Pot odds in poker: how to calculate them

What are pot odds?

Pot odds are the ratio between the chips already in the pot, including any bet you face, and the chips you must add to call. If the pot is 120 and an opponent bets 60, there are 180 chips in the middle and calling costs 60. The pot offers 180 to 60, or 3 : 1.

The same price can be written as a percentage: your call’s share of the final pot. Calling 60 makes the final pot 240, and 60 ÷ 240 = 25%. That is the call’s break-even equity: the share of the pot, averaged over many repetitions, that the call must win to break even, assuming no rake and no more betting.

Pot odds describe the price of a call, not the strength of your hand. Comparing the two is a separate step, covered below. If the betting rounds are new to you, start with the beginner guide.

How to calculate pot odds

You need two numbers: what is in the middle, and what it costs you to continue.

1. Add up the chips in the middle. Include the blinds, every earlier bet and call (your own as well) and the bet you now face.
2. Find the amount to call. A call matches the highest bet made on this betting round, so subtract anything you have already put in on this round.
3. Compare the two. As a ratio, pot odds are the chips in the middle to your call. As a percentage, divide your call by the final pot: the chips in the middle plus your call.

A ratio of X : 1 means a call needs 1 ÷ (X + 1) of the final pot. Going the other way, a break-even percentage p is a ratio of (1 − p) ÷ p to 1. So 3 : 1 is 1 ÷ 4 = 25%, and 20% is 0.8 ÷ 0.2 = 4 : 1.

• 1.5 : 1 = 40%
• 2 : 1 = 33.3%
• 3 : 1 = 25%
• 4 : 1 = 20%
• 5 : 1 = 16.7%

A common slip is to leave your own call out of the final pot. In the example above, 60 ÷ 180 = 33.3% overstates the price. The call needs 25%.

Worked example: facing a raise

The first section priced a half-pot bet at 25%. A pot-sized bet needs 33.3% and a one-third-pot bet 20%; the table below gives every common size. A raise takes one more step, because some of your chips are already in the middle. The example assumes no rake and no more betting after the call.

Take the free “Pot odds made simple” course to practise this step with knowledge checks, or read its outline in the course catalog.

Pot odds for common bet sizes

The price depends only on the size of the bet compared with the pot, so the percentages below hold for a pot of any size. The chip amounts use a pot of 120 before the bet. In no-limit Hold’em a player may bet as much as all of their chips, so bets larger than the pot are possible too.

Ratios are rounded to one decimal place. For a bet of f times the pot, the call needs f ÷ (1 + 2f): a half-pot bet needs 0.5 ÷ 2 = 25%. The price rises with the size of the bet but stays below 50%, because the pot already held chips before the bet.

Pot odds calculator

Enter the chips in the middle, including the bet you face, and the amount you must call. Add your outs to compare the price with the chance of hitting one of them. The calculator opens on the half-pot bet with the nine-out flush draw described below.

How do pot odds compare with equity?

Pot odds give the price. Equity is your share of the pot if the hand were played out many times from this point. With no rake and no later betting, a call with more equity than its break-even figure gains chips on average compared with folding, and a call with less loses them. The expected value of the call, measured against folding, is:

Match the price to the cards you will actually see. On the flop K♥ 9♥ 2♣, the same draw has 9 ÷ 47 = 19.1% to arrive on the turn and 35.0% by the river. The 35.0% counts hearts only: two running cards can also make a straight (an 8 with a 5 or a 10), which lifts the chance of a flush or straight by the river to 36.6%. These two-card figures apply only if you will see both cards for this one price, for example when the call puts you all-in. Otherwise the turn can bring another bet.

An out only helps if it gives you a hand you expect to win with. Read more about counting outs, including outs that may not win.

Implied odds and reverse implied odds

Pot odds count only the chips already in the middle. Implied odds add the chips you expect to win on later streets when your hand improves. They rest on assumptions about what opponents will do, so treat them as part of a model rather than a fact about the table.

In the turn example, a half-pot bet needs 25% equity and the draw has 19.6%. For the call to break even, it would have to win about 66.7 more chips on average when a heart arrives: the call divided by the draw’s chance, minus the final pot, or 60 ÷ (9 ÷ 46) − 240. That is a requirement for the assumption to meet, not a prediction that an opponent will pay it. An opponent can only pay from the chips they have left, and may not put in more once the board shows three hearts.

Reverse implied odds work the other way: the chips you may lose later when you make your hand and it is still beaten. If an opponent in the turn example held A♥ J♥, every heart left in the deck would give them a higher flush, so those cards would cost you chips instead of winning them.

The Pokerista Pro course “Calculate implied-odds requirements” works through these requirements in more detail.

What pot odds do not tell you

Pot odds answer one question: what share of the final pot does this call cost? Several things sit outside that calculation.

• Future betting. The price covers this call only. A later bet sets a new price for the next card, and the chips you win or lose afterwards are the implied and reverse implied odds above.
• Folding. Pot odds price a call. When you bet or raise instead, an opponent may fold, and that fold equity needs its own calculation.
• Rake. The examples on this page assume no rake. Where a card room keeps part of the pot, the winner receives less than the pot on the table, so a call needs more equity. If 12 of the 240 chips in the half-pot example were kept, the call would need 60 ÷ 228 = 26.3% rather than 25%.
• More than one opponent. Count every chip in the middle, including earlier calls. If the pot is 120, one player bets 60 and another calls, there are 240 chips in the middle and a call of 60 needs 60 ÷ (240 + 60) = 20%, or 4 : 1. A player still to act can raise after you call, so the price may not be final, and your equity has to hold up against every hand still in the pot.
• Short stacks. If you have fewer chips than the bet, you can call all-in for what you have, and you can win only the part of the pot up to your final wager. Heads-up, with 40 chips left against a bet of 80 into a pot of 100, you risk 40 to win 140: 40 ÷ (140 + 40) = 22.2%, not the 30.8% a full call would need.
• Your opponent’s cards. The price is exact, but the equity you compare it with is an estimate, built from a range of possible hands and a model of how the hand continues.