What are pot odds?
The concept of pot odds is a crucial deciding factor in poker play. Pot odds is the relationship between the size of the pot and the size of the bet. For example, if there is $10 in the pot and you have to call a $2 bet, then you are getting pot odds of 5:1. If you have to call a $5 bet in the same $10 pot, you are getting pot odds of 2:1.
All successful poker players must be able to make a well-timed bluff. The bluff is probably the most talked-about poker concept, although it is not used as often as people believe. Still, to exclude bluffing from poker would result in an uninteresting game: If you never bluff you become too predicable and will not be able to maximize your winnings, much less win at all. You bluff when you have no chance of winning the pot or when you are trying to steal the pot before all the cards are dealt. In a cash game, it is possible to calculate whether a bluff will be profitable or not. To do this, you compare the odds of making a successful bluff to the size of the bet and the size of the pot. Therefore, an important skill is the ability to determine the likelihood that your opponent/s will fold.
The question of whether or not you should change your strategy when you’re winning. What’s a hot streak? Is it something that should affect the way you play?
Well, if you’re sitting there winning many hands no matter what mediocre cards you started with, your straights fill in and your flushes come to fruition, and your opponents are seeing your chips pile up — it seems to everyone like either you’re a poker genius or that a good fairy is hovering over, waving her wand at you — you’re on a streak. A rush. A hot string of cards.