Implied Odds

Implied odds are an extension to pot odds that uses an estimation of future betting to determine whether there is value in proceeding. It is possible to have poor pot odds in the same situation where your implied odds are good, because you fully expect your opponent to put more money in the pot on future betting rounds.

Example: You have flopped a flush draw and believe your opponent has top pair and top kicker with little chance of significantly improving their hand past yours should you hit the flush, the minimum pot odds required to draw to your flush for the next card would be slightly more than 4/1. Your opponent has bet $50 meaning the pot now has $150 in it, you are getting poor pot odds of 3/1 to draw to your flush. However, you know your opponent to be a very aggressive player who is likely to bet their hand on every betting round regardless of there being flush and straight possibilities on the board, you believe that if you make your flush you can get at least $100 more of this opponents money into the pot, giving you implied odds of 5/1 (a $50 call to win $250), making calling his $50 bet a profitable play based on the implied odds you expect to recieve.

Implied odds become most important in deepstack poker; if every opponent at the table has a $50 stack and the blinds are $5/$10, your maximum implied odds would be 5/1, whereas if everyone held $1,000 stacks your implied odds could potentially be 100/1, allowing you to play a much wider range of hands.

Implied odds mean less against truly great opposition because the implied odds may not be there due to their ability to read and put opponents on hands and subsequently fold. This is only true for top quality opposition though, this does'nt apply to the majority of online players, especially ones at the lower levels.