Beginners Tips

Playing pocket pairs
Pocket pairs are a real mystery to a lot of players. They’re often hard to value because, when you’re dealt them, you know there’s a good chance you have the best hand on the board right then – but they’re unlikely to improve against the competition as the hand progresses. Pocket pairs are stronger in no-limit games than in limit games because they tend to start strong and finish weak so they can often be outdrawn depending on your position and what’s gone on before it’s your turn.

Low pockets (2-2, to 6-6)
Sometimes worth a shot in normal play but they have little chance of winning a showdown unless they improve. Keeping in mind that the odds of flopping a set (three of a kind) with a pocket pair is about 8-1 calling your low pockets isn’t a high percentage play unless there are already four or more callers on the hand.

Low pairs will also get you into trouble if you have a hard time putting them down when they haven’t hit after the flop. If there are over-cards on the board and you haven’t flopped your set the only rationale for calling a bet after the flop would be that you’re sure your opponent is bluffing (and even then you can safely assume he’s got a card higher than a six that he could still hit on the turn or river).

Medium pockets (7-7 to 10-10)
More possibilities here. As the value of your pockets go up the chances of an over-card showing up on the flop go down. Medium pockets also give you a good opportunity to take advantage of the gap, if you’re feeling aggressive. Raising pre-flop with 9-9 for example will likely eliminate all callers except those holding ace-big or higher pockets, so you’ll be fairly confident that a raggy flop like 3d -5h- 8c won’t have hit anyone. See over-cards, however, and you have to have the discipline to put these cards down in the face of betting.

Bluffing
If you want to bluff pre-flop you can do worse than with low and medium pairs – at least you know you’ve got a made hand. If you get a caller with high cards but no pair, chances are he won’t hit on the flop, so a lot of players fire twice to make this bluff work. Of course this also makes it twice as expensive if your bluff gets called.

Premium pockets (J-J to A-A)
Before the flop.

In all normal game situations you’ll want to make a pre-flop raise with these cards. The purpose of this raise is to eliminate limpers who might hit their hands on the flop. Ideally, you want just one caller. While a bunch of callers may seem preferable – after all, you get all those bets with your monster hand – more than one caller, even on A-A, means that you have less than a 50- per- cent chance of winning the pot if it goes down to the river.

After the flop.
One major frustration when playing against loose players is that they’ll often call any bet with a draw, regardless of the odds they’re getting. It’s annoying when they hit their draws but if you consistently make the call uneconomical then, over time, you’ll be in profit playing your pockets against the draw in this way.

Know when to fold'em
It’s always a great feeling when a premium pair snuggles up to you – but try not to fall in love. Pocket K’s are huge before the flop, but very weak with an A on the board and strong betting coming at you. Unless you’re quite sure it’s a bluff this is always a folding situation.

Even A-A can go sour, though putting down the bullets will always be difficult. A flop like 9c-10c-Jc, when neither of your aces is a club, can make your heart skip a beat. If you’re betting first be sure to continue to make it uneconomical to draw – but beware that you may already be beaten. Far better to spend some chips on the flop to find out if your opponent has a made hand than to waste them calling him later, after he’s made it on the turn. A pot- sized bet will make any hand that’s only one card away from the flush or straight uneconomical to call (and the implication is that you’ll be betting even bigger after the turn).

Position
Understanding position to improve your game

Your position on the table refers to where you’re sitting relative to the dealer and it determines the order you’ll be acting in. A lot of beginners make the mistake of ignoring position, but it’s a big deal. Remember, poker is all about information and even the smallest scraps make the difference between winning and losing.

Betting from position
The earliest position in hold'em is directly to the left of the big blind. The player sat here is 'under the gun' and, as the name suggests, it's not a comfortable place to be.

The best position to be on a poker table is ‘on the button’ – with the dealer button in front of you and the big and small blinds to your left. You’re the last to act and can make decisions on your hand based on what you see other players doing.

