Poker Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Now you must calculate your chances of bettering your hand and
Now you must calculate your chances of bettering your hand and winning the pot. Studying the mathematical tables in this book can help you do so. At times you will employ a combination of mathematics and personal judgment. The point I am trying to make here is that if the pot offers you 10-to-l odds and you know that the odds are only 7 to 1 against your making a winning hand, you have an excellent bet.
At this point, however, if the pot odds are 10 to 1 in your favor and the
At this point, however, if the pot odds are 10 to 1 in your favor and the odds of filling in a winning hand are 11 to 1 against your winning (which are the correct odds against filling an inside straight), then it is a very bad bet to put your $2 in the pot. It is important to remember to treat the pot as a separate odds bet. Any money you previously contributed to the pot belongs to the pot and not to you. Forget that you ever had it.