Im trying to understand something about PLO: would it be fair to say that postflop we only ever need 33+% equity to call our opponents pot sized bets?

Am I missing some aspect of pot-odds in this assumption?

If this were true then we could always call our opponent down assuming we had 33% equity on each street, right?

Not really. It's generally a mistake to only consider the next street when making a pot odds decision, *unless* you can make the nuts in a single street. (This actually becomes even more problematic in omaha since your opponent often has redraws and/or may be drawing to the same nut hand as you as well as currently having you beat)

It's almost always a mistake to use the result of an equity calculation to make a single street call, because the equity that you see is "showdown" equity, but unless you're calling on the river, you may have to face future bets. If you're calling on the flop you might have to call on the turn and river also. You can only compare pot odds and equity if you are pretty sure you won't have to call future bets without having made your hand.

Like consider your opponent makes a pot sized bed on the flop, and you have a hand that is not likely to develop into the nuts, but that you estimate has 40% equity - well over 33%. But if your opponent bets the pot on each street, and the pot is currently 1 unit, then you'll have to call 1 on the flop, then 3 on the turn and 9 on the river, a total of 13. So you're risking 13 to win 15, which requires about 46.5% equity to break even, making it a losing call.

You have to do some estimating... like if he's not going to bet the river you think, then you'll be risking 4 to win 6 which is 40%. If you think you can make a pot sized bet on the river if you get there but fold if you don't then you're risking 4 to win 15 which only requires 21% equity.

I have probably made some arithmetic errors here because I wrote this pretty quick but hopefully you get the idea - you need to be able to estimate the future betting in your favor and against it.

This comes up in limit poker a lot too, even on a single street. If the player to your right bets, and you're considering a call, and there's someone else on your left, then things change. If you think the player will overcall, then you're getting better odds than it seems and can call more loosely. If you think he'll raise, then you're either going to have to pay more and get worse pot odds, or you'll have to fold and forfeit your first bet, and need to take that into consideration. A lot of limit players get tricked into putting in multiple bets on one street, considering each one in isolation, with each isolated bet seeming correct but the sum of them being a mistake.

thank u for explaining rusty brooks, that makes sense