Is there an easy way to calculate pot odds for no limit holdem?

Question

Is there an easy way to calculate pot odds for no limit holdem?

Answer 1

short answer:no

Long answer:  there are shortcuts, but they still involve a little bit of math.

I'm assuming you are talking about drawing to a certain hand with x money in the pot.

First you have to count the pot.

Next count your outs (card that will help you)  eg. 9 outs for a flush draw, 8 outs for a straight draw...

Now the shortcut is called the rule of 2 and 4.  Basically you multiply your outs by 2 for each card you get to see for that price, to get a rough percentage.  For example, say I am on a flush draw on the flop, and I am sure my opponent is not also on the draw.  out of the 13 cards of that suit, 4 are showing, so there are 9 more (outs) that help us.  x2 and you get  18% (approx) which is just a little worse than 4-1 (20% is 4-1, 25% is 3-1 33.3% is 2-1)

now lets say that there is 100 dollars in the pot before my opponent bets.  He bets 50 dollars.  So in total, we expect to win $150 if we call $50  150-50 = 3-1  since the pot is giving us 3-1 on a call, but we are a 4-1 underdog, this would be a bad call.  If, however, his $50 bet was an allin for one of you, you can use the rule of 2 twice because you get to see the turn and the river for the same price.  so 9x4 is 36% (approx) which is about 2-1 which would make this a good call.

If our opponent bet $25 into $100 pot, (100/25=4)  we would be getting 4-1 on our money, which we are just slightly behind on odds.  This is when you might want to start thinking about "implied odds" which basically is how much more money you think you can win if you hit your hand.