Tag Archives: outs
Texas hold em calculator (Page 1 of 2)
Building your own texas hold em calculator on your computer is very easy, all you need to know are the math equations have a copy of Microsoft Excel. If you want to go high tech, you can always look for programs that will allow you to put your Excel spreadsheets online, turning your desktop calculator into an online calculator. Ok, so the first step to building your calculator is knowing what math equations you will need to produce the right results.
The first equations will be for the number of outs you have remaining to win the hand. If you want to determine how many outs you have after seeing the flop for the turn the math equation is as follows: The number of outs you have divided by 47, which is the number of unknown cards remaining. There are 52 cards in the deck, you have 2 in your hand and 3 on the flop, thus 52 minus 5 equals 47. So lets say you are holding King Queen of spades and the flop came Jack of Spades, Ten of Spades, four of diamonds. If you pick up any ace or any nine you will have a straight, which gives you a total of eight outs for your straight. There are a total of 13 flush cards in the deck and you currently have 4 of them, leaving you with nine outs. However, being that there are 2 flush cards being accounted for if you hit a straight (the ace of spades and the nine of spades) you have to subtract those two cards from nine leaving you with seven more outs to hit a flush. So you have a total of 17 outs to win the hand by either straight or flush. Being that a king or queen may also give you the highest hand with a pair, you have 6 more additional outs, the king of diamonds, clubs, and hearts as well as the queen of those same three suits. So best case scenario you have 23 outs to win the hand. 23 / 47 will tell you your percent chance of making your hand. In this case its about 49%. If you want to avoid the decimal system multiply the number you came up with by 100.
For the river the equation will be exactly the same, only you would divide the number of outs by 46 instead of 47, because there is one less card left in the deck for the river. So your river equation would be of outs divided by 46 times 100 to avoid decimals.
If you want to know your chance of making your hand on either the turn or river the equation goes something like this: 1 minus ((47 minus the number of outs you have) divided by 47) times ((46 minus the number of outs you have) divided by 46) times 100. The reason you are using the number one at the beginning is because without it, you would have the percent chance you wont win, as opposed to the percent chance you will win.
If all these numbers are too messy and complicated you can always use the “on the fly” method to calculate. If you want to know your chance of winning on either the turn or river take the number of outs you have and multiply that number by 4. The more outs you have the more inaccurate this method becomes, but then again at its worse its only off by about 4%. For hitting your card on either the turn or river multiply the number of outs you have by 2.
Calculating Your Odds
Determining pot odds is a crucial part of any poker players game. Many players find it difficult to calculate the odds during the intense moments of battle, but calculating your odds comes down to once simple question; How much money will it cost to keep playing this hand and how much money am I likely to make if I catch the cards I need? Knowing the answers to these questions will save you from just giving away your chips at the poker table. A bit of basic math is required here, but if its your first time, I promise to be gentle.
Okay, to properly explain this we will need a set up hand. You (lets call you Johnny) have just been dealt 10 J and the flop is 2 8 9. The pot is currently 1000 (dollars or chips) and your opponent has just bet 300. With this basic information we must first figure out how many outs you have left. Outs are cards that can help you make a winning hand between whats already in your hand and the flop. You have 2 over cards (10 J), or cards higher than the flop, in your hand, and the deck has three more 10s and three more Jacks, beginning your total outs at 6.
With the flop you now have an open-ended straight (8 9 10 J), meaning that you need either a 7 or a Queen to make your straight. Since we know that there are four 7s and 4 Qs in the deck. That gives us an additional 8 outs for a total of 14 outs.
With a total of 14 outs, we can now calculate your odds by dividing them by the number of cards in the deck, 52. 52/14=3.3, giving you 3-to-1 odds on your hand. This is far less confusing than it sounds. All these numbers mean is that for every 3 times these five cards (10 J 2 8 9) are dealt, you should get one of your outs one time, but whether or not you win the hand depends on how you bet.
Now, lets discuss the bet. Your opponent bet 300 chips so you know have the second part of this equation in order to make a winning bet. You have to call your opponent because he only bet 30% of the pot which means that as long as you have at least 30% of the pot available to call, pot odds are in your favor. But, if your stack is less than 30% of the pot, you should fold and you live to die in another hand. So, to answer the above question; in this example it would cost you 300 chips to call and you could win a 1300 pot. In this instance pot odds are definitely in your favor.