Quote Originally Posted by spoonitnow
I'm going to take a moment before my morning sessions and make poker (and the math involved) really easy. In poker, we're usually concerned with finding two numbers and then comparing them. The first number is a risk-to-reward ratio, and the second number is our chance of winning. Different scenarios will have us calculating these two numbers in different ways. I'm going to give a few basic scenarios, let people reply, and then come back with some more questions.

1. A lone Villain bets into you on the river and if you call you'll have a 25% chance to win. Should you call?
2. On the river you're out of position against a lone Villain. If you bet pot and Villain calls, you'll have a 25% chance to win. Should you bet pot?
3. You have a 12-out draw on the flop and a lone Villain shoves the flop. Should you call?
I haven't read any of the responses yet, and I really want to learn, lately I've felt like I'm not making ANY progress... so here is my shot at it.

1. A lone Villain bets into you on the river and if you call you'll have a 25% chance to win. Should you call? Let's see, 25 Chance to win, means you will win 1 out of 4 times. So if you win 4x the bet when you do win, it is an even break, if you will win 5x the bet or more, you should call... correct?

2. On the river you're out of position against a lone Villain. If you bet pot and Villain calls, you'll have a 25% chance to win. Should you bet pot?
No. You can't bet enough by betting pot to get the correct pot odds of 5:1, correct? (see above answer)

3. You have a 12-out draw on the flop and a lone Villain shoves the flop. Should you call?[/quote] With 12 outs and 2 cards to come, you are about a 48% chance to win, making it pretty much a coin flip, personally I call, but often I'm not the brightest... it is probably the wrong answer on this one.