• CountingOuts

Counting outs is a very important concept in poker. Many players don't do it all. Some don't think it's important, others don't know how to do it, and still others aren't very good at it. However, if you plan on becoming a winning player, it is critical that you learn to count outs correctly and quickly. This requires both time and practice, so don't expect to grasp the concept overnight.

First of all, what is considered to be an out? An out is simply an unseen card that will give you the best hand (otherwise known as TheNuts) if it comes on any of the following streets.

For example, if you hold:

The board is:

On this particular hand, any five or ten gives you TheNuts. There are no other draws possible that could beat your hand. How many outs does this give you? Well, there are 4 unseen sevens and 4 unseen 10s for a total of 8 outs. It's unlikely that a nine or an eight coming on the river will give you the best hand because an ace or pocket pair could already be out there. In fact, with the current board, a river eight or nine may well give someone else a straight!

Most situations are as not as clear as this example when counting your outs. Oftentimes, a card that improves your hand may not only leave you holding the second best hand, but at the same time also improve someone else's hand. This is when you need to start adjusting the value of your outs; this is called DiscountingOuts.

Here's an example:

You have

and the board is

In this scenario, what cards improve your hand? Only an ace or a king will improve your hand. That gives you 6 outs (3 aces and 3 kings). However is this the best hand? Maybe, but it's not TheNuts. Any person holding a jack and ten has had a straight since the flop, and that certainly crushes your pair. And anyone with two clubs is drawing to a probable eight outs (there are 13 clubs in a deck, they have two, and we see three of them, leaving five for the river). Therefore saying that we six outs here is dead wrong. Without showing the math, it is generally safe to assume that a pair of overcards are worth about 1.5 outs for each overcard. Why? Because often top pair is not the best hand. Spiking an ace or king on the river might win you the pot, but depending on the situation, your hand is often drawing dead. Especially in this situation, assigning 1.5 outs to an ace may be slightly generous, because if the Ace of Clubs comes, it may complete a flush draw for someone else. It is possible we are drawing dead and at best we can expect something under 3 outs.

General Rules for Counting Outs

These are only meant as guidelines and these numbers do not take DiscountingOuts into account.

Strong Draws

Flush draw: nine
Two-way straight draw: eight
One-way straight draw (gutshot): four
Trips drawing for full house on river: nine
Two-pair drawing for full house: four

Weak draws:

Drawing with a crappy pair hoping for two pair: three
Pair of overcards: three
Backdoor flush: 1.5 or two
Backdoor straight, no gaps: 1.5

Okay, Now What?

Now that we know what how to count outs, what do we do with it? This is when PotOdds, ImpliedOdds, and ReverseImpliedOdds comes into play.

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CategoryHoldem