Counting pot odds

Whether to call is not a matter of taste. It is a division.

Compare what the call costs against what the pot pays, and you get the share of the time you need to win.

Start by being able to produce that number yourself, every time.

• pot odds

  The price you are being offered: what a call costs against what the pot pays if you win.

• break-even equity

  How often you must win for a call to be neither profitable nor losing. It is the call divided by the final pot. Win more often than this and calling makes money.

• equity

  The share of the pot your hand is worth right now if the hand ran to the end. Ties count as splitting.

15 hands or more, with an optimal rate of 75%