Probability and Statistics.
Pot odds: You must know some of the simple mathematical calculations before deciding whether to call a bet or fold. When you need an extra card to get your hand, one of the most important abilities is to figure out the pot odds. In other words, how much is the pot offering compared to the amount you have to pay. Some basic terms first.
Outs, the number of cards left in the deck that will improve your hand. For example, if you hold ace of spades and five of spades and the flop is king of spades, four of spades and three of hearts, it seems that you have 13 outs. Nine of spades that will make you a flush and another four two's, but pay careful attention not to count the 2 of spades twice. Therefore you have only 12 outs.
Odds, calculating the odds of getting one of the outs is quite simple. You divide the number of outs by the number of cards you haven't seen yet. If we take the previous example, the odds of getting the winning hand in the turn is 12 out of 47 which equals 25% because there are 47 cards you haven't seen yet. Phil Gordon developed a simple rule of four and two. He calculated the approximate odds of getting the winning card on the turn by multiplying the number of outs by two and for getting it by the river, he multiplied the number of outs by four. This is not the exact percentage but it's almost always good enough because rarely do you need the specific calculation.
Pot odds, the final calculation you will need is to make sure the pot is big enough for you to call with the hand that needs to be improved on in order to win. If the pot is $100 and your opponent bets $50 after the turn, this means you have to pay $50 in order to get the chance of winning a $150. This means you get three to one odds on your call. If you win one time for every three times you lose you are even. So you must win at least one out of every four games in order to make the call the right decision.
The final calculation you will need to make is to see if your odds of getting the winning card are above 25%. You should call if they are higher than 25% and fold if lower. For example, you hold an eight and a seven and the board is ace, queen, six, five. You have eight outs to make a straight. If the pot is $300 and the player bets $100, you have to bet $100 to win $400 and your pot odds are 20%. Since you have 8 outs by the rule of two you have approximately 16% of making a straight. Therefore you are not getting enough pot odds and should fold.
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