You’re in a Texas Holdem game and your pocket cards are Q T, flop is J 4 9. In order to make a straight you need to get either a King or 8 on turn or river so you have eight possible cards that can make your hand, four Kings and four 8s. These are known as your “out” cards.

You’ve seen five cards out of deck, your own two pocket cards and three flop cards. That means there’s 47 cards you haven’t seen. So odds of you getting card you need are:

Cards that won’t help you : Cards that will help you

Out of 47 remaining cards, eight of them will help you and 35 won’t, so “odds of you getting card you need” are 35:8 or 4.375:1. Now for pot odds.

The basic formula is:

The size of pot : Amount you need to put into pot.

So if pot is sitting at $100 and you need to bet $20 to call, your pot odds are 100:20 or 5:1.

In this case pot odds (5:1) are bigger than odds of you getting card you need (4.375:1) so you should call bet. This is known as getting "value" for your bet. If you are doing these sums quickly you can think of 35:8 as being about four and a half to one, it’s good enough for a quick calculation.

This is a simplification of pot odds and there are other considerations like – will players after you in round of betting add to pot? This would make your bet an even better proposition as it would increase pot odds but it is of course an unknown factor.

Understand pot odds and you will take your game forward to next stage and prepare yourself for poker big league.

Key #3: LEARN HOW TO MARKET YOUR RECORD LABEL You can have some of best artists on your label but truth is, if you don't market them and your record label, no one will even know. And even worse, no marketing (or poor marketing) will lead to slow sales, which will lead to your own empty pockets. There are very effective ways to market your record label and bands. This is also covered in The Ultimate Record Label Handbook mentioned above.

Now, these are only 3 key steps you need to cover when you start a record label. There are more, but these are essential.

So get out there and start your record label. Don't be afraid, you can do it! Just imagine how much fun it will be owning your own record label and doing what you love! Now, how many people can actually say they LOVE their job? And hey, just remember, it only takes ONE hit song, ONE hit band, or ONE hit album and your label's success can explode!

Stick with these 3 key steps and you will be on your way to a life in music biz!

Want to start your VERY own record label? Now you can! The Ultimate Record Label Handbook will show you how!