Texas Holdem: How to Get the Odds of Making a Hand

In this article, we will look at one aspect of Texas Holdem that requires some math: The Odds of Making a Hand. By this, we mean the odds of making the hand you're aiming for, say a Full House.

THE ODDS OF MAKING A HAND IN TEXAS HOLDEM

In Texas Holdem, new common or community cards are dealt on the board on the Flop, the Turn and the River. (These are the names given to the three times when the dealer reveals community cards face up.) Now depending on your hand, you will want certain cards to turn up at these times. It will help your game plan a lot if you could tell the odds of these cards showing up. This is the Odds of Making a Hand.

Say you have a pair of Tens. You'll be looking for a third Ten of any suit to appear on the Flop to complete a Three of a Kind. Or you may need a King on the River to make than Straight.

To compute the odds of making your hand, you need to know a couple of things:

1) The number of "Out" cards for the hand 2) The number of "Unseen" cards for the hand

- OUTS. Outs are those cards that can assist you with your hand. If you have two Nines and two Fours, you're looking for either a third Nine or a third Four to make a Full House. Now there are four Fours and four Nines in a deck. So with a pair of each already in your hand or on the board, that leaves two Fours and two Nines out there. You have four Outs.

- UNSEEN. Unseen cards are just that - cards you haven't seen. You have two cards and four are on the board. Now a deck in Texas Holdem has 52 cards. 52 - 6 = 46. There are 46 Unseen cards.

- COMPUTING THE ODDS OF MAKING A HAND. Divide the Out cards by the Unseen cards. 4/ 46 = 8.69%.

Of course this figure isn't exact, but this is enough. Note that you don't do it the other way around, that is divide the Unseen by the Outs.

The later you are in the Texas Holdem game, the higher your chances of finding that needed card. That's because there will be fewer Unseen cards against the Out cards. This is how you calculate the Odds of Making a Hand in Texas Holdem.