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Determining your outs and calculating pot odds.
Hey all! First time poster here. I've been playing on Sky Poker a couple of months, mainly small cash games and a few DYM tournaments here and there which I haven't done too bad in.
Apologies if there is already a thread similar to this. I did do a quick search for 'pot odds' and looked through a couple of the pages of results but didn't find exactly what I was looking for, so thought I'd ask for myself.
Anyway, to my point: what's the general principle when it comes to finding how many 'outs' you have and then working out the 'pot odds'? These last couple of days I've been reading up about it and I think I have the general idea, but I thought I'd ask on here anyway seeing as though I've started using Sky Poker. The few sites that I've looked on generally said the same thing, although they were slightly different, but I understood in general. For example: when working out how many 'outs' you have, one site said that you count how many cards there are that can make your hand stronger. You then times this number by two and then add another two. Another site I had looked on said pretty much the same thing, but instead of adding two after you had multiplied your 'outs' by two it said that you just added one. So if I was on the 'flush draw' after the flop then I would have nine outs? Which divided by two is 18% and then plus one, or two as the sites claimed then that would be 19%/20%.
I think I understand pot odds too, but I will give a brief explanation as to how I think they're worked out and if I'm wrong then hopefully somebody can set me straight. On the sites I had looked on it said that you take away the number of cards there are in the middle, plus your two cards in your hand. So for example: three cards in the flop and the two in my hand would mean there's 47 cards left. You then work out the number of 'outs' that you have and subtract them from 47? So if say I had three outs, I would subtract this from 47 which would give me 44:3. Do I then need to shorten it down to get the odds?
Since I've read about the pot odds and all that last night, I'm a little bit in profit after playing today. So hopefully I'm starting to improve my game a bit more now.
Sorry about the long thread, but thought I'd ask for some advice from people on here. I think I understand the general principle of 'outs' and 'pot odds', but if I'm way off the mark could somebody please correct me? lol.
Thanks all!
Steve.
Comments
This should give you the basics of pot odds.
A quick working rule of thumb for outs is that you multiply your outs by two to give your % chance of making your hand on the next community card, or by 4 to give % chance of making your hand on either turn or river.
Just be careful using this, odds of making your hand may not be same as odds of winning pot. EG you have two overcards on flop you have 6 outs x 4 approx 24% chance of making top pair on turn or river - doesnt mean it will be winning hand or flush draw on a paired board you can make your flush and lose to full house.
If you get a chance David Sklansky's "The Theory Of Poker" book gives the clearest explanation i've come across of these and many other useful concepts.
Good luck at the tables, sounds like you'll do alright if your asking these questions.
All the best Dj and if you need any help you will find that the players here are very good at posting advice.