An Introduction to Poker Odds Calculators
Introduction
Knowing the true odds in a poker-playing situation will often
make you rethink the way you play a hand. Most players use
intuition, and are often quite good at doing this, to guess what
the odds are and therefore how to play a hand. However there is
a more exact (although less practical) way to determine odds and
that is with poker odds calculators. These can be found at many
places on the Internet, downloadable or Internet based, and for
free or for sale. In this article I will be using the Free Online Poker Odds Calculators that I
have developed to demonstrate the basic principles behind their
use.
Hand Odds Calculators
This group of poker odds calculators allows players to enter the
player and board cards, hit a "Calculate" button and have the
results displayed about how often each player will win, tie or
lose. These poker odds calculators can be found for all types of
games from Texas Holdem to Draw Poker. Free online examples of
these calculators are Texas Holdem Odds Calculator
and Omaha Odds Calculator. Use these to
get a feel to how certain hands fare against each other. Quite
often you will be surprised that your intuition does not
correspond to the true odds - for example in Texas Holdem
Ace/King suited is only a 50/50 chance against a pair of twos
before the flop. The shortcomings of these types of odds
calculators are that they assume a player will not fold and
extra money that may be added in future betting rounds.
Tournament Equity Calculator
Tournaments are a form of poker where players start with an
equal amount of chips and continue playing until one player has
all the chips. Prizes may be paid for multiple places, the
number depending on the event. A question that is quite often
asked is "Given the amount of chips each player holds at a
certain point in a tournament, how much prize money on average
should each player win?" This is where a tournament equity
calculator comes in (see Poker Tournament Equity
Calculator for an example). A valuable fact that is learnt
from this type of odds calculator is that the value of chips
decrease as the player gains more chips. For example doubling
the amount of chips a player has increases that player's equity
less than double. This would mean that in tournaments you should
fold more often than in cash game, especially with marginal
hands. If you play a lot of single table tournaments, Party
Poker SnG tournaments like I do for example, you will find many
situations where a tournament equity calculator can help point
to the right play. This is particularly true as you get close to
the prize money or "bubble". The limitations of these types of
calculators are that they usually assume equal skill levels and
disregard the size and position of the blinds.
Conclusion
Poker odds calculators can be a very helpful resource in the
arsenal of serious poker players. However one must take care not
to overemphasize the results given and to realize the
assumptions and limitations of these calculators.