Poker, as I’m sure you’ve heard it said already, is a game of limited information. In this hand Kate, who’s sat on the button, is going to have a lot of information before she plays her K-J off suit. If everyone just folded or called the big blind before her, she’d probably call the blind. But, looking at the other hands at the table, that’s not too likely, is it? Erikka, with her A-10, might raise. Mark almost certainly will with pocket Q’s and Klaus is bound to at least match Mark or even re-raise.

By the time the action gets to Kate she’ll know there’s a lot of strength around the table and she’d be wise to fold her K-J off suit and wait for better cards on the next deal. But look who else has K-J off – John. He’s in the worst position, under the gun. If he knew some big raises where coming he’d be unlikely to take a chance with such a marginal hand. Trouble is, he’s got no idea what other players are going to do. He’s got no information.

John might well be tempted to call his K-J and, if he does, it’s bound to be a waste of his chips as he’ll be forced to fold before the flop in the face of strong raises from three other players on the table.

So that’s why hands in early position have a lower value. There’s no way of knowing how much it’s going to cost to see a flop when it’s your turn to call – so calling marginal hands, like K-J off from bad position, is like taking a double gamble. First, you’re betting that you’re going to hit; second, that no one else will re-raise before the flop. This cycle repeats itself through the flop, turn and river.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play cards from bad positions – you just need to be more selective. As a rough guide, in normal play, consider playing the following hands from different positions on the board:

Early Position

Middle Position

Late Position

Remember, suited hands (where both your cards are of the same suit) are slightly more valuable because there is a better chance you will make a flush with them.

Remember that two cards of the same suit give you the added bonus of a shot at the flush. Suited connectors, like Ah-Kh, give you both flush and straight possibilities, so they’re worth a little more. These are, by no means, the only cards you should ever play. Any two cards can win a hand (though some are a lot more likely to than others) and playing against a particular type of player, or in an unusual situation, may require you to be either looser or tighter with your play.

Deciding to play - Flops

Let’s look at a situation that gives you more information about your cards than any other – the flop.

Playing after the flop

You’ve got the nuts

The nuts are the best possible cards at that stage of a hand and boy, do they feel good!

Betting on a hand like this is an art. The first thing you need to do is determine whether your hand can realistically be beaten on the turn and river. Remember the old saying, ‘You only lose big on the good hands’. Trips, even A-A-A, should never be considered a sure thing as they’re vulnerable to a full house. But even if you have the A high straight, you need to ask yourself if there is a flush draw on as well. If you have the flush, is there a full house (after the turn) or even straight flush on the go?

If the answer is yes and there’s a reasonable chance you could be beaten, then the best course of action is to make a sizeable bet. Something to knock off drawing hands but hopefully induce lower-made hands, like high pairs and two pairs, to call. The A high flush can be vulnerable to the full house if the board pairs on the turn and the full house if it’s made of low cards, or there are three of a kind on the board.

If the answer is no, you can’t be beaten – or it’s highly unlikely – your options are wide open. This is certainly the case for the straight flushes and – if you’re really lucky – the royal flush. Trips and even full houses can be beaten, so judge the game situation for yourself to access what level of risk you’re willing to take to earn the maximum from these hands. If you’ve read the table and know you’ve got a highly aggressive player in with you then you can try to tease him out with a bet that looks weak. This is also one case where slow-playing is actually a good option. Simply checking or placing a low bet may let someone make an inferior hand on the turn or induce a big bluff, either of which should pay off handsomely.

You’ve hit big

By ‘big’ we mean more than high pair. We’re talking two pair, trips, full houses, straights and flushes. Get a hand like this and your heart is bound to flutter. All the more reason to take a deep breath, relax and try to get a handle on what is really going on. In normal play, your main concern is going to be how to go about extracting the most amount of chips on your big hand – but remember, just because you’ve hit big doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t think about defence.

The first thing you need to do is take a look at what potential hands could develop and beat you – or already be beating you. Let’s look at a hand, shall we...

You’re holding...

and the flop comes...

Two things are obvious – one, you’ve got a great hand. Two, someone could already be beating you with a straight or beat you on the turn or river with another heart on a flush draw.

