Comparing Hand Distributions And Pot Odds

Being able to read the hand distributions of your opponents at the table is enormously beneficial. For this reason, you should always be trying to read your opponents’ hands. It's OK if you aren't always right. The more you attempt to read hands, the more you will improve. In order to improve your reads, you need to pay attention to everything your opponents are doing. You need to watch their facial expressions as well as what they are doing with their bodies if you're playing live poker, but you'll have to analyse their betting patterns if you play online poker. Be aware of what poker hands they have been calling, raising, checking and folding - that's the key to get a read in both online poker and live poker.

Understanding Pot Odds

Pot odds are when you are trying to determine if the bet that was just made is worth calling. This obviously varies from hand to hand. Depending on how your opponents have been playing and the hole cards in your hand, the poker odds or pot odds may or may not be worth the call. Unless you are extremely good with math, this might be tricky to calculate quickly. While some obvious pot odds are easy to call or fold, some have much steeper possibilities.

You can never put more money into a pot than you are willing to lose because, even when you have the best starting hand, it is possible for you to lose. There are pot odds calculators (also called poker odds calculators) online that you can practice on to see what hands are worth calling and what hands are not. While you will not have this poker calculator with you at the table, the more you practice figuring out pot odds, the easier the concept will be to figure out during play.

Look at All Factors

When you are trying to compare hand distributions and pot odds, you need to take all the factors on the table into account. Look around the table and see how many players there are. Do you have a good read on a majority of the hands? Do you have a strong hand? Are you still on a draw or do you all ready have a made hand? How much money is in the pot? Is it worth the call? Can you win the hand? All these questions need to be taken into account, but this is information you have to think about from the beginning of the hand. Dealers and players will allow you time to think, but the time is not that long and you will be forced to make your play – call, raise or fold.