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4 Cards to a Straight with 1 card to come: Odds = 4.7/1 (17%) Inside Straight Draw, 2-3-5-6, 2 cards to come: Odds = 4/1 (20%) Inside Straight Draw, 2-3-5-6, 1 card to come: Odds = 10/1 (10%) As you gain experience in using poker odds and outs you will be able to quickly calculate your winning chances using simple math. After the flop in Holdem. Before you can begin to calculate your poker odds you need to know your “outs”. An out is a card which will make your hand. For example, if you are on a flush draw with four hearts in your hand, then there will be nine hearts (outs) remaining in the deck to give you a flush.
Part #2 Of Our Beginners Poker Tournament Guide
Poker Odds, Outs and Expectation All Clearly And Concisely Explained!
Poker odds are a critical factor in success in online poker tournament strategy. While alone information on odds and outs will not make a player an instant winner, this knowledge will certainly give them an instantly profitable advantage over those players who do not understand these simple poker concepts correctly.
A good way to begin looking at poker odds and outs is in terms of expectation. During any game of poker we will be faced with a number of ‘bets’ at various prices. When you bet with the odds in your favor then you have a positive expectation. That is to say that regardless of the outcome of any particular hand you will show a profit over time. If you bet or call when the odds are against you then your wagers have a negative expectation, that is you will lose money over time.
The most commonly referenced form of poker odds are known as ‘Pot Odds’. This describes the price you are getting when calling a bet from an opponent compared to the current amount of money already in the pot.
For example, if the total pot - including your opponent’s last bet - was $100 and you had to call a $20 bet then your current pot-odds are exactly 5/1. Pot odds are useful when working out whether your call has a positive expectation. In this example, assuming this was the final bet of the hand, then you simply need to work out whether you have a greater than 20% (1 in 5) chance of winning the hand. If you think this is the case then calling will show a profit over time if you think your chances are lower then calling will lose money over time and your hand should be folded.
Pot-Odds can also be used before the last card is dealt. Imagine you have King-Jack of spades and by the time the turn card is dealt there are 2 other spades showing. With 1 card to come you are sure that hitting a spade will win the hand for you. In this situation you need to compare the pot-odds being offered to your chances of winning the hand. In this case you are approximately 4.5/1 against hitting that last spade (see ‘outs chart’ below for more information on this).
Thus if you are getting better than 4.5/1 odds from the pot then calling will show a profit over time. If you are getting less than this price then calling will lose money over time and you should not usually call the bet.
Looking at the current odds that you are getting by calling a bet leaves out one very important factor. You may be able to win one or more additional bets after the last card has been dealt. This is especially significant in No-Limit Holdem Tournaments where you can bet any amount you like. The additional bets you might win if you make your flush (for example) are known as the Implied-Odds and need to be factored into your expectation.
To return to the King-Jack of spades example, the pot-odds after the turn has been dealt there is $30 in the pot and your opponent bets $10 more. Here you are getting odds of 4/1 with a 4.5/1 of completing your flush, pot-odds alone indicate a negative expectation from this bet. However after the river, if you do make your flush by hitting that last spade then you estimate that your opponent will call an additional $20 bet. Your implied odds are now the $30 in the pot + $10 bet from your opponent + $20 on the river for a total of $60. This means that the real odds of your $10 call on the turn were 6/1. If you take 6/1 odds on a 4.5/1 chance then you will show a profit each time – you will have a positive expectation for the bet.
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What are Poker ‘Outs’ and how are they calculated?
During the play of any hand there are a number of the unseen cards left in play that will improve your hand, and a number that will not. Any card that will improve your current holding is known as an ‘out’. Any hand that is not yet complete, for example 4 cards to a flush or 4 cards to a straight, is known as a ‘drawing hand’ or just ‘draw’. Poker odds can be used to assess whether your play has a positive expectation if you know the basic chart of ‘outs’ that will improve your hand.
