Get Pot Odds Through PokerTableStats

If you don't already know, PokerTableStats is a poker software tool that attaches to your online tables on PokerStars and acts as an in-game poker odds calculator and HUD.  One of the features of PokerTableStats is its display of what your pot odds are in real-time.  Recently, PokerTableStats issued a newsletter to all its software subscribers explaining the importance of this function and when you should be paying the most attention to it.
 
Calculating pot odds is one of the most important parts of poker.  Simply put, it is the ratio of money already in the pot compared to the amount needed to call.  You can then convert this ratio into a percentage, which is useful to determine whether you should actually make a call or not.
 
Here is a basic example of how pot odds work.  Let's say you are playing a $1/$2 NLHE ring game and for simplicity there is no rake on this hand.  Let's say you have J-10 in the hole on a K-10-3-2 rainbow board.  The action is down to the river when another 3 appears on the board.  The pot was $30 and your opponent fires out a $10 bet, building the pot to $40.

Your pot odds in this situation would be quickly calculated as 4:1, or the $40 in the pot to the $10 you would have to make to call, or you would only need to be correct here 20% of the time.  Against most opponents, the pot odds in this situation would dictate that you call with second pair.
 
If we use the same example, but say instead of the villain firing out a $10 bet, he fires out a pot-sized $30 bet.  Here, your pot odds would be just 2:1, or $60 in the pot compared to the $30 bet you would have to call.  You would need to be correct at least 33% of the time for this to be a call.  This may make the difference between calling and folding.
 
You can see why pot odds are an important concept to master.  PokerTableStats will take the hard work of doing the math in your head and present it to you during each hand.
 
You can check out the pot odds function and many other great aspects of the software's poker calculator and HUD for free with a five-day trial.  If you like what you see, continuing to use the software won't set you back much.  The full version of the software costs $7.99 a month.  If you do not plan to use the HUD, you can save a couple of bucks a month by using the Basic version at $5.99 a month.  Why not try PokerTableStats for free today?

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