Poker odds calculation
Learning to understand poker odds calculation in full is hard, lots of hours of research has been put in to the cutting edge poker odds calculators but getting a grasp of how it works is easy.
A poker odds calculator first needs to get information about the hand that is being played.
The input to the poker odds calculator
For a successful poker odds calculation you need a few numbers from the poker hand, these are: The number of players in the hand, What cards you have, what cards are on the table, how big the pot is, how much you need to bet to be in the hand. When you know these the rest is just maths. The odds for any card is known so we can compare how much you need to bet and how much you can win from it against how big chance you have to hit the card that will make you win.
Expanding the calculation
If you want to add an extra dimension to the calculator, and of course you want to because it can give you the upper hand, you start considering how your opponents have played in the past. Are they loose-agressive, tight or a loose cannon, this is stuff you need to know to have the best situation. Betting in to someone that never bluffs is bad no matter what the odds tell you so a statistics software that can keep track of this gives you an extreme advantage. Someone that is really loose with his chips should improve the odds for you a bit and a poker statistics software need to keep track of this.
The combination: Poker statistics and poker odds calculation
With a combination of these, poker statistics (keeping track of your opponents) and poker odds calculation (giving you odds on a certain hand) you get an extremely powerful tool.