Calculating Pot Size

Pot size is pretty simple. There are three main considerations:
1. How much money is already in the middle.
2. How much is bet in the current round of betting.
3. How much WILL be bet in the current round.
Let me explain.
Let’s say four players (including you) call the big blind of $10 in a game. That puts $40
in the middle.
The flop hits. You’re on the button. Drew bets $25 into the pot. Shelly calls. Rick folds.
Now the action is to you. What’s the current pot size?
The answer is $40 (from the before the flop) added to $25 (from Drew) added to $25
(from Shelly). That equals $90 as the current pot size.
OK, now what if you weren’t on the button. Let’s say you were second to act…
Four players called the big blind, which puts $40 in the middle. Drew bets $25 and then
the action is to you… with two more players BEHIND you left to act. What’s the pot size?
The answer is $40 + $25 + UNKNOWN.
Notice these are congruent with the three “considerations” we outlined earlier. So what
exactly is “unknown”?
Unknown refers to the two players BEHIND you… who will act AFTER you make your
decision. Put simply, you just don’t know if those two players will call, raise, or fold. So
you really don’t know the exact pot size.
This is another fundamental “problem” with odds. Because you don’t know the exact pot
size, you must “guess” or “infer” what the players behind you will do.
And like I mentioned earlier in the report, this is what makes the game of no limit
Holdem fun and exciting... the fact that you CAN’T just base the game on math. The
advantage ultimately goes to the most well-rounded players.
OK, so in this situation, you would do your best to get a read on the other players in
order to determine pot size.
Now, there’s one more tricky part about how to calculate pot size…
A lot of players get confused about whether to count THEIR OWN MONEY in the actual
pot size figure. The answer is to include money that’s already in there… but not money
you’re about to wager. In the example above, you had already called the big blind of
$10… so that $10 gets counted.
You were trying to make a DECISION about calling a $25 bet. YOUR $25 bet doesn’t get
included in the total pot size, because it’s not in there yet.
Let’s say in our example that you called and the other players behind you folded. So it’s
just you and Drew heads-up. Now let’s say the turn card comes, and Drew bets $50.
What’s the pot size then?
The answer is $40 (pre-flop) + $50 (after the flop) + $50 (bet on turn from Drew). This
time, the $25 you called with after the flop IS included, since now it’s officially in the
pot. But the $50 you may or may not call with is NOT included… because it’s still yours
for now.
All right… so that’s how to calculate pot size. Now that you know pot size and outs,
you’re ready to learn “pot odds” and how to APPLY the information you’ve learned to
real-life poker situations.