Implied Odds
Implied odds work in conjunction with Pot odds. Simply implied odds can be referred to as how much money you think your opponent(s) will put into the pot at a later round of betting if you hit a hand. For example I four players act in front of you on the turn, it then becomes more likely that one or more of those players will call a bet or raise before you on the river, meaning if you hit your Desired hand comes up your pots odd increase greatly.
An example of this would be at the turn you have a pot of $16, and a call will cost you $4 (giving you pot odds of 4-to1), if you hit your hand you have a very high chance of winning it, your opponent is also likely to play to a showdown. If you miss your hand you loose out on $4 but If you hit your hand you win the pot and the other players potential $4 winning $20 in total giving implied odds of 5 – 1
Other factors that also need to be taken into consideration when calculating implied odds is the ratio between what you expect to earn if you make your hand and how much your opponents are likely to make you put into the pot in which to stay active. Also you have to consider how will disguised you have kept your hand
Implied odds however is not solely about the math you have to take into consideration the player you are placing these implied odds against, it is of the most importance that while you calculate implied odds you do not consider bets that are not guaranteed or that you have a good chance of not being made. Players tend to miscalculate there opponents and rely on pot odds to heavily this can lead to misinformed and poor decisions knowing the tendencies of the players around you is a vital aspect.
The sorts of players that you should be trying to aim your implied odds at and playing your marginal hands against are the players that consistently loose big pots in no limit games these are the sorts of players that you should be trying to find at every opportunity. However the same can be said for your own play if you are finding you are loosing big pots with top pair or over cards you should consider to try and adapt your own playing style, although single pairs can turn into big hands in the later stages of a big tournament they are not so string hands in a deep stack no limit game so you should be looking to fold these sorts of hands. There for cutting your own implied odds, this will pay its dividends in the long run
Finally when playing marginal hands in Texas hold’em there is two aspects you should always consider before making a play, is the opponent going to bet big into the pot if I hit my hand? And also has the opponent got a big enough chip stack to pay me off if? If answer to any of these is no it is best to fold your marginal hands to raises.
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