Implied Odds and Reverse Implied Odds
Implied odds, reverse implied odds for people new to the game of poker, these things probably sound a bit like gibberish. Well, guess what? Knowing these two things can make a difference between raking in some winnings at poker and going home a loser.
One of the most important things about a poker game is the amount of money in the pot and how much you anticipate that it will grow before the end of the game. This is where implied odds and reverse implied odds come into play.
When you calculate your implied odds, you must take into consideration the additional chips you could get out from your opponent if your hand were to hit. Hence, you must consider your opponents stack and willingness to put more money in the pot after the initial bet. For example, if you hold a small pocket pair like pocket fives pre-flop, and you put your opponent on a monster hand like pocket aces. You currently have only 18.8% chance of winning the hand. If each of your stacks are, let say, $500 (if you were to call) and the pot is $60 and you must call a $40 bet. The pot odds are 3 to 2 and you should probably fold. But, the implied odds makes it worthwhile, because if you were to flop a set (around 1 out of 9 times), you're likely to win is whole stack, bringing the pot odds to 560 to 40, which is 14 to 1 pot odds. Implied odds assume that the opponent with a monster is likely to get all his money in on the flop. However, if your opponent had been all-in with the 40$ bet to call to you, pot odds direct you to fold, since you can't get any more chips out of him. The same principle applies, if your stack of chips is too small to actually win more chips from him.
Reverse implied odds is the exact inverse of implied odds and reflects the odds of loosing a certain amount chips if you were to call. In our example above, the reverse implied odds of the player with pockets aces are high because he will very likely stay in that hand no matter what comes. The player with pockets fives has low reverse implied odds because if he doesn't make his set, he will most likely fold.
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