Pot Odds is about helping you with the decisions you make playing texas holdem game and even when to make the correct call based on the expected return on your money. This is not to say you will win all the time but your chances (money odds) will improve and eventually you will catch a nice break now and again. Every time you make a decision or react to what another player does in Online Texas Holdem you are taking and or laying odds. Yes sometimes you have a gut feeling that this guy is bluffing and you go all in but most of the time your decisions should be made on purely mathematical odds or pot odds.

For example you have 7h8h (in the BB) and the flop comes down Ks Qd 7c with three people in the hand. You check and the player following you bets the pot and the other player calls. Now you are up against it and you have got to assume that one of the two players has either a K or a Q and that your pair of sevens are no good. Basically you have 5 outs that might result in your winning and that means that your 10% chance (approx) of hitting your card on the turn for 4 – 1 money odds is telling you to fold. Course when you fold the “7” hits and if you call a blank hits. In this case you listen to the math and fold since you are getting 4 to one odds on your money and you have a 10 to one shot of hitting your cards (and you are not sure if you get your card that you will still win the hand).

Often in Online No Limit Holdem you are faced with the following decision; “Do they have it or not?” over and over again. You will note that most of the time they have it. Since at the level most people play bluffing is not a profitable alternative.

All this to say that knowing your pot odds is important if you plan on making money in No Limit Texas Holdem. You must have an immediate idea of the odds of making or defending your hand in any given situation. Furthermore you need to be able to compare the odds you are getting against the money odds you are getting (or giving if you are betting).

In a No Limit Texas Holdem Tournament you better know your pot odds inside out because I can promise you that the best players (the one’s that win over and over and over again) know their pot odds so well that if you don’t know them you are finished before you start. Most of the big winners on any poker site (Texas Holdem Tournament players) never want to risk there money on a coin flip early on. The players that do go all in early are amateurs and you don’t have to worry about them much. The good players prefer to wait and grind out small pots from amateurs and play position to their advantage (with or without good cards).

Like it or not there are situations that the best players need to make the all in move to survive in a tournament and when this happens they are looking to be in a dominating position preflop if they go all in. No they don’t always win their all in’s but they usually have the best of it going in and that is the key to being a good player in No Limit Texas Holdem.

Here are some crazy stats for Online Texas Holdem players. Hard to beliefe but there are 1,326 possible two-card combinations for your starting hand. If you play a hand to the flop you will see a total of just under 20,000 possible flops (19,600 to be exact). In fact there are a remarkable 2,118,760 total possible combinations on the board. All this to say you need to play a lot of online texas holdem tournaments to see the same board twice. Forget the board for a second. How often do you see the same hands go heads up preflop for all the marbles – namely AK vs AQ or AK vs AA or AA vs KK or AK vs KQ. All this means is that too many people are reading these silly books and that they understand that if you are going to put your tournament on the line it might as well be with a solid hand preflop. You know that AK vs Q6 is only a 3/2 favorite or a 60/40 favorite. Online players go nuts when they lose to Q6 when they have AK as they think they should win that 95% of the time … but the mathematical truth is that AK beats Q6 sixty percent of the time. Who in the heck plays Q6 off suit anyway. Someone who knows that they have a 40% chance of winning and they want to make a stand right there.

Is it worthwhile to know that your odds of getting a pocket pair are 16/1, and catching a set or quads on the flop 12% (one in 7.4). The chances of getting pocket aces dealt to you are 221/1. Who cares if you have no pair you will make one on the flop 32.5% of the time and by the river 49% of the time. Well all this information works back into your game and you need to know it to make rational decisions. Is it important to know that if you are holding two suited cards that you will make a flush 8.4% of the time by the river but catch your flush on the flop only 1 in 118 flops.

Yes of course it is important to know this as every little percentage here or there helps you out in the game. In fact going back to your two suited cards you should flop a flush draw 11% of the time. In other words if you have a pair or two suited cards you are likely to hit your set more often then your flush draw. WOW! But low and behold if you get that flush draw on the flop you will hit it 34.97% of the time. So how about that if you are in a hand with two suited cards and the flop shows two of your suits and someone goes all in and two callers are there and it is your turn to decide what to do? The math is telling you to call since you are getting likely 4 to one on your money on a 35% event. You are here to gamble so gamble already! So what if you get an open ended straight draw and you only complete the straight 31.45% of the time? Well if you are getting six to one money odds you go! My buddy says: “I’ll Go!” – so GO already!

No Limit Texas Holdem Tournaments are about survival and knowing (or suspecting) that you are in a dominant position with better then 50 – 50 chances so you put your money on the line. It is easy to go all in when you flop a full house but is that the right thing to do? I have seen players do it and everyone else folds … NICE PLAY! The other element of Texas Hold’em is the psychology involved in convincing your opponent that he has the best of it when he is drawing dead and some how getting him to risk all his chips at this point in time. You make more money getting other people to play stupidly then you do when you bluff. The basic strategy involved in fishing people to bet is to get the nut out of position and to check to an aggressive player who has position on you. That is the sweetest feeling of all to see someone go all in when they have zero chance of winning.

Often you will make a play on a pot just because you have calculated the odds in your favor (ie an open ended straight draw with a flush draw on the flop) even though you may not be ahead in the hand when you make the move to bet aggressively. This aggressive betting into a likely scenario is important because you know in advance if your opponent re-raises you all in you are going to call. It is very important to know how you plan on playing before you make a move and how you will react to your opponent if and when he makes a counter move. If you bet at a pot with the intention of folding if your opponent goes over the top of you for all your chips then you have to know it before you make your bet. Not think about it after your opponent has made the all in move. On the other hand you have to know when you are pot committed and when you are going to call a move back over the top by your opponent.

Most of the time in No Limit Texas Hold’em it comes down to a coin flip or a race. Most players are used to having a pocket pair going up against two overcards (ie QQ vs AK being the classic battle). Sometimes you get a situation where you will get AJ vs KQ - a virtual coin flip that you really want to avoid if possible but you will notice that online poker players will jump into a coin flip without any fear.

What you are really looking for is a situation where you can put your money at risk when you are a 4 – 1 favorite or better. For example KK vs QQ or KK vs KQ even better. You are always trying to get into a pot with a huge statistical advantage so as to move along in the tournament. As I have stated already the good players don’t want to move all in pre-flop early in the tournament unless they have AA or KK while the inexperienced players are pounding all in out of position with TT or JJ or AQ regularly.

Something to watch when you are taking notes on some of your competitors. Post flop you are looking for top pair with an Ace kicker or top pair with the nut flush draw or an open ended nut flush or nut straight draw with the top pair. These situations are very good to play from and usually you will do well if you catch a few good flops in your tournament. Of course you always have to be conscious of your opponents and know that if they are calling you they must have something. The last thing you want to do is to bet top pair into a player with more chips (and in position) who then raises you all in holding two pair or a set. That is usually what gets players into trouble and busted out of tournaments.

You will note that the good players usually are busted out by river draws against them while the bad players are busted out when they call an all in and are way behind in a hand. Play smart and make sure you are the player who has the best of it when you put your chips in play.