How do i know when i am pot committed?

[springb0ks]

Hi all.

I have been learning about Pot Odds vs Card odds, and understand this concept well now. However, how do i know if i am pot committed? For instance, say i'm first to act in a heads up pot, and i bet a large amount of my stack, now the other guy re-raises me. In this case i have committed a large portion of my stack, and on TV i see players say: "well i have no option i simply have to call now, based on the maths". I am wondering, how does one do this maths in a situation like this? How do i know when i have to simply call? Is it the same as pot odds, where i count the money in the pot, compare it with how much more i need to put in to make the call, and if those odds are greater than my chances of my hand improving, i call?

I have my doubts that it would work that way, and that there must be other considerations to take into count, because on TV, even if someone is bluffing, and the other guy moves over the top, sometimes the initial raiser still calls because he has to "based on the math".

If anyone can help here, it would be appreciated