» What are pot odds and how do you calculate pot odds?

Pot odds is the ratio of the money in the pot compared to the amount of money to call a person's bet.  It's a mathematical way to help you figure out to call a bet or not.

To figure out the Pot Odds it's very simple:

For Example:
The pot contains: $40
The bet to call is: $8

Pot to Bet:
40/8 which is simplified to 5/1 or 5 to 1.

Compare the Pot Odds to the odds against your hand. To figure out the odds of your hand you do this.  You have two cards and there are three cards on the board.

 
2 + 3 = 5 52 cards in the deck minus those 5 = 47, so there are 47 unseen cards

Out of those 47 cards you have your outs and the cards that you don't need. So for example if you have 12 outs to have the best hand that leaves you with 35 cards you don't need.

So that makes the ratio of cards you don't need to need 35 to 12 or around 3 to 1. You would have to put 35/12 into its simplest form, 3/1 roughly (the exact figure is 2.916 repeating).   Therefore the pot would have to be at least 3 times the size of the bet because you are likely to win 1/3 of the time.

You would not count the cards that the people folded because you don't know what they had. The two cards you hold and the cards that are out on the community board are the only seen cards that you know. That is unless someone shows their cards to you.

Now you compare the two odds rations together.  If the pot odds are higher than the odds against making your hand, you should call the bet.  Since you are getting 5 to 1 on your money and you are 3 to 1 to win, pot odds compel you to call the bet.