However, in practice, it’s doubtful you’ll need to use MDFs when you’re playing, as most players are too unbalanced for it to be worth it. Therefore, you need to defend 50% of your range against that bet to avoid getting exploited. Y our opponent bets $100 into a $100 pot. This is referred to as the minimum defense frequency (MDF), which can be worked out by dividing the amount you need to call by the size of the pot and then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage. This means that sometimes you’ll need to call with hands that don’t meet the equity requirements given to you by the pot odds if it’s high enough up in your range.

If you’re playing against good players, you’ll need to defend enough against postflop bets to avoid exploitation. If your hand is a profitable call, then you call, and if you don’t, you fold… sounds easy, right?

Using pot odds, you can figure out the amount of equity your hand needs against your opponent’s range for it to be a profitable call. One of the most common ways to determine how often you should fold is by using pot odds.

John wayne folding poker table