This is the joint-winner of the NoPayPOKER.com Article Competition for November 2009 and is from member wolfsbite who got $1000 FreeD

Most people don’t understand position and pot odds and as a result are never going to be able to progress beyond free poker games and make any proper money.

This is a basic guide to what you need to know, once you’ve read this you will, even if you are a beginner, be streets ahead of many players who simply don’t get it or ignore this area of the game (all those people who think poker is only about luck fall into this category, it is NOT it’s about math, variance and probability!)

First: Position is based on where the dealer button is.

Second: Pot odds is the percentage of money you need to put in to call a bet.

Now if you combine these both you can make a educated decision on whether to call or not.

Now the best position to be in is the dealer or “button” as some call it. This is because after the flop you are the last to act. You can get a feel if someone is strong or weak by the amount they bet or if they just check to you. A lot of professional poker players will not fold their button don’t matter what (unless it’s a real weak hand).

Now calculating pot odds is tricky and mostly I just go by normal thinking if it to big of a raise for me to even continues on in the hand. If you want to try here is a rough guide. If there is $50 in the pot and there is a raise of $10 then you are getting 5 to 1 to call and so on.

Now knowing the pot odds and your position will greatly improve your game.

Example if you are drawing to a straight or flush or have 2 pair after the flop and your are in early position and someone raises half the amount in the pot and you have 4 people to act after you your best bet is to fold.

Now seeing the rest of the hand and knowing what you were holding had you made your straight, flush or full house isn’t the whole problem. You have to consider how many people called and what other bets were made down the line.Here an example of mine

I was holding A/10 of hearts and the flop comes AD 9C 10D I was first to act so I put out a pot sized bet with 2 pair (hoping to drive everyone out). I had 3 callers after me so in my mind I’m thinking flush draw, pair of aces and maybe someone has a straight draw.

Turn comes 5H again I’m first to act so I bet same amount as before and I get only 1 caller. River is 8D. I check because there is now a flush out there and a possible straight but I still like my 2 pair.

The other player pushes all in now this would take all my chips to call. So I called “falling in love with my 2 pair” cards shown and the other player had the flush. Now looking back at it I should have never called the all in bet when the other player called 2 big bets I should have just folded and “lived to play another hand”.

Also knowing what I know I just figured that with my bets only someone with high pair and a great kicker was calling. I never counted on it being free poker and people chase all the time and saying its free poker and my cards were suited.

I hope this is help to anyone who wants to advance their poker knowledge and make decisions based on logic and not “its free poker“

Related posts:

1. Making Free Online Poker Games and Freerolls Fun Again
2. Article 6 of 10: Implied Odds On Offense, Pot Odds On Defense
3. Article 4 of 11: Pot Odds, Implied Odds, and Rounding
4. Article 2 of 11: Playable Pockets and Table Position
5. Free Poker Insider Strategy – Only Play Games You Can Win Easily