To respond to a request on Twitter by JamesM_39:
What are outs in poker?
The number of cards you need to complete your draw or make a specific hand. For example, if you flop a flush draw you have 9 outs because there are nine cards in your suit that are potentially left in the deck that can make your flush. There may not be 9 outs since one or more players may have received your desired suited cards as their hole cards.
Why is it important to know the number of outs?
It is important to know the outs you have since you want to know the probability of making your hand on the the turn and or the river. And you want to compare that outcome with the pot odds are you are getting.
Here is a quick way to handle your outs and the probabilities:
1. If you are only going to see one more card, take the number of outs and multiply it by 2 to get the percentage. With that flush draw, you have 9 outs times 2 or an 18% probability of making your hand on the turn.
2. If you are going to see both the turn and river cards, take the number of outs and multiply it by 4 to get the percentage. With that flush draw, you have 9 outs times 4 or an 36% probability of making your hand on the turn and/or the river.
Now that you can quickly calculate outs into probabilities, let's look at pot odds.
What are pot odds?
Pot odds are simply the amount of money you are betting compared to the amount of money you can win that is already in the pot.
For example, if you are betting $50 to win a pot that has $100, you are betting $1 to win $2. When you convert that into percentages you divide 1 by 3, which is 33%. The reason you divide by 3 and not 2 is that it is like there are three possible outcomes, where one time you win, and the other two times you lose.
Therefore, if you are on a flush draw on the flop and plan to see the river card, you know you have 9 outs or a 36% probability of making your hand. If you had to bet $50 to win $100 in this situation, you would only be getting pot odds of 33%--which is lower than the odds you need of actually making your hand. Therefore, all things being equal, you should fold if this is the only factor to take into your decision.
Odds into Probabilities
Here is a simple chart of the number of Outs and the Estimated Probabilities if you stay to the river. Again, it is simply the number of outs multiplied by 4.
1=4%
2=8%
3=12%
4=16%
5=20%
6=24%
7=28%
8=32%
9=36%
10=40%
11=44%
12=48%
13=52%
Therefore, now all you have to do is to know how much you are going to bet and compare it to the amount you can win in the pot, in order to get another percentage for your pot odds.
If your pot odds percentage is greater than the number of outs percentage you should stay in the hand and at least call your opponent's bet. Of course, there may be other information you have, which indicates a fold is in order. For example, another player groans when two cards to a flush flops and you hear him whisper to his neighbor, "I mucked a flush draw."
Don't laugh. That situation recently happened to me, and it let me get away from my hand.
I hope this was easy to understand. I know some players don't like to do the math, but poker math is not that difficult. Good luck!
Showing posts with label outs in poker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outs in poker. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
11 Steps From Poker Beginner to Poker Winner (Part 1)
These are the first 5 steps. Part 2 will have the final 6 steps.
Step 1: Learn the rules of poker, and how tournament poker is different.
You need to know the ranking of hands….from no pair to a royal flush. The basics (in ascending order): no pair, one pair, two pairs, three of a kind, a straight, flush, and full house. These are the most common hands.
A poker tournament is different than other forms of poker since everyone starts with the same number of chips, there are rounds that are timed, after each round the amount you bet increases, and you play until one player has all the chips.
Step 2: No limit hold’em poker is the game to learn since you can win millions--just like on TV.
This game is simple to play.
1. Each player gets dealt two cards down. Players call, raise or fold.
2. The dealer turns over three community cards, called the flop. Players still in the pot check, bet or fold.
3. The dealer turns over one community card, called the turn. Players still in the pot check, bet or fold.
4. The dealer turns over one last community card, called the river. Players still in the pot check, bet or fold.
5. The player with the best hand wins.
In a tournament, there are forced bets called the blinds (where you have to put money in the pot before seeing your cards). The blinds are important since everyone takes a turn in putting in those bets, and a poker tournament at it’s most basic level is a battle for these blinds.
Step 3: Know which are the best starting hands in a poker tournament.
After you get your first two down cards, you need to decide to play the hand or not. And if you play will you call or raise.
