Odds and Probabilities

An Introduction to Odds and Probabilities for Limit Hold’em players.

Odds and probabilities form the basic foundations on which a winning game is built, each and every decision you make at the table, must in some way be influenced by simple math. You don’t need to be a mathematical genius to get to grips with it, but the better you understand it the better you will be.

Here’s how odds and probabilities are used in a game

* You raise and build the pot as your hand has the best odds to win
* You play a hand because the probability that you will win is large enough for you to justify risking more money, based on the expectation of the pot size and rewards.
* Raising a hand to force multiple players to fold early on will improve your odds of winning by the river against less opponents.

A lot of what I may say is contrary to many in that I won’t only play the top 10 starting hands. This is something I have told many beginning players to do in the past as it basically stops them losing too much of their money. I’ll play absolutely anything if the odds are right or i have correct position, or any advantage over the player/players such as notes (which we get to later)

So what exactly is probability?

Probability tells us how often things will happen, so for example there is a 50/50 chance of me tossing coin and it coming up heads. Half the time it will be heads and half tails.

What are odds?

Odds tell us how often something will NOT occur, so if your 4/1 to hit a flush you know you will lose 4 times before winning once. Obviously that doesn’t work in any kind of order, but in the long run that’s what will happen, as it’s mathematically correct.

Making the right play will often mean losing a hand, but making the right play every time you are in the same situation will make it a winning play overall, and therefore the right thing to do.

As the online game is much faster than live events many players choose to use an odds calculator to help them out, there is no shame in this and it makes perfect sense to use, it saves time and you want to keep the game flowing, you can grab these for free from some web sites. Pokerbility for example is available free from lucky ace without making a deposit, sign up and in the lobby click pokerbility – get it here

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