A Full Outs Chart is Below - Here are the most common poker outs:
- 4 Cards to a Flush with 2 cards to come: Odds = 1.9/1 (35%)
- 4 Cards to a Flush with 1 card to come: Odds = 4.1/1 (19%)
- 4 Cards to a Straight with 2 cards to come: Odds = 2.2/1 (32%)
- 4 Cards to a Straight with 1 card to come: Odds = 4.7/1 (17%)
- Inside Straight Draw, 2-3-5-6, 2 cards to come: Odds = 4/1 (20%)
- Inside Straight Draw, 2-3-5-6, 1 card to come: Odds = 10/1 (10%)
As you gain experience in using poker odds and outs you will be able to quickly calculate your winning chances using simple math. After the flop in Holdem there are 5 cards which you have seen – and so 47 unseen cards. You calculate the number of cards that will help your hand out of those unseen cards and then divide this number by 47. For example if you calculate that 10 cards will improve your hand then (10/47) = 4.7/1 odds which is approximately 21% winning chance, with 2 cards to come then doubling the winning chances is close enough for most situations. Learning the most common outs from the chart below will help you make good decisions during a hand – remember that if you take positive expectation bets you will show a profit over time!
Number of Outs | 2 cards | ||
% | % | ||
1 | 46/1 | 22.5/1 | You Have Trips, Make Quads |
4,26% | 8,42% | You have a pair, make trips | |
3 | 14.7/1 | 7.01/1 | You hold 1 ace, make a pair of aces |
8,51% | 16,47% | You have 2-3-5-6, hit a 4 for inside straight | |
5 | 8.40/1 | 3.91/1 | |
12,77% | 24,14% | ||
7 | 5.71/1 | 2.59/1 | |
17,02% | 31,45% | You have 3-4-5-6, hit 2 or 7 for straight | |
9 | 4.22/1 | 1.86/1 | You have 4 to a flush, make flush |
21,28% | 38,39% | ||
11 | 3.27/1 | 1.40/1 | |
25,53% | 44,96% | You have 4 to flush + an ace, make either flush or A-A | |
13 | 2.61/1 | 1.08/1 | |
29,79% | 51,16% | ||
15 | 2.13/1 | 0.85/1 | You have 4 to flush and open-ended straight, make either hand |
34,04% | 56,98% | ||
17 | 1.76/1 | 0.67/1 | |
38,30% | 62,44% | ||
19 | 1.47/1 | 0.54/1 | |
42,55% | 67,53% | ||
21 | 1.24/1 | 0.43/1 | You have open ended straight flush + 2 overcards |
SNG Planet Tip: A quick way of calculating your chances of making a hand after the flop (with 2 cards to come) is the ‘Rule of 4’ – Simply Multiply the number of cards to make your hand by 4! For example if you have 4 to a flush on the flop then there are 9 unseen cards of your suit that will make your hand… 9*4 = 36% which is very close to the 34.97% shown on the outs chart above! With just one card to come you multiply by 2 instead.
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A poker player is drawing if they have a hand that is incomplete and needs further cards to become valuable. The hand itself is called a draw or drawing hand. For example, in seven-card stud, if four of a player's first five cards are all spades, but the hand is otherwise weak, they are drawing to a flush. In contrast, a made hand already has value and does not necessarily need to draw to win. A made starting hand with no help can lose to an inferior starting hand with a favorable draw. If an opponent has a made hand that will beat the player's draw, then the player is drawing dead; even if they make their desired hand, they will lose. Not only draws benefit from additional cards; many made hands can be improved by catching an out — and may have to in order to win.
Outs[edit]
An unseen card that would improve a drawing hand to a likely winner is an out. Playing a drawing hand has a positive expectation if the probability of catching an out is greater than the pot odds offered by the pot.
The probability of catching an out with one card to come is:
The probability of catching at least one out with two cards to come is:
Outs | One Card % | Two Card % | One Card Odds | Two Card Odds | Draw Type |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2% | 4% | 46 | 23 | Backdoor Straight or Flush (Requires two cards) |
2 | 4% | 8% | 22 | 12 | Pocket Pair to Set |
3 | 7% | 13% | 14 | 7 | One Overcard |
4 | 9% | 17% | 10 | 5 | Inside Straight / Two Pair to Full House |
5 | 11% | 20% | 8 | 4 | One Pair to Two Pair or Set |
6 | 13% | 24% | 6.7 | 3.2 | No Pair to Pair / Two Overcards |
7 | 15% | 28% | 5.6 | 2.6 | Set to Full House or Quads |
8 | 17% | 32% | 4.7 | 2.2 | Open Straight |
9 | 19% | 35% | 4.1 | 1.9 | Flush |
10 | 22% | 38% | 3.6 | 1.6 | Inside Straight & Two Overcards |
11 | 24% | 42% | 3.2 | 1.4 | Open Straight & One Overcard |
12 | 26% | 45% | 2.8 | 1.2 | Flush & Inside Straight / Flush & One Overcard |
13 | 28% | 48% | 2.5 | 1.1 | |
14 | 30% | 51% | 2.3 | 0.95 | |
15 | 33% | 54% | 2.1 | 0.85 | Flush & Open Straight / Flush & Two Overcards |
16 | 34% | 57% | 1.9 | 0.75 | |
17 | 37% | 60% | 1.7 | 0.66 |
A dead out is a card that would normally be considered an out for a particular drawing hand, but should be excluded when calculating the probability of catching an out. Outs can be dead for two reasons:
- A dead out may work to improve an opponent's hand to a superior hand. For example, if Ted has a spade flush draw and Alice has an outside straight draw, any spades that complete Alice's straight are dead outs because they would also give Ted a flush.
