To fully understand the concept of pot equity in No Limit Hold’Em, it is important to look at how it is used in conjunction with pot odds. Both pot equity and pot odds are derived by short mathematical computations, but the resulting figures are used, in a sense, to help in two different decisions.
Calculating pot odds will help a player determine if he or she should make a call or not. By counting the number of outs and determining the odds of hitting one of those outs, a player is calculating the likelihood of drawing a card that would win (under the assumption that this card will give him the hand that he is trying to make…this does not account for what the other players might have. For example, drawing a 10 might give one player a straight, but it could also have given another player a full house or flush).
Once a player has determined the percentage chance of catching an out, the next consideration is to determine if it is worth making a call to see the next card. If a player has a 20% chance to catch an out, but he has been raised such that he must call a bet that is 50% of the potsize, he is not getting good pot odds. Pot odds, in short, will help a player make a decision as to whether he is getting good odds in making a particular call.
Pot equity, on the other hand, is helpful in determining when to bet or raise as opposed to when to simply call. The easiest way to understand pot equity is to examine a hand at the preflop stage. If you have KK and your opponent has 74, you are holding an 80% chance of winning, pre-flop. This translates to 80% of the pot in terms of equity. Knowing that your equity is 80%, it is in your best interests to coerce your opponent to add more to the pot. In essence, for every 1.00 that goes into the pot, you are claiming .80 of your opponent’s money. Equity does change, however, as the hand plays out, so at times, you will want to use the concept of equity as a basis to push your opponent out with a large raise. For example, if you hold 80% equity pre-flop, it would not be in your best interest to slow-play a draw and allow your opponent to build a hand that would increase his or her equity.
In post-flop play, it is important to understand how and when to bet. Let’s assume that after the flop you are holding a straight flush draw. Because of the number of outs available to make a hand, 15, you have a very high equity rate of approximately 54%. If you miss, however, your equity drops to zero. The information that you now hold should encourage you to bet well enough that your opponent concedes the pot entirely. As you can not know what your opponent holds, and therefore can not know if your hand will win even if you catch your flush or straight, you can only guess from a statistical standpoint, and act in a way that will increase your winnings. Assume at this point that the pot will most likely be won by you (54% is a high value), and being that you are the favorite to win, try to maximize your winnings.
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