Essential Poker Odds

New players interested in learning how to play poker not only need to know the poker rules regarding how to bet and how to raise, but they must quickly pick up a knowledge of poker odds and how these impact on the various decisions you make whilst playing poker. Online poker is very fast so remembering the key odds is important to your early poker learning and success.

Here is a table of some of the key odds that you should try and memorise. The odds are a good starting point on how to proceed in a hand but you should consider many factors before deciding how to act.

The above odds show you how likely it is that you hit a certain type of hand based on the pure odds comparing the hands to the dealing of random cards. This set of poker odds is purely for informational purposes but the more you know about them the better.

When you have one of these hands you use a different set of poker math odds as you already hold some of the cards and the odds then depend on the likelihood of certain cards coming out of the deck now that you hold two cards and there are only two cards to be dealt.

Here are some key odds you should learn urgently.

Hand Held                    Drawn                  Improved Hand             Odds Against / 1

One Pair                         3                            Two Pair                            5.3
Three of a Kind               7.8
Full House                        97
Four of a Kind                 360
Any Improvement       2.5

One Pair plus               2                            Two Pair                            4.8
kicker                                                            Three of a Kind               12
Full House                        120
Four of a Kind                 1080
Any Improvement       2.8

Three of a Kind           2                           Full House                       15.3
Four of a Kind                22.5
Any Improvement      8.7

Four Straight Cards  1                           Straight                             5

Inside Straight            1                           Straight                            10.8

Four Card Flush         1                           Flush                                 4.2

Four Card Flush         1                           Straight Flush               22.5
(Open ended)                                            Straight or Better       2

Four Card Straight    1                          Straight Flush               46
Flush (inside)                                          Straight or Better        3

It may be useful to print out these odds and have them at the side of your computer or pinned on your wall for when you need to quickly check the poker odds before you act. They are very useful. For example, if you are holding an inside straight draw with one card to be drawn and your opponent bets 200 into a 600 pot you are getting 4/1 odds on the call, which looks quite good. Unfortunately it is 10.8/1 to actually hit the straight so calling a near 11/1 bet getting offered 4/1 is not good business. You should fold.

As a rule of thumb, if you are getting worse pot odds (not considering implied odds for now) than what is offered in the table above then a fold is your best move. It is best to wait for a better spot.

The use of the table is a good starting point, but you should also consider other factors like implied pot odds, anything you know about your opponent before you choose to act. Think of the odds as a guide down the right street, what house you go into depends entirely on where you want to go with the hand.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Tags: poker, poker maths, poker odds, poker strategy, texas hold 'em, Texas Holdem