We’ve deliberately thrown up a particularly tricky hand here to illustrate a point. Unless you’ve got ‘the nuts’ (the highest possible hand that could be made from the cards showing on the table) you cannot take it for granted that you’re winning. Having a great hand up against an even better one is one of the worst places to be in poker and it can be almost impossible to avoid losing a lot of chips in these situations. But you can take steps to avoid losing them cheaply.

Assuming no other large bets are made before it’s your turn, there are, broadly speaking, three courses of action you can take when you hit a hand like this:

Make a huge bet?

Betting the maximum at this point in a limit game makes sense because you want to squeeze the most chips you can from your hand. Get a caller and you’ll know to be on guard for made straights/straight draws and flush draws. It’s in a no-limit game that things get tougher.

Oversized bets (over-bets) are the trademark of the beginner poker player – especially in no-limit games. With all the pressure and uncertainty facing the newbie the temptation to show supreme confidence and ‘go for the big one’ can get the better of you. But looking carefully at the example above, I think you’ll agree that you’d be wise to take your time before making a big move.

A massive bet – all-in or a multiple of the pot in a tourney or four to five times the big blind in a low stakes cash game – at this point is likely to produce one of two results: 1) everyone folds and you take a small pot in exchange for risking all your chips; 2) you get a caller with a made hand that’s better than yours and you feel like an idiot!

Slow-play?

Lots of players like to slow-play and, in the right circumstances, it can pay off in a big way. Slow-playing is deliberately disguising a very strong hand by not betting or betting small in the hope that another player will make a weaker hand and call your bigger bets on the turn and/or river. This a dangerous practice – especially when you don’t have the nuts and, in the example above, it’s downright suicidal. Giving other players the chance to draw free cards on a straight or flush draw when you have a made set is a recipe for disaster. Inevitably your opponent will make their hand, put in a big bet and you’ll feel compelled to call because you’ve got such a good hand – and make his day.

Make a considered bet?

Yes, you’ve got a big hand, but there is the danger that you’re already beaten by a straight or may be beaten by a flush. So, assuming that no other big bets have come before you, how much should you bet? We wish we could give you a set amount, but if poker was like that then it would be a much easier game to play. As usual the best answers will come when you know exactly what the question is – and every time you put chips into play it’s this: what do you want to achieve with your bet? In the case above, you’ve already answered half that question by examining the board carefully and evaluating your hand properly against potential competition. Your conclusion: you want the straight and flush draws out of the hand without giving too many chips away to someone who may already be beating you.

A good rule of thumb here – though by no means the only proper way to play – is to place a bet that would make it unprofitable for anyone on a draw to call you. A good understanding of pot odds is useful in these situations and is covered in Pot odds, but for now let’s keep it simple and say you put in a bet that is about the size of the pot. That’s a big enough bet to make calling you with a straight or flush draw a bad bet – the odds of their draw being made are lower than the return on their investment. Callers who chase flush and straight draws against pot odds will, over the long haul, put money in your pocket – if you know how to play pot odds.

So, you’ve put your bet in, the rest of the table all fold at this point – great, you’ve won a pot on a dangerous hand!

Or… a call or a raise on your bet in this case tells you that the player has either a made hand or is drawing, despite the fact that it’s unprofitable. Of course, he could also be bluffing. Figuring out which takes observation and a little guesswork. What you do know is that there are only two more cards to come and your hand is unlikely to improve (unless the board pairs, giving you the full house). If another heart comes, or a card that could help a straight, you’ll be in even more danger – so playing it out will be risky. Your moves on the turn and river are going to be about your assessment of the situation and the players you’re up against, but you’d be well advised to be prepared to fold the hand in the face of a re-raise or heavy betting after the turn.

You’re holding an over-pair

Let’s say you’re holding a big pair (like pocket 10’s or bigger) and you’ve made a standard raise pre-flop to chase out the garbage.

