Pot
Odds

1 · Unit

2 · The situation

3 · What that means

4 · The fastest way to do this in your head

You won't do a division with decimal places at the table. Do this instead: add their bet to the pot, divide by your call, and round to the nearest whole number — that's your ratio, "X-to-1". Then required equity ≈ 100 ÷ (X + 1).

Rounding the ratio to a whole number is what makes this fast, and it costs you at most a point or two of accuracy — nowhere near enough to change a real decision.

Even faster: recognise the bet size and skip the ratio entirely. These are worth memorising outright.

Words used above

Pot odds / required equity

The price you're being offered, expressed as the equity you need to win to break even on a call — call ÷ final pot. Two names for the same number.

Ratio

The same number written the way it's usually said at the table — "3-to-1" instead of "25%".

EV

Expected value — the average amount a decision wins or loses if repeated forever. Folding is always exactly 0.