.25-.50 NL pot odds

[bluesboy75]

I look to have 10 to 1 to play any two cards.

How could you be getting 10 to 1 preflop at a 10 person table?

[Gonso]

A quicker, rougher answer:

If you're a new player, stick to suited aces (plsyed for flush value) and small pairs (for set value) for a while. Stay out of situations where you don't think you can get a 10-to-1 return or better on your preflop money. You can't risk 20% of your stack to try and flop a set (it only happens once in 8 1/2 tries anyway).

Trash hands need a lot more return and are harder to handle.

[Gonso]

Bluesboy75:

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3 to 1 is a good price preflop. You never know what the flop is going to be. But you only need to win 25% of the time with 3 to 1 for it to break even.

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Not for a trash hand, and certainly not for a beginner, who's much more likely to lose a big pot than win one. It's hard to hit a flop with a weak hand in a family pot - this won't happen anywhere near 25% percent of the time with Q7 or whatever.

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How could you be getting 10 to 1 preflop at a 10 person table?

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Being on the small blind is one way. Another is if you had limped, and some goofball min-raised behind you and everyone calls. Common at OP's limit.

[awakuni]

thanks for the analysis gonso, i guess i'll give you a hand that came up last night that made me think about how i played it because pot odds was the real decidiing factor. it's a home game with .25-.50 blinds and i got just about 40+bb and their are seven players. two players limp, i limp in mp with suited K8, the guy to my left bumps it to 3.00. there is one caller and the other two limpers fold. here was my thinking: there's 7.50 in the pot (the folded limp hands plus the raise and call), and i have relative position. at 3-to-1 pot odds if the flop misses i can just let go of the hand so i call.
flop comes KJ2 with one of my suit. i check to the raiser who bets four. the other player folds and i think about the pot odds again. at 3.25-to-1 i just need to win 1 in 3 to break even and i felt heads up that i could. this player might also make this play is AQ or 10's so i wanted to see the next card. if it came bad, say another J or A i would just let go of the hand, but the next card came an 8 which two-paired me. i checked he bet 6 i smooth call, planning to get everything in on the river which i did and he was forced to call me with AK and gave me a nice double up.

so the thing is, suited K8 is not a hand i play for a raise, but since i've been incorporating pot odds into my play more, i've been able to rake in more pots, while keeping my losses small. i play these hands in position or have relative position. i don't trap myself with top pair and bad kicker, i'm just trying to figure out how speculative a hand can be versus pot odds.

okay, so here's the thing: can pot odds help overcome less than premium starting hands? why or why not? that's what i'm trying to figure out.

[PantsOnFire]

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I look to have 10 to 1 to play any two cards.

How could you be getting 10 to 1 preflop at a 10 person table?

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SB with 4 limpers, hope BB doesn't raise. Happens a lot early in low buyin MTTs.