In poker your outs are the unseen cards that will complete or improve your hand to make it the winning hand. Each additional card or "Out" will improve your percentage of surviving the hand and coming out a winner. The Odds chart below shows the percentage and odds of making your hand based on your number of outs.
This is the daddy of all hands and even if you play often, you will rarely see one. It's similar to a hole in one in golf. It is made of up all of the same suite, ten through Ace. It is a straight and a flush and the royal part comes from it being made up of the highest cards too.
As Ks Qs Js Ts
Straight Flush
While not as magical as the royal straight flush, the straight flush still is a rariety. It is made up of 5 cards of the same suite ranked in succession. For example 6-10, or A-5 (Ace can play both high and low in straights).
Jc, Tc, 9c, 8c, 7c
Four Of A Kind
This is self-explanatory. A four of a kind ocurrs when you have all the cards of one type.
Ks, Kd, Kc, Kh
Full House
A full house happens when you have both three of a kind and also a pair. To determine if one full house higher ranked then another, first look at the three cards of the same kind. The one that is larger wins. If they both are the same then you'll have to compare the two cards.
For example:
Jacks full of fours (JJJ, 44)
beats
9s full of Aces (999, AA)
Jacks full of tens (JJJ, TT)
beats
Jacks full of nines (JJJ, 99)
Full houses in texas hold'em are nice hands and you will most likely see someone show one down everytime you play.
Jc, Jd, Jh, 9c, 9h
Flush
A flush occurs when you have five of the same suite. If the cards were also in succession (like a straight), then it would be a straight flush. To determine which flush wins if there are more then one in a hand, then the person with the highest card in their hand wins. In the example to the right, the person has a ten high flush. This would beat someone with a nine high flush and below. Flushes are pretty common in hold'em.
Th, 8h, 4h, 3h, 2h
Straight
A straight occurs when a player has five cards in ranked succession. Note that an Ace can play both as a high card or a low card. Note the two examples to the right. Straights are also very common in hold'em.
Ah, Kc, Qd, Jd, Th
Ah, 2c, 3h, 4h, 5c
Three Of A Kind
Three of a kind is a nice hand. There are two different names for three of a kind hands and it depends on whether you have two of them on the board, or a pair in your hand. They both rank the same but to be a savy player you should know the difference. If you have a pocket pair and hit one on the flop then it is called a "set". If you have two cards on the flop and only one in your hand then it is called three of a kind.
8h, 8d, 8c, 9d, Ad
Two Pair
Two pair is when your best five cards create a pair twice. That seems easy enough right? When comparing two hands both with two pair then the larger one always wins.
For example:
AA 22 would beat KK JJ
88 33 would beat 77 66
Kh, Kd, Qh, Qd, 3c
One Pair
One pair is the hand you'll be getting the most and trying to win with the most. Top pair is usually the hand you'll be betting and trying to win some pots with. When more then one person has the same pair, then the "kickers" come in to play. Remember texas hold'em uses the best five cards so the following is true:
Ah, Ac, Jc, 6d, 4d
would lose to
Ad, As, Jd, 6c, 5d
Notice how the 5 beats the 4 (best five cards makes a hand).
Kh, Kd, 8j, 6d, 5c
High Card
The high card hand is the lowest non pair hand. Sometimes Ace high can win, but in the low limit games it is very rare. In the example to the right, the high card is K. So you would have "king high". You would beat someone if they had "queen high" or below but even a pair of deuces would beat you!
Kh, Tc, 4c, 3d, 2h
Key when reading about poker hands:
As = Ace of spades
Ks = King of spades
Qc = Queen of clubs
Jc = Jack of clubs
Th = Ten of hearts
9h = Nine of hearts
8d = Eight of diamonds
7d = Seven of diamonds
How loose can you play? When is it right to chase those guthots down, those backdoor flushes, and those overcards? To decide whether it is correct or not you have to understand odds.
To make money on plays that you are drawing to you need to first make sure that you think you'll have the best hand if you hit. Besides playing too many hands, one of the biggest mistakes low limit players make is drawing to hands that won't win even if they hit so try not to do that.
Here is our example, you are in the big blind in a 10/20 game and an average player raises from early middle position and three people call. You call with T9off as well making it four callers total.
The flop comes back:
K - 9 - 2 (rainbow) ~ $80 Pot
He bets, everyone calls. You can call $10 for $110 giving you about 1/11 odds right then. There are two 9's in the deck and three 10's giving you a total of 5/47 for the turn making it about 1/9.4 or 8.4:1. So IF you think your hand will win if you hit, you will make money by calling once. If you plan on calling till the river for it then your chances of hitting would be:
5/47 and 5/46
For figuring out odds for a draw that can hit on either the turn or the river (keyword either), you need to do something a little more complicated -- you figure out what the odds are of not hitting it and the subtracting that number by 1. Since 5 cards give us our hand, there must be 42 that don't. Then on the river if we haven't hit there must be 41 cards that don't make our hand.
42/47 * 41/46
This gives us .795, now subtract that from 1 to get the percentage of 20%.
*****Flop to River % = 1 - [ ((47 - Outs) / 47) * ((46 - Outs) / 46) ]
That means to make your call profitable you'll need to get better then 1/5, 4:1 return on your money for the WHOLE hand, not just that specific card (turn or river). That's where implied odds come in. So that means that if the total cost till the river for you was $70: $20 preflop, $10 flop, $20 turn, $20 river you'll have to make back something like $280.
If you figure in that you won't be good a lot of the time even when you do hit, it doesn't make it a good play to go till the river. It would be ok to call once on the flop to see if you can hit on the turn card but you need to be careful to not give too much back if the person does still have you beat with a better hand.
So the bottom line is draw to a winning hand and don't be a sucker and try to draw on hands in small pots. Also remember that if you have a hand like the above and he has a hand like AK then you not only have a weaker hand but a weaker draw. You have the same odds to catch your T as he does his A. That makes your play even worse if you chase it down.
Let's do one more example so you have a good understanding of odds and implied odds.
You hold 89s in a $3/6 game on the dealer button. One person raises and 5 people call including you. That means there is ~$36 in the pot already.
The flop comes back: Js 7h 4h.
You have a gutshot to the nuts. Is it worth calling? The first person bets and two other people call before you. That means there is already $36 + $9 = $45 in the pot. A gutshot straight has 4 outs (all the Ts) out of 47 cards for the turn and then 4/46 for the river. To hit it on the turn you'll have a 1/11 chance. To call $3 for the pot being $45 you'll definitely have the odds since you'll also make more on later betting rounds if you hit.
The turn brings: Js 7h 4h 6s
Now you have a really nice draw since any T or 5 gives you the nuts (8 outs) and any spade gives you the flush (9 outs). Two of the spades double for straight cards. That means for you to improve you have 15/46 which is about a 33% chance of hitting. If the person bets and even raises in front of you, you'll still have the odds to call it since even $12 compared to the $60 pot gives you awesome odds!
Learning to calculate pot odds and implied odds is very important. It doesn't have to be exact but just a general idea if it is worth it or not is good enough. You'll rarely be in situations where it is just barely off the odds. Those don't cost much. What costs a lot is if you rountinely make the wrong decision when to draw. Also understand that what is currently in the pot isn't all that matters in calculating odds, what matters is the amount of money that is in the pot now plus what will be made if you hit your hand...future bets. This is what implied odds is all about.
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