The Pot Odds is the relationship between the money in the pot and the price of a bet you must make to call. If the pot contains $36 and the size of the bet you must call is $6, we divide the $36 by $6 and we get 6, which means that the pot odds are 6 to 1.

Many low-, mid-, and high-limit Texas Hold'em players have no concept of pot odds and how it can affect their profitability. They don't understand the reasoning for playing drawing hands against a large field of opponents. Some hands that are profitable against many players will be a loser or a break even hand with fewer players in the game
First, I want to clarify that when we talk about odds and percentages we are looking at the long run. This is assuming that all possible outcomes will occur according to their probability. Anything can and will happen in the short run. Many players and experts have debated for years as to what actually constitutes the long run. Let's just assume we are talking about millions of hands. In the age of computers, we can simulate millions of hands in a short amount of time. That is more hands than any player will see in a lifetime. But you don't need to play a million hands to grasp the principle of pot odds. Here is a little experiment that you can try that will give you an idea of how the number of players can affect your winning with a hand that has the exact same odds.

This experiment simulates how the number of players will affect a hand that has odds of 3:1 against you. First of all, get a deck of cards and take out the four Aces, twos, threes and fours. You will have 16 cards. Then get coins or chips to use for the experiment.

There will be the four players in the game. Put out a stack of chips for each player. Each player puts one chip in the pot. Shuffle the 16 cards and deal a card. You can be player number one. Each time an Ace is dealt you win. If a 2 is dealt then player number two will collect the money in the pot. Likewise if a 3 or 4 is dealt the respective player will win the pot. Put another chip in the pot for each player and deal again. Keep repeating this until all 16 cards have been dealt. Notice what the results were.

Each time you win a hand you win three chips (one from each of
the other players). Each time you lose a hand you lose one chip. You played 16 hands. You won four hands and lost 12.

You won 12 chips for the four hands you won and lost 12 chips for
the 12 hands you did not win. You broke even.

The odds of winning were 3 to 1 and the pot odds were 3 to 1.
Now you will repeat the process but player number four will not bet. Anytime four wins put the three chips from the pot (yours and the two other player's chips) aside.

At the end of thel6 hands notice the results:
You won the same four hands. But this time you only won 8 chips. You lost 12 hands and lost 12 chips. You are down 4 chips.

Your odds of winning were still 3 to 1, but the pot odds were 2 to 1.
Now put out another stack of chips. This time number four will again play as in the first round and a fifth chip will be put in the pot to simulate an additional player who will not win.

At the end of 16 hands:
You won four hands but this time you won 16 chips. You lost 12 hands and lost 12 chips. You won 4 chips.

Your odds of winning were 3 to 1, but your pot odds were 4 to 1.

With this example you can see how a hand offering the same odds can be profitable when played against a larger field but be unprofitable when you are playing against a limited field.

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Probability and odds are the same thing but expressed in different terms. Probability is the chance that an event will occur and is expressed in percentages. The range of an event occurring is between zero and one. To simplify things and allow us to express percentages by using a whole number rather than a decimal we multiply by 100. If the probability of something happening were 0.6 percent we would say there is a 60 percent chance of it happening (0.6 xlOO = 60).

Odds are the ratio between the number of times an event will occur and the number of times it will not happen. It is expressed with two numbers separated by a colon. If there is a 60 percent chance of an event occurring there is a 40 percent chance of it not occurring. We would express the odds as 6:4 for this event. To reduce this further we divide 6/4 and find the odds are 1.5:1. In poker and other gambling games, we use odds to express our chances of winning or losing. No matter how you express it, whether you talk percentages or odds, it is all based on mathematics.

There is a sign in the mathematics section of the Boston Museum of Science that reads:
"The theory of probability is nothing more than good sense, confirmed by calculations"
Sometimes when playing poker we throw our good sense out the window in hopes of an outcome that is contrary to sound mathematical principles. When this happens we are playing what I call a "wish" hand. You know the odds against you are astronomical, but you are wishing for a miracle draw. Occasionally you will make your hand, but in the long run you will lose more money.

Any time you are playing a drawing hand, the odds are against you. This means that you will not make your hand more times than you will make it. Most of the time the odds against you will be too large and it will be unprofitable to attempt to draw to the hand.
There will be other times, however, when the odds against you are offset by the money in the pot that you can win. In these situations it is correct to draw to a hand because are receiving the proper "Pot Odds."

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I use this tight playing style as my primary game plan. When I sit down to play with unfamiliar players I will start off in this tight mode until I get a feel for the other players in the game. As the game progresses, I may expand my starting hands to others in the chart but I always play the hands from proper position.

In a loose game, by starting tight and then playing a few more hands, it can convey the impression that I am actually playing the same loose game as everyone else. In reality, I am still playing solid starting hands but most players will not catch on to this.
Having disciplined myself to the tight playing style, I can switch back to the tighter mode at a moment's notice if the game starts getting too wild. It's like a fighter who can switch from righty to southpaw to keep his opponent off balance.