In general, the highest pairs are the best starting hands--pocket Queens, Kings, and Aces. Suited connectors are good starting hands--like 7-6, 8-7, 10-9, where both cards are the same suit (called suited)--since you can make flushes and straights. Ace-King is a strong hand since if you improve on the flop, you will often have top pair, top kicker (the highest ranking unpaired) card--like a pair of Kings with an Ace kicker.
Step 4: Practice, practice, practice
There is nothing more important than getting practice. Practice leads to experience. Experience will make it easier for you to improve.
The fastest way to get practice without it costing you a dime is to sign-up to play at an online poker site. The biggest is www.FullTiltPoker.net. The .net is a free site--so they give you chips for free. The only downside to learning this way is that everyone is a big gambler--after all, it’s free!
Step 5: There are probabilities in poker you need to know; fortunately, there is a trick that makes this is easy.
First you need to know what an “out” is in poker. An out is the number of cards you need to complete your hand or to make a specific hand. Second, probabilities are the percentage of the time you will end up with a desired hand.
To figure out the probability of making a desired hand, you take the number of outs and multiply this number by 4 or 2. Multiply it by 4 if there are 2 cards left to see, and multiply it by 2 if there is one card to come.
Example: If you have two hearts as down cards, and the flop has 2 hearts, you have 9 cards to make a flush. 9 times 4 is equal to a 36% probability of making a flush if you see the next two cards.
Step 1: Learn the rules of poker, and how tournament poker is different.
You need to know the ranking of hands….from no pair to a royal flush. The basics (in ascending order): no pair, one pair, two pairs, three of a kind, a straight, flush, and full house. These are the most common hands.
A poker tournament is different than other forms of poker since everyone starts with the same number of chips, there are rounds that are timed, after each round the amount you bet increases, and you play until one player has all the chips.
Step 2: No limit hold’em poker is the game to learn since you can win millions--just like on TV.
This game is simple to play.
1. Each player gets dealt two cards down. Players call, raise or fold.
2. The dealer turns over three community cards, called the flop. Players still in the pot check, bet or fold.
3. The dealer turns over one community card, called the turn. Players still in the pot check, bet or fold.
4. The dealer turns over one last community card, called the river. Players still in the pot check, bet or fold.
5. The player with the best hand wins.
In a tournament, there are forced bets called the blinds (where you have to put money in the pot before seeing your cards). The blinds are important since everyone takes a turn in putting in those bets, and a poker tournament at it’s most basic level is a battle for these blinds.
Step 3: Know which are the best starting hands in a poker tournament.
After you get your first two down cards, you need to decide to play the hand or not. And if you play will you call or raise.
In general, the highest pairs are the best starting hands--pocket Queens, Kings, and Aces. Suited connectors are good starting hands--like 7-6, 8-7, 10-9, where both cards are the same suit (called suited)--since you can make flushes and straights. Ace-King is a strong hand since if you improve on the flop, you will often have top pair, top kicker (the highest ranking unpaired) card--like a pair of Kings with an Ace kicker.
Step 4: Practice, practice, practice
There is nothing more important than getting practice. Practice leads to experience. Experience will make it easier for you to improve.
The fastest way to get practice without it costing you a dime is to sign-up to play at an online poker site. The biggest is www.FullTiltPoker.net. The .net is a free site--so they give you chips for free. The only downside to learning this way is that everyone is a big gambler--after all, it’s free!
Step 5: There are probabilities in poker you need to know; fortunately, there is a trick that makes this is easy.
First you need to know what an “out” is in poker. An out is the number of cards you need to complete your hand or to make a specific hand. Second, probabilities are the percentage of the time you will end up with a desired hand.
To figure out the probability of making a desired hand, you take the number of outs and multiply this number by 4 or 2. Multiply it by 4 if there are 2 cards left to see, and multiply it by 2 if there is one card to come.
Example: If you have two hearts as down cards, and the flop has 2 hearts, you have 9 cards to make a flush. 9 times 4 is equal to a 36% probability of making a flush if you see the next two cards.
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