Many Texas Hold’Em experts claim that the only way to get good at poker is to learn how to calculate one’s odds. However, the math involved to calculate the odds looks like something that’s scarier than you ever saw in high school! What to do? Indeed it’s a tough decision because of course everyone wants to be able to calculate their odds when it comes to the likelihood of winning or losing a hand in poker, but calculating the odds seems just downright out of the question.

Luckily, there are many software tools that can give poker players across the Internet all the information that they need when it comes to calculating the odds of winning on each hand. Of course, it would be nice to be able to calculate the odds on your own, but who wants to sit in front of the computer labouring away at math that they should have mastered in high school, but obviously didn’t because they were too busy, well, playing poker? Technically, anyone can learn to do the calculations themselves, but how many people are likely to go ahead and do it? Not many.

Online poker has taken on a true life of its own in the past few years. Online poker is one of the most popular online games and it’s also one of the most popular ways to play poker. Of course, some people still get together the old-fashioned way, to play at a card table in someone’s living room, but more and more people are taking to the digital highways to engage in friendly poker matches and serious poker tourneys around the globe, all in the comfort of their own home. Since so many people are playing poker this way, instead of gathering to do it in person, computer software is a very viable option when it comes to determining one’s odds in a particular hand. While finding out your odds might be a little depressing at first, in the end it will be the most helpful information that you have; you’ll always know when to fold based on your odds and everyone knows that knowing when to fold is the key to winning in the long term. Trouble is, most people don’t know when to fold. It’s all in the odds.

You can set percentage odds for yourself and stick to them religiously. If your odds are above a certain number, you stay in; if they’re below a certain number, you fold. If they’re between those two numbers, you might ask yourself how lucky you’re feeling on that particular night and then go with your cut on whether or not to fold. Very scientific, you must admit.

Knowing your odds in poker is akin to knowing when your tire is flat so you can pull over and get it fixed. Odds might seem like an abstract number, but the number is not abstract at all, it’s the only thing that’s concrete in your game, besides the cards. The numbers don’t lie. Of course, even if you have 90% odds of winning a certain hand, you could still lose that hand, but it’s about winning over the course of the night, not just about winning each individual hand. Again, why learning to fold is so important. Take a look at the computer programs and websites that calculate your odds for you and try them out next time you play online. You might find that it greatly changes the way you play your game. If you use the computer often enough, you might even be able to transition to computing the odds yourself…but let’s just take this one hand at a time, okay?