sometimes knowing just a little pot odds is dangerous because implied odds can often be used to justify to yourself making bad calls when you are drawing to 3 or 4 outs in the deck. referring to no limit games, i usually play a style such that i can raise preflop, narrow the hand down to 1 or 2 other players, and take control of the momentum of a hand. it is true that the greater understanding of the probabilities you have the greater insight you can bring to a hand, however i feel that playing based totally or even heavily on pot odds can be counterproductive, especially compared to some game strategy theories that can be applied so that you do not try to always achieve the best investment for your chips in terms of call or bet to possible return, and rather focus on a coherent long term strategy in which you seek to establish a table image, and then use that image in combination with varied play to play optimal hands in which your opponent finds it hard to read you and is calculating his pot odds because he cant put you on a hand.  |