Obviously you’d love to make trips, but that’s unlikely and a good second best is that the board comes down with no over-cards (cards higher than your pair – so in the case of pocket 10’s that’s J, Q, K and A). In this ‘second best’, chances are you’re winning at this point (your biggest danger is that a smaller pocket pair has his trips). Now you want to mop up with a strong bet (but not so strong that you could be trapped by someone with a better hand) – avoiding the possibility of an over-card appearing on the turn or river to hurt your position. In normal play this is no time to slow-play.

You’re holding top pair

If you flop top pair, then it’s time to be happy – it’s a good place to be.

The key to playing top pair, like any other hand, is to assess any possible dangers and act accordingly. Could someone be drawing to the flush? Could someone be hanging in with ace big hoping to hit? Is it a big pair? How strong is your kicker? A bet that’s about the size of the pot should either win it for you or, if there’s a caller, inform you that there’s someone else out there with strength.

You have two over-cards

Let’s say you limped into a pot with a hand like...

and the flop has come down...

You’ve missed the flop, but the hand isn’t necessarily dead.

The key to playing over-cards on the flop is being able to see another card either cheaply or for free. Under normal circumstance you don’t want to be putting any bets in but a small bet from a loose player might well be worth calling. Be wary though – in an un-raised pot and a raggy flop, loose players and those playing the blinds can often hook up unpromising opening hands. In the example above the big blind in particular could be playing 8-2 or something else equally unpredictable.

You’re holding middle pair

Hitting middle pair is like being in limbo. You’ve hit on the flop, so fortune has smiled on you – but on the other hand, you’re acutely aware that you could well be beaten.

If someone bets big in front of you, then it probably indicates top pair – act accordingly and throw the hand away. If no one’s acted before you, a modest bet might be in order. This will give you information about the quality of your hand without risking a lot of chips, and may just take the pot there and then. High pair or better will probably raise, and tells you that you’re probably beat. If someone calls, it may indicate a flush or straight draw (though look out for slow-play), or top pair with a poor kicker.

You’re holding bottom pair

This is tricky – you’ve hit on the flop but it isn’t all that.

As a rule, in normal play, the best thing that can happen to you here is to see the turn for free and hope for trips or two pair to make this into a hand that’s actually worth investing in. A bet, effectively a bluff, with this hand is much better than a call – the bluff at least creates the illusion of strength. In other words, play these and you’re delving into a murky world.

Many top players say that they play bottom pairs on feel – relying on their instincts to tell them to play it in certain situations. If you’re not keen to risk your money on a hunch, or are worried that you could be outplayed, fold and save your money for a more promising situation.

You’re on a draw

Flopping an open-ended straight or four parts of a flush draw always produces a tingle.

If you flop a big draw, there are two schools of thought on how to play it. Both are valid, so choose the method which best suits your style and the temperament of the table you’re playing on.

The first option you have is to check the draw hoping to get a free card to make your hand. Then, if you hit, you can bet and raise with confidence. This tends to suit more passive or tight styles of play.

Option two is to be aggressive and bet. This is the style that more and more players are using today, especially on flush draws. The theory is that you may just win the hand there and then – if not then you’ve still built a higher pot if you hit. Of course the downside of this strategy is that if you don’t make your hand you’ve likely lost your bet.

Ultra-aggressive no-limit players often play draws like they were made hands, making huge bets or moving all-in. This all action approach does sometimes works but, like all super-aggressive play, it can also blow up in your face.

It’s very common for beginners to overvalue draws – especially flush draws – and get burned by calling big bets with them. For example, few seem to understand that the odds of completing a flush with two of a kind in your hand and two more on the board are only about one in three. That’s after you’ve paid to see the turn AND the river.(if you don’t believe us, count out the remaining cards of that suit yourself). Understanding both pot odds and the chances of straights and flushes being made in different circumstances will give you a big edge when playing these hands.

Ace-big that doesn’t hit

OK, so you’ve been dealt a tasty little number like...

You’ve made an aggressive pre-flop raise of three times the big blind, you’ve got a caller and the flop comes...

That’s not what you asked for! This is a situation that you should get used to when playing ace big – it’s going to happen more often than not (actually, pre-flop, the odds are about 50/50 that you’ll hit either of them before the river).

