/bet/fold), before we have to make a single decision. This obviously makes all our decision making a lot easier. A player in late position also has the last chance to attempt to steal the pot on a bluff if it is checked around to him/her. These two aspects of late position make it a very powerful tool if used properly. The are some players who take this concept a bit to the extreme and raise with any two cards in late position. I really don't advocate this strategy because although we have great position, we will not be hitting the flop nearly as often as we'd like and our opponents will know this.

As far as starting hand requirements go for late position, we would open an unraised pot with all of our early and middle position hands, as well as many Ace-x suited combinations, King-Nine or better suited, Queen-Nine or better suited, Jack-Ten or better suited, and all pairs.

OVERVIEW

The aspects listed above are a general overview of the importance of position in poker. Hopefully some of the views will give you a little edge the next time you sit at a table. Below I have listed a starting hand requirement guide to give you a visual aid of hands you should be playing in certain positions.

The image below was from Phil Gordons No Limit website which I highly recommend visiting. He is a phenomenal player and an author of two outstanding books which have helped elevate my personal game and overall thinking in and out of poker.

STARTING HAND REQUIREMENTS GUIDE

Suited Hands


Unsuited Hands