23 Jun 2025 Intermediate This material is for medium-skilled players draw equity pot odds Implied odds are a continuation of the concept of pot odds. They also help you decide whether to call your opponent’s bets and raises with drawing hands. In simple words, implied odds show how much money you can expect to win if you hit your draw. If you expect to win much more from your opponent when your draw hits, you have good implied odds. If you think you won’t get more money from them later, you have poor or no implied odds at all. Implied odds reflect how much money you expect to win after hitting your draw. The Difference Between Implied Odds and Pot Odds Unlike pot odds, there is no exact formula for implied odds in Texas Hold’em. But you can still calculate how much you need to win by the end of the hand to make your call profitable. When you estimate your implied odds, you mostly rely on your understanding of your opponent and the situation in general. That’s why regular players are usually much better at using implied odds. They’ve played thousands of hands and can estimate better. The more you play, the better you’ll understand how much money you can win with your draws. That makes it easier to use implied odds. But if you are a beginner and this is the first time you hear about implied odds, let’s look at two examples. They will help you understand the basics: A situation with good implied odds A situation with bad or no implied odds Example with Good Implied Odds Your hand: Flop: In this case, you have an open-ended straight draw. If your opponent bets, you have good implied odds. If you hit your straight, it will be hard for your opponent to read your hand. You can expect to win more money from them on the next streets. Example with Bad Implied Odds Your hand: Flop: Again, you have an open-ended straight draw. But this time, your implied odds are much worse. If an or a comes, the board becomes scary. It’s clear that someone could have a straight. So your opponent will probably not give you more money, unless they also have a straight. How Implied Odds Affect Your Play The main role of implied odds is to help you when pot odds are not enough. If you think you can win more money on the next streets, you can call even when the pot odds are bad. For example, if you have a nut straight draw, your chance to hit it on the next card is about 5:1. If your opponent bets $25 into a $75 pot, you are getting 4:1 pot odds. If we look only at pot odds, we should fold. But if we believe we have good implied odds, the call might be correct. On average, we can win more money in the long run than we risk by calling. Basic Rules About Implied Odds If you have good implied odds, you can call even when pot odds are not enough. If you have poor implied odds or no implied odds at all, you should rely only on your pot odds. How to Calculate Implied Odds Even though we can’t know exactly how much we’ll win later, we can still calculate how much we need to win for our call to be profitable. This is a simple calculation. Subtract your pot odds from your draw odds (equity). This will give you the extra odds you need to make the call profitable. You can then use this number to figure out how much money you need to win on future streets to make the call at least breakeven. Example of Implied Odds Calculation Let’s say you have a flush draw. Your opponent bets $10 into a $10 pot. You need to call $10 to try to win $20. Odds to hit your draw: 4.2:1 Pot odds: 2:1 [Draw odds] – [Pot odds] = 2.2:1 So you need implied odds of 2.2:1. Now multiply 2.2 by the $10 you need to call. That gives you $22. This means you need to win at least $22 more from your opponent later to make your $10 call break-even or better. Final Thoughts Implied odds help you decide whether to call your opponent’s bets and raises, after calculating your pot odds. If pot odds are not enough, implied odds might help you make a good call. But if you believe you won’t get more money from your opponent, you should rely only on pot odds. Also, remember: you don’t have implied odds if you go all-in. There are no more betting rounds, so no more money to win later. Be very careful when calling large raises. Often, your implied odds are not enough to make such calls profitable in the long run. The best way to get better at using pot odds and implied odds is simple: play more poker!
