When calculating pot odds, the articles I’ve read say to count the current amount required to call against the pot size.

Eg there’s $40 in the pot and the opposing player bets $10.

Therefore the pot odds are 5:1.

If I’ve got that much right, what I don’t understand is that the $40 in the pot will already include about $20 of yours if you’ve been heads up since pre flop.

So aren’t the odds more like 5:3?

Thanks for any help on this.

Once you've put money in the pot, it no longer belongs to you, just like when the SB and BB put in their blinds pre-flop. That money is gone.
The pot is the "prize" for anyone still with live cards. It doesn't belong to anyone (and you obviously can't take back the $20 or whatever you've put in), so you just have to look at the odds between the prize (the pot) and the price of sticking around.

Ok thanks, makes sense

When calculating pot odds, do you count your own bet into the pot size.

Eg:

Pot is 600. Bet is 300. Therefore pot is 900

300 to call. 900/300 = 3/1 or 33%

Or

Bet size / pot size +bet size + call size
So in this case its 1200/300 = 4/1 or 25%

300 / 600+300+300 = 25%

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

If you're facing a bet, the pot odds on a call (which is just a simple ratio) are size of current pot:cost of calling. In your example 900:300 = 3:1

To convert an odds ratio into a percentage, you calculate the cost of calling divided by the size the pot will be after you call, which is 300/1200 = 25%, as you said.

A pot odds ratio of 3:1 is equivalent to requiring equity of 25%, because 3:1 implies losing 3 times for each win, so you're winning one in four.

To all intents and purposes 3:1 means the same as 25% equity required, in the same way that 3:2 means you need 40% (2/5), and 2:1 means you need to win a third of the time (1/3). The latter is very useful to know, because you get 2:1 odds on a call when your opponent makes a pot-sized bet. If someone pots it, you need 33.33% equity. if they bet less than pot, you don't need to win as often. Versus half pot, it's 25%.

Here is one way to think about required equity. Prior to your last investment (a bet or call), assume the pot is 100. You then invest 25

If the investment is a call, the final pot is 125 and the fraction you invested =25/125 = 1/5 = 20%. Then you can consider that your “fair” share of that pot is 20% so that should be your chance of winning it, i.e., your equity.

If the 25 investment into the 100 pot is a bet, then if villain calls, the final pot = 100 + 25 + 25 = 150. Then your “fair” share is 25/ 150 = 1/6 = 16.7%.

So, in general,

Required equity = Your last investment/ Final pot

I just want to clarify a bit more of Arty's bold ... Pay attention to the word 'current' when calculating Pot Odds.

HU Pot 600, Hero Bet 300, V Raise to 700 ... Pot Odds = ?

Hero faces a 'current' bet (call) of 400, not 700 ... the 300 is 'gone' into the pot.

Pot Odds ... 400 to 1600 (600 + 300 + 700) ... 1 to 4 or 4:1 odds

Note that this is only 20% (400/2000) equity, so it's a pretty easy call in most cases, but bets like this should usually be seen as red flags to pay attention to. GL