Pot Odds Calculator

How to use it

Deal the cards, set the stakes, read the decision. The tool simulates 3,500 hands against random opponents for every change, so the equity, pot odds, and EV are real — not rule-of-four shortcuts.

Quick equity reference

For the spots where you’d rather count outs in your head than open the calculator. The flop column applies when you’re seeing two more cards (flop facing the turn-river runout); the turn column applies when you have one card left to come. Mental shortcut: outs × 4 on the flop, outs × 2 on the turn — exact values below.

How the tool’s math works

Most online pot-odds calculators just ask you for outs and run an outs × 4 estimate. That breaks down fast — it overcounts when you have many outs, ignores whether your outs are clean, and has no idea if your top pair is dominated. This tool runs a real simulation instead. Here’s exactly what’s happening under the hood, so you know when to trust it and when to override it.

Equity — simulated, not estimated

Every time you change a card, a position, or a bet size, the tool runs 3,500 Monte Carlo trials. Each trial deals random hole cards to every opponent still in the hand, fills in any missing board cards, scores the final five-card hands using a full evaluator (straight flushes, quads, full houses, all the way down), and records who wins. The percentages you see — Win, Tie, Lose, and the combined Equity number — are the share of those 3,500 simulated hands where you come out ahead. Because the sim looks at actual cards, it’s board-aware in ways a rule-of-thumb isn’t: a flush draw with two overcards has more equity than a flush draw with two undercards, and that’s already baked into the number.

SPR — how committed you are

Stack-to-pot ratio is stack / pot. Low SPRs (under 4) mean you’re one bet from committing everything, so even marginal edges are often worth getting in. High SPRs (over 10) mean there’s still a lot of poker to play, so you can fold with less regret. The advisor uses SPR to decide whether a strong hand should just-raise or jam — it’s the variable that prevents the tool from suggesting marginal call-downs in deep-stack spots where you can release without burning much value.

Preflop — Chen formula, not equity alone

Preflop, the tool doesn’t decide from equity alone. Against many opponents, even AA simulates at only ~31% equity because nine random hands collide with each other — a number that tempts bad folds. Instead, the preflop decision is driven by Bill Chen’s hand-strength formula: A=10, K=8, Q=7, J=6, T=5 (etc.) down the ladder, doubled for pairs, plus +2 for suited and a gap penalty for disconnected cards. AA scores 20, KK 16, AKs 12, 72o −2. That score maps to a position-aware decision: early position needs 10+ to open, middle needs 8+, late position opens as low as 5 (any pair or suited broadway). Facing a raise, 14+ always 3-bets, 10+ 3-bets from late position or calls elsewhere, and small pairs down to 55 call if the price is right.

Postflop — equity vs. a range, not vs. random

Postflop, the simulated equity is measured against a random opponent — but if your opponent has already bet, their range isn’t random. They usually have at least a pair, a draw, or a plan. So when you’re facing a bet postflop, the tool discounts the raw equity by about 18 percentage points before making the call/fold decision. The number you see on screen is still the honest simulation result; the recommendation accounts for the fact that a betting villain is stronger than a random one. That’s why the advisor folds bottom pair to a pot-sized bet even when the raw equity reads 60% — against a hand that actually bet, it’s closer to 40%, and 40% doesn’t beat 50% pot odds.

The recommendation layer

Once equity, pot odds, EV, and SPR are known, the advisor runs the scenario through a decision tree. Strong hands with big equity edges raise for value. Hands that comfortably beat the pot odds (margin ≥ 15%) are clear calls. Marginal hands (margin near zero) get a warn-tone call or fold depending on position and street. Weak hands with no implied odds fold. The one-line reason tells you which factor drove the decision — equity, price, position, or stack depth — so you can sanity-check it against live reads the tool can’t see.

Looking for the deeper guide? The Pot Odds Masterclass walks through the formula, MDF (minimum defense frequency), implied odds, bluff-frequency theory, and an 8-spot quiz. This page is the calculator; the masterclass is the textbook.