Pot odds are the ratio of the amount of money in the pot to the amount of money it will take for you to call. For example, if there is $50 in the pot and your next bet is $5, then your pot odds are 1 to 10. The higher the ratio, the better your pot odds are. That means you can enter the game with not very strong hand. For example, in draw poker with six opponents, having one pair of nines and pot odds 1 to 5, you can realize a profit betting when pot odds are more than 1 to 5 i.e. bet $5 in case the pot is more than $25. Theoretically, in five of the cases you are going to lose $5 and in one case you are going to win more than $25. It follows from the above mentioned that in order to get long-term profit, you have to bet amounts that will provide you positive balance. In case of similar situation repeated reoccurrence, you are going to lose money if you post a bet of $5 when there are $25 in the pot and you are going to have profit if there are more than $25 in the pot. Another example: If you have four cards of the same suit, your chance to make flush if you draw one card is 1 to 4, therefore you have to call only if the pot is minimum four times more than your bet. In other words, if there is $5 in the pot and you have to call $5 as well I.e. the pot odds are 1 to 1. Theoretically, this situation is not advantageous for you, so you need to fold. In case there is $40 in the pot i.e. the pot odds are 8 to 1, posting a bet of $5 , the situation for you is profitable from the beginning.