Understanding Texas Hold Em Poker
odds are an important part of poker. Odds are the
chances of you making a hand.
To calculate your hand odds, you
need to know how many "outs" your hand has.
Outs are defined as how many cards
remain in the deck that help you make your hand.
If you hold two spades and two
spades come on the flop, that leaves 9 more spades in
the deck, since there are 13 cards of each suit.
That means you have 9
outs to hit your flush. Remember, just because you make
your hand, you don't necessarily win the pot!
The following are some
approximate odds for typical hands:
Outs
Flop %
Turn %
Drawing to...
2
8%
4%
Pocket pair to hit trips (or a
set)
3
13%
7%
Single overcard draw
4
17%
9%
Gut shot, two pair to improve to a full
house
5
20%
11%
One pair to improve to two pair or
trips
6
24%
13%
No pair to improve to a
pair
7
28%
15%
Set to improve to a full
house
8
32%
17%
Open-ended straight
draw
9
35%
19%
Flush
draw
Probability can
be figured by dividing the total outs by the remaining
cards. For two cards however, it's a bit trickier. There
is an easy shortcut to do this.
To figure an approximate
percent to hit your hand after the flop, just multiply
your outs by 4. To figure an approximate percent to hit
your hand after the turn, just multiply your outs by
2.
Now that you know how to
calculate Texas Hold em poker odds by using outs, you
need to know what importance this has. This is where pot
odds come into play.
Pot odds is simply a
ratio of the amount of money in the pot compared with
how much money it will take to call. If there is $50 in
the pot and it takes $5 to call, your pot odds are 50:5,
or 10:1. If there is $50 in the pot and it takes $10 to
call, then your pot odds are 50:10 or 5:1.
The higher the ratio, the
better your Texas Hold em pot odds are. 50:1 pot odds
means that you must win this hand 1 out of 51 times to
break even. Pot odds ratios are very useful to see how
often you need to win a hand to break even.
When you compare hand
odds and pot odds, you'll see the importance of them. If
you have a flush draw, your hand odds for making your
flush are 19% or 1.9 to 1.
Let's say you're in a
hand with a nut flush draw and you need to bet $10 to
call. Should you call? To make that decision, you need
to know your pot odds. If your pot odds are greater than
your hand odds, then you will make a profit. Calculating
your hand odds and figuring your pot odds will help you
make more proper decisions.
