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Implied Odds

Implied odds are another important concept in poker. Along with the actual pot odds, implied odds takes into account the extra amount you will be able to get from your opponents if you were to hit your hand. When computing implied odds you must take note of the size of your opponents' stacks as well as the likeliness that they will throw more money in the pot. Let say that, pre-flop, a player makes a big bet, implying that he has a big hand, and it's only down to you to call. Let say that your opponent has pocket aces:

And you pocket sixes:

At the moment, you only have an 19.36% chance of winning the hand. Let's assume that both your stacks are around $800, and the pot is $110 and you must call a $60 bet.

The pot odds are less than 2 to 1 and would suggest folding. However, implied odds, are in your favour, because if you hit a third six and flop a set (around 1 out of 9 times), you'll probably win is whole stack, bringing the pot odds to 910 to 60, which is a little over 15 to 1. Implied odds here assume that the player with a very strong hand is very likely to push all his chips in the pot no matter what the flop is. However, if we take the same example, if your opponent had pushed all-in for an extra $80 bet to call for you, the pot odds would dictate that you fold (assuming you put on the aces) since you can't win more money out of him. Likewise, if your own stack is too small to extract additional chips from your opponent, you should also fold.

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