What to do next will depend a lot on the game situation and attitude of the table. In normal play, your pre-flop raise probably got rid of all but one or two other players – that’s good because the fewer players in the game, the less likely it is that anyone else hit. If you’re head-to-head it’s just as likely that your opponent missed as you did.

Calling bets in this situation is tricky and generally unadvisable – though you certainly may want to call a small bet from a loose player. If no one bets before you, you’d certainly be justified in checking as well and hoping for better on the turn, or...

Thing is that the flop illustrated above probably hasn’t helped your opponent out either. Unless he’s playing a pocket pair, you may well be winning. So you would be equally justified in making another bet – at least matching your original pre-flop raise. Think about this bet as both making a statement and asking a question: “I’m strong as ever, has anything changed for you?”. If the answer comes in the form of a mountain of chips being pushed into the middle of the table, you’d be wise to beat a hasty retreat. If it’s called, then hope for the best on the turn and be ready to bail if your hand doesn’t improve.

Know when to fold ’em

Ace-big, especially A-K can be very hard cards to put down, even if you haven’t hit. Remember, if you haven’t matched either card all you’re holding is A high – any lousy pair beats you. It’s correct to play these cards aggressively but try to avoid over-committing and understand that, as the flop, turn, and river come and you haven’t hit, the value of A-big plummets.

Managing tilt

Does anyone even play pinball anymore? Just in case you aren’t familiar with the concept, tilt refers to a feature on every pinball machine that causes it to shut down (and you to lose) if the game’s been rattled too much.

Think of your brain as a pinball machine and you’ll understand tilt in poker.

What just happened?

We’ve all been there. You’re in tight, feeling some pressure. You’ve got a rock-solid hand and you’re doing all the right things – it’s your time. Then, out of the blue, someone takes you down in a very big way with the most incredibly bad beat on the river ever, ever, ever. A couple of hands later, the same thing happens again!

Perfectly formed square indentations begin to appear on your forehead as you bang it repeatedly onto your keyboard. You cry out for justice to an uncaring universe. Confidence, strategy and patience become distant concepts, obscured by a red mist that has descended before your eyes. You stop slapping your head on the keyboard long enough to see you’ve been dealt J-4 off suit. “ Damn the torpedoes, I’m taking this pot!” you scowl, shoving a super-size raise into the middle DARING ANYONE to try to take more chips off you …

And they call your bet.

And they win.

And now you’ve taken a bad situation and made it much, much worse.

Tilt may have been a successful strategy back in the Wild West, when prudent gamblers would have been wise to fold a strong hand against an angry cowboy with a gun. But in the modern game, tilt is a consistent loser. Good players are finely attuned to its signs and won’t hesitate in taking chips that are just being thrown away.

Why we tilt

Tilt is a physical reaction to an abstract problem and it's roots lie in our genetics. Through eons of evolution nature has programmed us to respond to being attacked by either hitting back or running away. This isn’t a voluntary or thought-out reaction. Glands secrete adrenalin and other neurotransmitters into your bloodstream that can take over your thought process – if you let them – and cause your behavior to become automatic. Great if you’re unexpectedly attacked by a mastodon while hanging out in your cave, not so good if you’re trying to reverse a big loss on a poker table.

That’s poker!

Counteracting tilt is mostly about experience – the more you play, the more you’ll recognize that bad beats and tough breaks are just part of the game. Over time these even out. If you keep an honest count, you’ll find that you win a lot of hands you should have lost, too.

If you’ve got less experience, and don’t feel like paying for it in poker chips, you can get a leg up by learning to spot the signs that tilt may be about to visit you and developing some strategies to make it feel unwelcome.

Take a break. Good poker is all about the application of pressure. Put enough pressure on a player and the old evolutionary processes will start pushing them towards tilt. If you’re feeling unusually high, prolonged periods of pressure in a cash game and losing, you’re half way to tilt already. Your best bet in this situation is to cut your losses and look for greener pastures. But, if you hang in there AND take a bad beat, it’s definitely time to get off that table before your brain goes Cro-Magnon. Take a little walk, hit the weights, or just do whatever you do to clear your head and chill out. With a clear mind you should be able to think rationally about why you were struggling so much and how to fix it. In tournament play this is a bit tougher, but you can still take a short breather. Just sit out a few hands, physically leave your PC and take a little stroll around the house.

