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Pot Odds Quiz
Calculate exact equity vs any range
Not just pre-built charts. Sharkling solves your actual spot and drills you until the right call is automatic.
Work out the price before you look at your hand
A pot odds decision has exactly two numbers in it. The first is what the call costs you as a share of the pot you would be playing for — the price. The second is how often you win — your equity. Call when the second is bigger. That is the whole of it, and the reason players get it wrong is almost never the arithmetic: it is that they look at their cards first and let the draw decide before the price has been worked out.
The price is call ÷ (pot + bet + call). Facing $50 into $100 you are putting $50 into a pot that will be $200, so you need to win 25% of the time to break even. Facing $50 into $200 the same $50 goes into a $300 pot and you need 16.7%. Identical bet, identical cards, completely different decision.
Equity comes from your outs. Nine outs — a flush draw — is 19.6% with one card to come. Eight outs, an open-ended straight draw, is 17.4%. A gutshot is 8.7%, and a combo draw holding two of those at once is worth more than either alone. Those figures cover most turn decisions you will ever face.
Question 1 of 10
Score 0 / 0
Turn
A♠ 7♠ on K♠ 9♠ 4♦ 2♥
Nut flush draw, nine clean outs, one card to come.
- Pot
- $100
- They bet
- $50
- Cost to call
- $50
Now: should you have been in this spot at all?
Sharkling grades every decision in the hand against a real solve, not just the one you asked about.
The five prices worth memorising
Bet sizes cluster. Learn what each common one asks for and you can answer most of the quiz without doing any division at the table.
| Bet size | Odds laid | Equity needed |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter pot | 5 to 1 | 16.7% |
| Third pot | 4 to 1 | 20.0% |
| Half pot | 3 to 1 | 25.0% |
| Two-thirds pot | 2.5 to 1 | 28.6% |
| Pot | 2 to 1 | 33.3% |
| Double pot | 1.5 to 1 | 40.0% |
What the common draws are worth
The other half of the comparison. The two-card column applies only when the bet is all in and both remaining cards are guaranteed; otherwise use the one-card column.
| Draw | Outs | Flop to river | Turn to river |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flush draw + open-ender | 15 | 54.1% | 32.6% |
| Flush draw + gutshot | 12 | 45.0% | 26.1% |
| Flush draw | 9 | 35.0% | 19.6% |
| Open-ended straight draw | 8 | 31.5% | 17.4% |
| Two overcards | 6 | 24.1% | 13.0% |
| Gutshot | 4 | 16.5% | 8.7% |
Every figure above is the exact probability of hitting at least one out, not the rule-of-four approximation. The gap matters at the top of the table: four times fifteen outs is 60%, six points clear of the truth, and that is exactly where players talk themselves into stacking off.
Why the same draw is a call and a fold
Questions one and ten in the quiz are the same nine-out flush draw on the turn, worth 19.6% both times. In the first you face a half-pot bet and need 25%, so you fold. In the second you face a quarter-pot bet and need 16.7%, so you call. Nothing about your hand changed. This is the single most useful habit the quiz is trying to build: read the bet before you read the board.
It also explains why small bets are hard to play against. A quarter-pot bet is cheap enough that almost every draw has a price, which is precisely why good players use it on boards where their opponent holds plenty of them.
Where pot odds stop
Pot odds answer one question: is this call break-even on its own, right now, assuming no more money goes in? Two things move the answer. Implied odds are the money you expect to win on later streets when you hit, and they can turn a 3-point loser into a clear call — but only against someone who will actually pay. Reverse implied odds are the mirror: a second-nut flush draw is worth less than nine clean outs suggests, because some of the cards that hit you cost you a stack.
Fold equity is the third factor and it belongs to raising rather than calling. Every spot in this quiz is a pure call-or-fold decision, which keeps the arithmetic clean, but at the table raising a draw is often better than both — you win the pot immediately some of the time and keep the outs for when you do not.
For the full treatment of the price itself, read pot odds explained. To run your own numbers, the pot odds calculator takes a pot and a bet and returns the required equity, and the equity calculator works out how often you actually win against a range rather than against a guess.
Frequently asked questions
How do you work out pot odds at the table?
Divide the call by the pot you would be playing for after making it. Facing a $50 bet into a $100 pot you pay $50 into a $200 pot, so you need 25%. The formula is call / (pot + bet + call), and it never changes.
What equity do I need against a half-pot bet?
25%. A third-pot bet needs 20%, a two-thirds bet needs 28.6%, a pot-sized bet needs 33.3% and a double-pot overbet needs 40%. Those five numbers cover most of the bets you will ever face.
Why is a flush draw a call in one spot and a fold in another?
Because the price changes even though the cards do not. Nine outs on the turn is 19.6%, which beats the 16.7% a quarter-pot bet asks for and loses to the 25% a half-pot bet asks for. Work out the required equity first, then compare.
Should I count one card or two when I have a draw on the flop?
One, unless the bet puts someone all in. Counting both cards assumes you see the turn and the river for the price of this call, which is only true when there is no more betting. A flush draw is 35% over two cards but 19.6% over one.
Is the rule of two and four accurate enough for this?
For fewer than nine outs, yes. Above that it overstates you: multiplying 15 outs by four gives 60% when the true figure is 54.1%. Outs times two for one card is close all the way down, drifting about a point low.
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