60 Second Poker: Counting Outs

An out is a card that will improve your hand.

Example: you have Ac 5c.

Flop: 2h 3d Ks

Giving you an inside straight draw and an overcard. This means you have 7 outs. there are 4 fours left in the deck that give you a straight and 3 aces that give you top pair

You can’t count these as full outs though because sometimes you will catch a 4 and someone will have a 5-6(there are three 5’s and four 6’s left in the deck which means there are a total of twelve [3x4] combinations of 5-4] Someone else might also have a bigger ace so an ace might not be a winning card for you either.

Because of this fact, you have to discount your outs. Perhaps we will count the three aces as 1.5 and the straight outs as 3 meaning you have 4.5 outs.

Why does this matter? Well if you have a flush draw you have 9 outs to complete your flush. An open ended straight draw will give you 8 outs, but its more valuable because it is harder to see.

If you know how many outs you have you can easily calculate your odds of improving. You just use the rule of 4 and 2

On the Flop you multiply your outs by 4. In other words, if you have a flush draw you multiply your outs( 9)by 4 which gives you a 36% chance of winning. The true odds are 35.1%, but it’s close enough. On the turn the odds would be 18% so you figure you have about a 1-in-5 chance of winning. If the pot is laying you more than that you call. If it isn’t you fold.