Texas Holdem Poker Hand
Odds
Drawing Hand
Odds
When playing Online Texas Holdem Poker at places like FullTiltPoker.com and PokerStars.com...you must always be aware of how many outs you have, or
simply what cards can be dealt to give you the winning hand.
There are times in Texas Holdem when you know you are behind
in the hand but it makes sense to call based on hand odds.
Often there might be 4 or 5 players
in a hand where the pot has been raised and called around. You're
holding 9 10 and call two bets before the flop where you may have the 3rd
or 4th best hand at that point. The flop comes 7 8 Q.
What do you do at this point?First, you have to figure out your
hand odds, or how many outs you have. Let's do the math here.
In this case you have lots of outs. You have both a straight
and a flush draw.
The straight draw gives you 8 outs
(all the 6's and all the J's) and the fush draw gives you 9
outs (all the hearts in the deck) but remember you can't count
the 6 and J twice, so you really have 15 outs at this point, that's a good
amount of outs. Now, you know you have 2 cards and there are
3 community cards on the table. That means there are 47 unseen
cards (52 - 2 - 3 = 47). You have 15 outs with 47 cards unseen
or a 54.1% chance of hitting your straight or flush.
Instead of explaining how we got
54.1%, I will provide a chart (at the bottom of this page) that
tells you the odds of making your hand, based on the number of
outs you have, after the flop has been dealt. I recommend committing
this chart to memory if you plan on becoming a serious Texas
Holdem poker player.
Both FullTilt and PokerStars.com have software at their sites that help you calculate your drawing hand odds on the spot!
Next, it's important to realize
that even though you have lots of outs, your probably still way
behind in the hand. All you have is 10 high, where there is a
good possibility somebody has made at least a pair of Queens,
an overpair, or is drawing to a higher flush. This is where,
in Texas Holdem, it gets a little complicated and where a good
amount of feel is needed.
From this point forward in the
hand there are many factors that influence how you should proceed:
your position to act in the hand, the size of any bet in relation
to the total amount of chips in the pot, the type of players
that are at your table, the amount of chips you have in relation
to everyone else, what stage of the event your in, just to name
a few.
Here in lies the beauty of Texas
Holdem, how to navigate through these tough decisions and survive
to fight another day. What makes the difference between a good
Holdem player and a great Holdem player is their knowledge of
hand odds, and the judgment they exercise in playing these types
of hands. But one thing is for sure, they all are aware of how
many outs they have to draw on and so should you.
Based on the below chart you can
figure out what the chances are of you making your hand no matter
what it is. For example, if you have a small pocket pair, your
chances of making a set (2 outs) on the turn or river, is 8.4%.
Hardly enough to stay in a raised pot after the flop, I would
think...
Both FullTilt and PokerStars have software at their sites that help you calculate your drawing hand odds on the spot!
Click the banner above to go to the only legal US poker room!
( See Full Size Chart under "Outs and Odds"
section under Texas Holdem
Essentials. )
Good
luck and we'll see you at the tables!
****Important Update: (for 2008)*****************************************
1 - Although FullTiltPoker.com and PokerStars.com are OPEN TO US PLAYERS, the banners on this site are here for our international player base. Feel free to take advantage of our customized player bonuses. Our site has a lot of unique content that we decided to leave undisturbed. We felt it was important for our audience that they have access to all the inside information on playing winning online Texas Holdem. Enjoy!
2- DuplicatePoker.com is a strange but interesting version of Texas Holdem that I have been trying out. At first, I wasn't too crazy about it but the more I played, the more it started to grow on me. It's Texas Holdem, with a splash of Chess strategy thrown in. As the banners on our site say, it's 100% legal to US players and they take credit cards! I tried it, unreal, took me 2 minutes to put money in from my AMEX card. DuplicatePoker.com gives you $3 just to come and try it out, no strings attached. Be patient, it takes about an hour of play to get the feel for things. After that, I started to enjoy it more and more...
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Click the banner above to go to the only legal US poker room!
To complete your knowledge of the math behind Texas Holdem Poker, read these sections: PreFlopOdds,Outsand Odds, Starting Hands and Drawing Hand Odds.
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