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Implied odds  are an extension of pot odds  that help you decide whether or not to continue in a pot while facing a bet or raise, when you have a drawing hand or what you think may be the second best hand after the flop or turn. The implied odds tell you how much you can expect to win after you make your draw or hit an out to give you the best hand by the river. If you expect to make a lot more money from your opponent after you make your draw you have good implied odds, but if you think that you will not get any extra money from your opponent when you make your draw then you have little or no implied odds.

There is no simple rule or mathematical formula to work out what your implied odds are in Texas Hold ‘Em, you are really trying to make a good estimate of the implied odds based on your reading of the situation and your opponent.  In general though, the more disguised your hand is, the better your implied odds are. For example, say you have 6♠,7♥ and the flop comes Q♥,5♦,8♣ and your opponent bets into you, (as long as both you and your opponent have decent size stacks), then you will have good implied odds as your opponent will not easily be able to estimate the strength of your hand, and will more then likely allow you to extract more money from him in later rounds if you make your draw. On the other hand if you have K♣,6 ♦and the flop comes Q♣,J♥,10♠ then the board is very scary to an opponent and if you hit a card that makes a straight you are unlikely to get much more money from an opponent and you therefore have poor implied odds.

Implied odds are useful for deciding whether to call a bet after you have calculated the pot odds. If you do not have the correct odds to call a bet and make your draw, then a call is justifiable if you have good implied odds. However you should stick to the pot odds if you anticipate that you have little or no implied odds.

It should be noted that you have no implied odds if your opponent is all-in, because there will be no betting on further rounds if nobody else in the pot. Be sure to be careful when calling large raises, as the implied odds that you are getting may not cover the amount you have to call in order to make your draw. The best way to obtain a greater understanding of your pot odds and implied odds is to simply play more poker.

Here is a video with a good explanation of Implied Odds

Once the flop arrives I can see 5 of the 7 cards that will make up my hand so I have a pretty good idea at this stage what my final hand will look like. Now I only have two decisions to make – should I put chips into the pot and, if so, how many? There are five reasons I will put chips into the pot but before I decide what to do I ask myself one question – what do I think my opponents have, based on their actions before the flop? Obviously I won’t know exactly what cards they hold, but I will try to put them on a range of hands that I think they might be playing taking into consideration their playing styles, their position, their stack size, and any previous “tells” I might have on them.
Here are the reasons I will put chips into the pot after the flop:

• Because I think my opponent will fold.

• Because I think I might have the best hand.

• Because I know I have the best hand and I want to build the pot.

• Because I think my opponent has a draw and I want to make them pay to fill their draw or fold their hand.

• Because betting is the only chance I have to win the pot.

It also depends on how many opponents I’m facing after the flop. If I’m up against only one opponent I will put chips in the pot for any of these reasons, but if there is two or more opponents I will usually put chips in, giving the option, only if I think I have the best hand or if I know I have the best hand. Other then that I’m trying to stay and make a good hand as cheaply as I possibly can, and I will always take pot odds and my percentage out odds into consideration. I will never try and bluff multiple opponents out of a pot – the chances of getting more then one opponent to fold to a bluff are very slim and it ends up wasting a lot of chips.

I usually keep my bet size to between 1/3rd and 2/3rds of the pot, depending on the situation, but if I know I have the best hand I will try my best to get all the chips in.

I’m not, and have no desire to be, a mathamatician so when I’m playing poker I don’t want to know my exact number of outs and percentages etc – I just want an easy way to work out if I’m getting the right odds to be in the pot. I find the quickest way to work it all out is to use the “Rule of Four and Two”. Basicly, how this works is to count the number of “out cards” (cards that will possibly give me the winning hand), and multiply that number by 4 to calculate my chance of catching a winning card on the turn or river (after the flop) or multiply the number by 2 to calculate my chance of catching a winning card on the river (after the turn).  So, for example, if I think I have 4 outs after the flop then my chances of catching the winning card is 4 x 4 = 16% and after the turn its 4 x 2 = 8%  (these are not exact percentages, just a quick guide). With this information I can now see if I’m getting the correct odds to stay in the pot if there is a bet – if its costing me more then 16% of the pot to call then I’m not getting the correct odds and should fold.

Of course there are other factors to take into consideration, especially in tournaments, but this gives me a good starting point to making a decision.

Rule of Four and Two Chart

And here is a video that explains how to work out Pot Odds.

Pocket Pairs can sometimes be the trickiest hands to play pre-flop so here are my tips for playing them in tournaments.

If I’m first to enter the pot and I have a pocket pair that I wish to play, I will always bet 3 x Big Blinds whether I’m in early, middle or late position. This allows me to win the pot immediately if everyone folds, or to win it later if I make the best hand. And with premium pocket pairs such as AA, KK and, to a slightly lesser extent, QQ I will raise, re-raise and go all-in every chance I get before the flop. I’m willing to put my tournament life on the line with these hands and will never fold them pre-flop.

When the blinds and antes are small in comparison to my stack size, especially early in tournaments, I try to play small and medium pocket pairs as cheaply as I can and against as many opponents as possible. I’m trying to flop a set and hope that one of my opponents makes a good hand that I can get action from. With these pocket pairs (22 up to JJ), more often then not, I will either win a big pot or lose a small pot.

If my stack size drops below 20 Big Blinds I will push all in with any pocket pair from 10,10 to AA. If I’m extremely short stacked (3 to 8 Big Blinds) Iwill also push all in with 99 and maybe 88. I will never push all-in, or commit more then 1/4 of my stack with pocket pairs smaller then these. I would rather be all-in with AJ, A10, KJ , K10, QJ, Q10 or J10 then small pocket pairs from 22 to 77.

Here is a video about Playing Pocket Pairs that I recommend.