Implied Odds in Texas Hold'em

As you saw, pot odds are calculated by looking at the amount of money in the pot. But often in poker you can make pretty good estimates about what is likely to be in the pot in the near future. This is where implied odds come in. Take a look at an example.

You hold 5c-5s on the button in a 10-handed, $5/$10 hold'em game at Party Poker. The first player to act raises to $10. Five players proceed to call the raise. Now, there is $57 in the pot, including the $2 small blind, and $5 big blind. Should you call the raise? Let's make some assumptions: a) both blinds will fold -- neither will call the raise. b) You will probably need to make a set of fives (one on the board to match the two in your hand) on the flop if you're going to have a chance of winning this hand. c) If you spike a 5 on the flop, completing the set, you are likely to get good action from the rest of the table, as you can expect the pre-flop, early position raiser to bet out on most flops, and you will have the opportunity to raise, hopefully trapping several callers in between.

Now, from the Pokersavvy.com Odds Card you can see that the odds of flopping a set or better are roughly 7.5 to 1. The pot odds in this hand are only 5.7 to 1 (that's the $57 in the pot, divided by the $10 you must call). However, you have already concluded that you stand to make a bunch of money if you manage to hit the set. These Implied Odds more than compensate for the slightly inferior pot odds being offered.

You usually don't need to calculate exact implied odds. In other words, you probably wouldn't bother with the following math: assume that the under-the-gun pre-flop raiser will bet out on the flop, get 4 callers, whom I will then raise, trapping all 5 of them for 2 flop bets, or $50 total, etc... The important information in this hand is that the preflop raiser is in early position, and you are in late position, which will allow you to maximize the effect of having callers stuck in the middle.

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