ABC of Poker: Count Your Outs!

Contrary to the popular saying, in poker, you MUST count your chickens before they're hatched :) This will allow you to make informed decisions and help you put your money in the right pots! Outs are essential in calculating the probability of completing the winning hand. 

Outs are the unseen cards that can come up on the board to improve and give you the best hand.

Counting them is pretty straightforward - e.g. if you hold a pocket pair, A♦A♥ , there are two cards that can give you a set - A♠A♣, and with a flush draw, there are 9 more cards of the same suit, or 9 outs.

Here is a chart of the basic drawing hands and corresponding outs that you are advised to memorize so that you can move on to the next steps: calculating hand odds and most importantly, pot odds. Both will be covered in coming #RKHabc articles!

As shown in the last example above, you may also find yourself in a situation where two of your outs can complete either a straight or a flush. Be careful not to count those outs twice!

Note that the included charts concern a single card that can make your hand; unfortunately, all too often you need TWO  cards - these situations are known as 'backdoor draws' or 'runner runner' and will be covered in future posts!

In the hand below, featuring @Arto Loikkanen  and @Viktor "isildur1" Blom in an all-in during the Unibet Golden Cash Game, there is only one ace left to help Blom improve to a set. 

Watch the hand in Golden Cash Game Superstar Viktor Blom Out with Bad Beat on First Night

The cards on the board are 'community cards' for use by all the players at the table, and sometimes an out that can improve your hand can also give an opponent a better one. These are therefore called 'half outs', 'tainted outs' or 'bad outs'. For instance, K♥ or K♣ in the above situation would improve Viktor's hand from one to two pair, but would complete trips for Arto.

When you hold A♠K♦ on a  10♠3♠K♠ flop, there are nine spades that can complete your flush to give you an unbeatable hand on an unpaired board. (With a pair or three of a kind among the community cards, you need to take into account the possibility of a full house for your opponent.)

In the hand below from the same event, Blom made his flush on the turn and @Mikael Norinder had 4 outs K♣K♥A♣A♥ to outdraw him and complete a full house:

Watch the hand on RKH in Clash of the Vikings in Golden Cash Game and UNhappy Ending for Viktor Blom  

Rule of thumb:

 Not all outs are of equal value. Some will just improve your hand without guaranteeing the win and others will actually give your opponent the best hand.

Always remember to check for straight/flush/full house draw possibilities on the board and discount or reduce by half the value of 'tainted' outs that may benefit your opponent.

There's a lot of praying to the poker gods at the poker tables so at least make sure you know what to pray for!.. As in most things, practice makes perfect and you will soon be counting outs 'on auto mode'. Here's a great site to practice: http://howmanyouts.com

How Many Outs - A poker skill gameHow Many Outs is a poker skill game to improve your ability to quickly identify outs in a poker handhowmanyouts.com

For homework :)

How many outs for @Connor Drinan in this famous hand?

Coming up soon: Hidden Outs, Hand Odds, Pot Odds