Working out Poker Hand Odds

Although poker requires much skill and luck being able to work out poker hand odds will make life much easier when you are playing hold'em.

The reason why you need to learn poker hand odds are so you can figure out what the likelyhood of you making a hand are going to be on either the turn or the river (or both combined) so you can work out the best way to play the hand and if there is value in continuing based on how the betting is going.

The way to work out poker hand odds is to figure out the number of "outs" you have. An "out" is the number of cards available that could make your hand complete, for example if you are trying to make a Straight and you currently have and open ended Straight (this is where you have 4 cards in consecutive order and either a card at the start of end of it would complete a straight) then you have a possible 8 outs. View the example below to get a better idea of the above senario.

Example

Your "Hole" cards

The Flop

This means you have an open ended Straight, so either a 3 or an 8 would complete the straight. As there a possible fours 3's and also four 8's left in the deck of cards that means there are a possible 8 "outs" to complete the hand.

To work out the odds of getting either a 3 or an 8 on the turn or river or both you have to do a simple maths equation. As there are 52 cards in a full pack you have to minus the cards that are already seen, so that means you minus your 2 "Hole" cards and also the 3 dealt for the Flop. 52-2 (your "Hole cards) = 50 50 - 3 (the Flop cards) = 47 So to work out the odds you devide 8 (possible outs) by 47 (total unseen cards). 8÷47=17.0%

Related articles: Poker Strategy | Poker Hand Odds | Poker Hand Rankings