- A dead out may have already been seen. In some game variations such as stud poker, some of the cards held by each player are seen by all players.
Types of draws[edit]
Flush draw[edit]
A flush draw, or four flush, is a hand with four cards of the same suit that may improve to a flush. For example, K♣ 9♣ 8♣ 5♣ x. A flush draw has nine outs (thirteen cards of the suit less the four already in the hand). If a player has a flush draw in Hold'em, the probability to flush the hand in the end is 34.97 percent if there are two more cards to come, and 19.56 percent (9 live cards divided by 46 unseen cards) if there is only one more card to come.
Outside straight draw[edit]
An outside straight draw, also called up and down, double-ended straight draw or open-ended straight draw, is a hand with four of the five needed cards in sequence (and could be completed on either end) that may improve to a straight. For example, x-9-8-7-6-x. An outside straight draw has eight outs (four cards to complete the top of the straight and four cards to complete the bottom of the straight). Straight draws including an ace are not outside straight draws, because the straight can only be completed on one end (has four outs).
Inside straight draw[edit]
An inside straight draw, or gutshot draw or belly buster draw, is a hand with four of the five cards needed for a straight, but missing one in the middle. For example, 9-x-7-6-5. An inside straight draw has four outs (four cards to fill the missing internal rank). Because straight draws including an ace only have four outs, they are also considered inside straight draws. For example, A-K-Q-J-x or A-2-3-4-x. The probability of catching an out for an inside straight draw is half that of catching an out for an outside straight draw.
Double inside straight draw[edit]
A double inside straight draw, or double gutshot draw or double belly buster draw can occur when either of two ranks will make a straight, but both are 'inside' draws. For example in 11-card games, 9-x-7-6-5-x-3, or 9-8-x-6-5-x-3-2, or in Texas Hold'em when holding 9-J hole cards on a 7-10-K flop. The probability of catching an out for a double inside straight draw is the same as for an outside straight draw.
Other draws[edit]
Sometimes a made hand needs to draw to a better hand. For example, if a player has two pair or three of a kind, but an opponent has a straight or flush, to win the player must draw an out to improve to a full house (or four of a kind). There are a multitude of potential situations where one hand needs to improve to beat another, but the expected value of most drawing plays can be calculated by counting outs, computing the probability of winning, and comparing the probability of winning to the pot odds.
Backdoor draw[edit]
A backdoor draw, or runner-runner draw, is a drawing hand that needs to catch two outs to win. For example, a hand with three cards of the same suit has a backdoor flush draw because it needs two more cards of the suit. The probability of catching two outs with two cards to come is:
For example, if after the flop in Texas hold 'em, a player has a backdoor flush draw (e.g., three spades), the probability of catching two outs on the turn and river is (10 ÷ 47) × (9 ÷ 46) = 4.16 percent. Backdoor draws are generally unlikely; with 43 unseen cards, it is equally likely to catch two out of seven outs as to catch one out of one. A backdoor outside straight draw (such as J-10-9) is equally likely as a backdoor flush, but any other 3-card straight combination is not worth even one out.
Drawing dead[edit]
A player is said to be drawing dead when the hand he hopes to complete will nonetheless lose to a player who already has a better one. For example, drawing to a straight or flush when the opponent already has a full house. In games with community cards, the term can also refer to a situation where no possible additional community card draws results in a win for a player. (This may be because another player has folded the cards that would complete his hand, his opponent's hand is already stronger than any hand he can possibly draw to or that the card that completes his hand also augments his opponent's.)
See also[edit]
- Poker strategy
References[edit]
- ^Odds Chart. 'How to play texas holdem poker'. Howtoplaytexasholdempoker.org. Archived from the original on 13 January 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
External links[edit]
Odds Of Poker Hand
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