You want to be calling the shots. You don't want to get caught up in the wild and crazy playing style of the other players. You want them to fall into your game plan, not you into theirs. With a disciplined style of play you can achieve this.

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The hands I did play, I played with confidence that I was making the correct decision. I was able to make my plays swiftly and accurately, which not only added to my confidence, but also helped to establish a strong table image. Above everything else, I was winning. The more I won, the more confident I became that I was following the right path in my quest to become a successful player.

I have to be honest. In the beginning there were sessions when this style of play did get a little boring. During one three-hour session I played only four hands in addition to my big blinds. I won three of these, which gave me a small profit for the night. The next day I joked that I had spent so much time folding, I didn't know if I had spent the previous night in a cardroom or a laundromat. Times like these will test your ability to stick with your game plan. You will be watching other players entering pots with pure garbage hands and thinking it might be time to loosen up a little. Don't do it! You are on a quest for excellence.

If you find you are getting bored, you should take a break. Get up and stretch your legs, go to the bathroom, grab a soda or just take a walk around the room. When you sit back down, try to concentrate more on reading the board, the players and other aspects of the game. Many players have no concept of pot odds. While you are limiting your play, you can also count the number of players in each hand and practice calculating the money in the pot. If you find you are still losing your commitment to your game plan, you should leave and call it a day. This is about patience and discipline. When you start to lose your patience, you need to have the discipline to leave the game.

There is nothing wrong with playing a tight game. Some play-rs will argue that when you play tight, you will be missing out on opportunities to get full value from you play. I don't necessarily agree with that. Many low-limit games have enough action that will allow you to win a substantial number of chips using solid, aggressive, tight play.

There may be instances when you are playing with knowledgeable players and your tight play will be detected. If this hap-ens, they will not call you as often when you do play a hand, but don't worry too much about it. I have found that this is offset by the number of players in low-limit games that have no concept about the style of their opponents' play. Most hands will go to the showdown low-limit Hold'em games. You want to make sure you have the best hand at the showdown. You improve your chance when you start by playing strong, solid hands.

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When I started learning to play Texas Hold'em, I was advised to play tight while learning the basics of the game. This advice was corroborated by several of the resources that I checked and backed up by some sound reasoning. The most important traits a player needs to develop in order to win are patience and discipline. Limiting your hand selection will help you do this. You will be throwing away many more hands than you will be playing. Waiting for the right hands to play will teach you patience. If you can discipline yourself to do this, you will develop a strong basic foundation that will improve your game. Let's take a look at the suggested hand selection to achieve this goal.

The suggested hands to play are the 20 strong hands that can be played from early position along with a few additional hands added in late position. Although these are early position hands they are spread out into the middle and late positions.

Early Position
Raise with A-A, K-K, and A-Ks from any position.
Call with A-K, A-Qs, K-Qs, and Q-Q and fold everything else.

Middle Position
Call with J-J, T-T, 9-9, 8-8, A-Js, A-Ts, Q-Js, A-Q, K-Q. Late Position
Call with A-Xs, K-Ts, Q-Ts, J-Ts, A-J, A-T (note x denotes any card).

Play any pair and suited connectors if there are more than five players. If you play small pairs you must fold if you don't flop a set. Fold if the pot is raised.

I played only these recommended hands for the first 50 hours of play when I was learning the game. Limiting my play to these hands allowed me to concentrate on other fundamentals of the game. I used the time when I was not active in a hand to observe other players and practice reading the board. I found this was an excellent opportunity to observe what hands my opponents were playing. By the end of my session I could tell you what type of hands each player was entering the pot with. Knowing the standards of your opponents will tell you a lot if they later raise or call a bet.

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What you are about to read is what I consider the most important concept in this book. It is easy to understand but will be difficult for some to execute. It is the key to winning play and, if you follow this advice, you will build a strong foundation for making you a winning player. From this base you will add all the other principals you learn about the game of Hold’em and soon you will be playing better than many of your opponents. I’m sure you have a desire to win. That is the reason you’re reading this book. Are you willing to devote 50 hours of live play to improving your game? That is the amount of time most players will need to practice in order to develop good habits essential to winning play.

Fifty hours may seem like a long time to some. If you play only a few hours once a week you will be playing this style for about six months. But in the course of your poker lifetime, investing 50 hours of time is a small price to pay for the future dividends you will collect. The following advice is not merely about hand selection. It will help you develop a strong personal commitment to playing a solid winning game.

The starting hands in the chart may seem a little too tight to players who are used to playing any two cards in loose games. In reality, they are too loose for new players or players who have been playing indiscriminately and have been not been getting the desired results from their present play.

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There is a situation that you will encounter from time to time where the player next to the big blind raises the pot before the cards are dealt. This is known as a live straddle. Players who put up a live straddle are there to gamble. Most of the time they have just won a few pots and feel invincible or are trying to intimidate the other players. Sometimes the player may be on tilt or intoxicated.

No matter what the reason, it is a bad bet that smart players don’t make. When you encounter this situation you should play tighter than you normally would because it will cost you more money to enter the pot. If you have pocket Aces or Kings, you can confidently raise and know that the Straddler will call your raise.

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