Calculating pot odds "backwards"

Originally Posted by rdqlus

Originally Posted by DrumzCT

Just remember that the pot will be bigger once you make the call. If there's 500 in the pot, and you have a 37% to win it, and the bet is 200. Your pot odds is not 200/500 (40%), it's 200/700 (35%).

I don't beleive your supposed to include your call to the pot in your calculations.

Yes, you are. You win whatever money you put into the pot as well.

mj

You should not use your own money to build pot odds.

Here is some good advice on another site I visit regularly: http://www.learn-texas-holdem.com/qu...hands-down.htm
The relevant part reads as follows:

There is another point too here and that is you can't build "pot odds" if the money in the pot is your own. In other words you can't raise a lot on the flop and then use pot odds as a reason for calling later. Pot odds only applies when the return on your investment isn't your own money. That's a key point that many people miss even if they are good players. It is true that once the money leaves your stack, it isn't considered yours anymore but you can't use that as a reason for a pot odds call. Notice how you may for one move be able to justify a call based on odds even if it is your money in the pot, but if you looked back at the entire hand and what you put in for what you could get back, you screwed up. Individual moves don't mean anything if overall you are playing badly and going against math.