POKER OUTS
Knowing your outs or the cards that
will potentially give you a winning hand is one of the
most important aspects of playing winning poker. The
amount of poker outs you have should dictate every move
you make when faced with the decision to fold or continue
playing a hand.
Determining your poker outs is simple. Start by identifying your hand and the cards that would improve your current hand to a winner. The cards that will improve your hand are your poker outs. Below are a few examples of possible hands and their total outs.
| Example A |
You have royal flush draw: A(s) 10(s) Q(s) J(s). You suspect your opponent to have two pair.
To make your royal flush you would need to catch the K(s)- 1 out
But you also know that a flush or straight will also give you a winner. Therefore, you could get any other spade 2(s), 3(s), 4(s), 5(s), 6(s), 7(s), 8(s), 9(s)- 8 outs, or any other king- K (c), K(h), K(d)- 3 outs
So for the above example you have a total of 12 cards that will make your hand a winner. |
| Example B |
You have Q(s) Q(h) Your opponent holds K(s) 9(s)
The flop: K(d), 10(h), J(h) Turn 3(s)
In your hand you hold QQ plus you have a 4-card straight.
Your opponent has flopped top pair plus an inside straight draw.
This example is very important to board games such as Hold’em or Omaha where community cards are used. Some attention must be paid to your opponent’s hand before calculating whether or not to call. In most cases a Q on the turn or river would give you trips and a powerful hand. But since a Q gives your opponent a straight, you can not count the two remaining Q’s among your outs.
So your poker outs for this hand are the 3 remaining 9’s or any of the four aces for a total of 7 outs. This leaves the rest of the deck for your opponent and makes it very tough for you to call.
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Obviously, the above example is overly simplified since we have shown you your opponent’s cards. The example is set up to promote thinking in terms of what your opponent has and being careful not to calculate your outs including cards that may give your opponent an even stronger hand.
Once you begin to identify your outs, you can start to put actual percentages behind your chances of winning. While in many cases knowing the odds of making various hands takes time, there are tools that can be used to help you. One of which is to look over our detailed list of Texas Hold’em odds. There you will find hundreds of possible hands and the actual odds of improving them.
Another tool that will prove helpful in determining your outs, once the flop is dealt, is the 4/2 method. This is a simple equation that will give you a ballpark figure on the odds of hitting one of your outs.
4/2 Method for Calculating Poker Odds -
When there are two cards left to come, multiply your outs by 4. When there is one card left to come, multiply your outs by two.
For example: After the flop with two cards to come (turn and river) multiply your outs by 4.
If you have two outs, you have roughly an 8% (2 * 4 = 8) chance of making your hand
For example: After the turn with one card to come (River) multiply your outs by 2.
If you have 2 outs, you have roughly a 4% (2 * 2 = 4) chance of making your hand.
While the 4/2 method is not exact, it will get you close enough to the true odds to make a decision on whether or not to continue playing a hand.
Hopefully these examples give you a better idea of how you can not only determine your outs, but also how to use that knowledge to improve your game.
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