This is perhaps the one area that too many budding poker players have trouble grasping. What I’m talking about is the concept of pot odds. Simply stated, your pot odds are calculated by this formula. How much money is in the pot at the time versus the amount of money it would cost you to play for that money. This is how we determine if a call is a “good” or “bad” call per se.
Let’s look at it like this. We’ll say there is 100 dollars in the poker pot. It costs you 50 dollars to call and play. So in order to win 100 dollars, you have to bet 50. Your pot odds would end up being 5:10, or 1:2. So you have a chance to double your investment. Now that ratio alone is not enough to merit whether or not a call is good or bad. What you have to consider second, is whether or not the hand you have has a probability of winning at least half the time.
For example, let’s take a look at the following pokerhand.
There is 100 dollars in the pot. It costs you 50 to play. You have JJ. JJ preflop will win against any other pairing except QQ, KK, or AA just about every time. The question you have to ask yourself is, is it worth 50 to win 100. If you ask that, and then ask whether or not your hand is likely to win against any other pairing your opponents have at least half the time, you can
