Quick Tip: Calculating Odds in Your Head

Calculate

Posted on Mar 20, 2009 by Gugel in Math and Statistics

Heres a neat little trick that even some intermediate players dont know. Lets say you want to calculate the percentage of the time youre going to win this hand:

Hero (SB) ($100.00)
Button ($100.00)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9♣, T♣
Button bets $3, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6) 8♣, Q♣, 2♦(2 players)

Sure you can plug the information into PokerStove, but thats pretty time consuming and you wont always have access to a computer when youre playing poker (AKA brick and mortar casinos). The good news is that there is an easy and pretty accurate way to predict your chances of winning in 3 easy steps.

Step 1:
Figure out how many outs you have. In this case, there are 9 clubs remaining in the deck and I can hit an additional 3 jacks to make a straight. Thats a total of 12 outs.

How To Calculate Poker Odds In Your Head Step By Step

Pot odds in poker simply means the “price” that it costs you to continue with your hand. For example, if you’re in a hand where the pot is $100 and your opponent bets $50, you’re getting 3 to 1 pot odds to call. The pot is $150 (the $100 that’s already there plus the $50 bet) and it costs $50 to continue. Divide the $150 by $50 to get 3. Poker odds calculate the chances of you holding a winning hand. The poker odds calculators on CardPlayer.com let you run any scenario that you see at the poker table, see your odds and outs,.

How To Calculate Poker Odds In Your Head As A

Step 2:
To predict your chances of improving your hand on the turn, multiply your outs by 2. So in this case, I have about a 24% chance of hitting a flush or straight on the turn.

Step 3:
To predict your chances of improving your hand on the turn and on the river, multiply your outs by 4. So in this case, if we get all in on the flop, Ill have a 48% chance of having the best hand by the river.

How To Calculate Poker Odds In Your Head Against

Easy, quick and accurate. Use it wisely.