Outs in Poker
Understanding what outs are, and how to use them to calculate your chances, can improve your Texas Hold’em strategy.
With time and focused study, learning to calculate odds by identifying outs can raise your level quickly. It can help you move from beginner to average poker player.
What are outs?
Outs are all unseen cards that can improve your hand when they are dealt on the board.
Example
There are 13 cards of each suit in the deck. If both your hole cards are hearts, and two more hearts appear on the flop, there are nine hearts left.
Those nine hearts are your outs. They are among the 47 cards you have not seen yet.
That gives you a chance of 9 out of 47 to hit a flush on the turn.
When counting outs, it helps to start with the outs that give you the nuts. The nuts means the best possible hand.
You do this by checking the flop for possible flushes and straights.
The royal flush
A royal flush is the highest hand you can make in Texas Hold’em. However, it usually has very few outs.
Suppose you have A♥ T♥. The board shows J♥ K♥ J♣. In that case, there is only one out for the royal flush: Q♥.
There are also eight other outs for a non-consecutive flush. In addition, you have three outs for an off-suit straight.
That gives you 12 outs in total. These outs would beat three of a kind if someone has one of the two remaining jacks.
Which outs help your opponents?
Of course, things can change very quickly. That is why you must also think about the best hand your opponents could have.
What if the K♣ appears on the turn? Anyone holding two clubs now looks at the same number of flush outs as you.
A straight or royal flush may also be possible.
Even worse, if your opponent has one of the two hidden jacks or kings, you must beat a full house.
In fact, one of your opponents may hit four of a kind if they have not already done so.
In this situation, there is only one out that beats more than a non-consecutive flush. That is the Q♥, somewhere among the 46 cards you have not seen.
You should then rely on your other beginner poker strategies. Think about your position, your opponents’ betting patterns, and your stack size.
These factors help you decide the best way to continue.
Remember a few simple rules
It helps to remember a few simple rules.
An open-ended straight draw has eight outs. This is a draw with four consecutive cards, such as 6, 7, 8, and 9.
You have four outs on each side of the possible straight.
A gutshot straight draw has four outs. This is a draw where one card is missing in the middle, such as 6, 7, 8, and 10.
If you flop three of a kind, you have seven outs. Six outs make a full house, and one out makes four of a kind.
Counting outs becomes easier as you practice more. You can train this with online Texas Hold’em practice games.
You can also sit at the kitchen table with a deck of cards. With some effort, every beginner can improve their poker strategy by understanding outs.