Outs (Poker)

Outs are the cards left in the deck that can be dealt to make a player a winning hand. They are used as a way of judging whether it is the right decision to stay in a hand, particularly when someone raises the pot.

The number of outs that a player has can vary wildly depending on the cards that the player has in their hand and also the community cards that have been dealt. Of course this is not an exact science as one of the other players could have folded some of the cards that you think are still to come.

By calculating how many cards are left in the deck and the number of cards that you know would make you a winning hand you can calculate the odds of you hitting your hand. The pot size also plays an important part as pot odds are also used in conjunction.

Calculating the number of outs, lets say you have a 20% chance of hitting your cards. The pot stands at $200 and your opponent bets $20 into the pot. You think your behind so should you call the bet? Well looking at the pot odds you should. You are putting in $20 to win $200 which is a 10-1 return on your money. Now the outs say you will win every 5 times you play the hand. If you played this scenario, every 5 times you would win…so $20 each time you would have spent $80 and then win $200 on the fifth deal, you can see that this is the right play. In truth every time your pot odds are better than your probability of winning you are getting the right price for your money and should call.