The Odds in Texas Holdem Poker

In Holdem Poker we refer to the number of unseen cards that will make or improve your hand as the players number of “outs”. The more outs you have, the higher the percentage of winning the hand you’ll have. Here we have summarized in a chart what your odds (percentage) will be of making your hand depending on how many outs you have. This chart shows the odds after the flop and after the turn.

All though this chart is a great reference, it may be difficult to memorize. So we have outlined here a simple rule to aid you in figuring out your odds (as accurately as possible) in situations where you can’t have the chart in front of you for reference. This rule is called the “The Rule of Four – Two”.

The rule of four – two works as easy as this, after the flop, with two cards left to come, simply multiply your number of outs by 4. And after the turn, with one card left to come, multiply your number of outs by two. The total will be a ballpark figure of the percentage you have of making your hand. For example, say after the flop you are showing 4 hearts. In order to make your flush, you have 9 outs (13 hearts in the deck less the 4 you are showing). The rule says that after the flop you will have a 36% chance at making the flush (9 outs times 4). And after the turn, your percentage of making the flush will be 2 times 9 outs, 18%. As you can see, these percentages are very similar to what the table says are the exact odds at 35% and 19.5% respectively.