That’s Poker! If you’ve just suffered a brutally bad beat and some smartass bleats out, ‘ That’s poker!’ , you’ll probably want to punch him in the face – really hard. It’s OK to have those feelings, but less acceptable to act on them. Remember, just because you badly want to thump someone doesn’t mean that what they’re saying isn’t valid. One of the best things you can do if you’re feeling your tilt-o-meter winding up is to remind yourself of all the pots you’ve taken – and will take again – with bad beats of your own. Berating an opponent after a bad beat is a sure sign you’re on tilt and the sharks will smell your blood in the water. Instead, gestures that say ‘ nice hand’ or ‘ that’s poker!’ let HIM know that YOU know he sucked-out and it’s not going to affect your game.

Use it. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Feel tilt coming on? Ask yourself if it’s because you sleepwalked into betting big at a stronger hand or got trapped. Whatever the reason, smart players recognize frustration as a sign that they might be doing something wrong. If you can take a step back and channel your emotion into sharpening your attack, you’re in an infinitely stronger position than the tilter. Lose on a tough beat or two and you’ll know other players will be watching for signs that you’re about to go wobbly. If you can keep your wits about you then this is your opportunity to tighten up and patiently wait your turn to strike back with solid hands against players who falsely assume that you’re weak. If you’re lucky enough to draw a monster soon after a bad beat then you’re in the perfect position to clean up by feigning signs of tilt with big, aggressive bets.

Odds and outs

Every time you sit down at a poker table, your prospects of winning are determined by a combination of chance and your knowledge and skill. By improving your knowledge and skill you can reduce your reliance on chance – and dramatically increase your winnings.

Go figure…

Every time a player is dealt their hole cards, they receive one of 1,326 possible starting hands.
If they don’t fold, they’ll see one of the 19,600 different possible flops.
After the flop, there are 1,081 possible two-card combinations on the turn and river.
By the showdown, the winning hand will be one of the 2,598,960 possible five- card hands.

Fancy your chances?

If you’ve ever wondered why you’ve never hit a Royal Flush, here’s why. Of the 2,598,960 possible hands you could get in a game of poker, only four are Royal Flushes (spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds). Do the math and that means that to realistically expect to hit a royal you’d have to play for eight hours a day, seven days a week for seven years. If you get one, relish the moment.

The odds of hitting hands in Texas hold ’em with all five cards on the board

Name	Example	Possible Hands	Odds
Royal Flush	Ad – Kd – Qd – Jd – 10d	4	649,739-1
Straight Flush	8s – 7s – 6s – 5s – 4s	36	64,973-1
Four of a kind	As – Ad – Ac – Ah – 9s	624	3,913-1
Full House	As – Ad – Ac – 9h – 9s	3,744	589-1
Flush	Ah – Jh – 8h – 6h – 2h	5,108	272-1
Straight	8d – 7s – 6c – 5h – 4s	10,200	131-1
Three of a kind	As – Ad – Ac – 4h – 9s	54,912	34-1
Two pair	As – Ad – 4c – 4h – 9s	123,552	12-1
Pair	As – Ad – 6c – 4h – 9s	1,098,240	Evens
No pair	As – 8d – 6c – 4h – 9s	1,302,540

The deal

The odds of hole cards being dealt

No pair and off suit	0.4 – 1 (you’ll get this sort of hand just over 70% of the time).
Suited	3.25 – 1
A pocket pair	16 – 1
Ace-King (both suited & non-suited)	82 – 1
A specific pocket pair (like: A-A, K-K, 2-2)	220 – 1

After the deal

With hole cards that are not a pair but are off suit, the odds of flopping the following are…

Pair	2.5 – 1
Two pairs	49 – 1
Three of a kind	73 – 1
Full House	1,087 – 1
Four of a kind	9,799 – 1

A player’s chances of flopping at least one of the above is 2.1 – 1. So in other words, two thirds of the time your hand will not improve!

