In fixed limit hold’em poker pot-odds often play a big part of the decision making if one is going to continue participating, with a drawing hand, in the pot or not. But in pot-limit and no-limit it’s not always so much what in the pot at the moment that’s matters but how much you totally can win if you make your hand.

One well known example of the importance of implied odds is from the 1980 World Series of Poker main event final in which Doyle Brunson faced Stu Ungar. Doyle who previously had won the main event twice was chasing his third title and in his way stood the young poker genius Stu Ungar. Brunson holds Ah7s and Ungar 5s4s and both players has about the same amount of chips, approximately 380,000 chips each. Doyle makes a small raise and Ungar calls and there is a total of 17,000 in the pot preflop which comes Ad7d2c. Stu who acted first checked and Doyle who had hit top two pairs bet 17,000 and Stu called.

Turn was the “magic” 3h and Stu had miraculously hit his straight. Ungar bet 30,000 and Doyle went all-in and Stu immediately called. And since the river card was to no help to Brunson Stu Ungar won his first world championship title in poker.

The reason that Stu Ungar called the pot sized bet on the flop with just an inside straight-draw was not the 34,000 in the pot but the chance to win all the money Doyle had in front of him. So Stu willingly risked a small portion of his chips to be able to win it all. Doyle later admitted that his bet on the flop was to small in comparison to the stack he had in front of him.

As you probably understand by now, Texas hold’em odds and implied odds in particular is a crucial part of poker. And no matter if you play live or online poker you must keep an eye on the implied odds and not be overconfident when you have a good hand and bet to small and thus give your opponents the chance to outdraw you. On the other hand, should the situation be reversed and you have a drawing hand and your opponent fails to make a bet that is big enough, go ahead and call, but only if you think that your opponent is willing to pay if you should be lucky enough to make your hand.

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