Pocket pairs

Three of a kind	8.3 – 1
Full House	136 – 1
Four of a kind	407 – 1

Probably the most revealing stat above, in terms of calculating pot odds, are the odds of flopping at least three of a kind or better: 7.5 –1.

Some other useful odds to remember

A player with four cards of the same suit after the flop is 1.85:1 to make a flush by the river.
A player with an open ended straight draw is 2.2:1 to make at least a straight by the river.
A player holding an open-ended straight flush draw after the flop is .67:1 to make at least a straight by the river. That is, the player is more likely to improve the hand than not improve it.
A player drawing to an inside straight is around 11:1 to make it on the next card.

Calculating outs

Cards left in the deck that can make your hand are called outs. So, the total number of cards left unseen that could make your hand are your total number of outs.

Let’s say you’re holding a drawing hand after the flop. You already know one important thing, you’re behind anyone who has hit a pair. Calculate your outs and you’ll know another, even more important, thing – your chances of beating that pair. Do this by dividing the number of outs that haven’t been seen with the number of cards that haven’t been seen – those are your chances of filling in your hand.

Let’s get down to cases. You’re holding Js, 10s against an opponent who’s holding Ac, 5d. The flop comes As, 8c, 9s. Even if your opponent has made top pair, you can win with any spade, any queen or any seven, giving you a total of 15 outs (the 7 remaining spades, four remaining queens and four remaining sevens). Even if you are behind after the flop you’re actually favored to win the hand IF all five cards come out on the board.

Here’s a useful tool. Compare the odds to your number of outs and you’ll have a handy guide for calculating pot odds.

Total # of outs	Two cards to come	On the turn	On the river
20	0.48 – 1 (68%)	1.3 – 1 (43%)	1.3 – 1 (43%)
19	0.54 – 1 (65%)	1.5 – 1 (40%)	1.4 – 1 (42%)
18	0.6 – 1 (63%)	1.6 – 1 (38%)	1.6 – 1 (38%)
17	0.67 – 1 (60%)	1.8 – 1 (36%)	1.7 – 1 (37%)
16	0.75 – 1 (57%)	1.9 – 1 (34%)	1.9 – 1 (34%)
15	0.85 – 1 (54%)	2.1 – 1 (32%)	2.1 – 1 (32%)
14	0.95 – 1 (51%)	2.4 – 1 (29%)	2.3 – 1 (30%)
13	1.1 – 1 (48%)	2.6 – 1 (28%)	2.5 – 1 (29%)
12	1.2 – 1 (45%)	2.9 – 1 (26%)	2.8 – 1 (26%)
11	1.4 – 1 (42%)	3.3 – 1 (23%)	3.2 – 1 (24%)
10	1.6 – 1 (38%)	3.7 – 1 (21%)	3.6 – 1 (22%)
9	1.9 – 1 (34%)	4.2 – 1 (19%)	4.1 – 1 (20%)
8	2.2 – 1 (31%)	4.9 – 1 (17%)	4.8 – 1 (17%)
7	2.6 – 1 (28%)	5.7 – 1 (15%)	5.7 – 1 (15%)
6	3.1 – 1 (24%)	6.8 – 1 (13%)	6.7 – 1 (13%)
5	3.9 – 1 (20%)	8.4 – 1 (11%)	8.2 – 1 (11%)
4	5.1 – 1 (16%)	11 – 1 (8%)	11 – 1 (8%)
3	7 – 1 (13%)	15 – 1 (6%)	14 – 1 (7%)
2	10.9 – 1 (8%)	23 – 1 (4%)	22 – 1 (4%)
1	22.4 – 1 (4%)	46 – 1 (2%)	45 – 1 (2%)

* Note: all odds provided are odds against you making your hand. Anything where the first digit is below zero means that you are the favorite to win, anything above 1 – 1 means that you are an underdog.

Name

Example

Possible Hands

Odds