Poker Odds Calculator

Poker is a card game based on thinking, statistical analysis, strategy, and of course, some luck. To improve our success and to win more than we lose, we must control these parameters and hope to get a bit of luck, since luck is the only parameter we can't control.

In online poker games or live poker games, you will be required to respond quickly during each hand – round.

The right decision should be made after you have taken all these variables into account:

1. What round of betting are you in
2. Your position at the table
3. Your chips
4. The number of players playing this hand
5. The bet amount you must pay to play
6. The cards you received.

A quick analysis of your poker hands will differentiate between a win and a loss. Good players know how to make decisions quickly and rely less on luck. While the weak players tend to make the wrong decisions and hope to get some luck on their side.

In this guide, we will learn how to calculate our odds in the pre-flop betting round.

In case an opposing player has declared an All-In, you have to decide whether to play against them. Remember, after the flop is revealed (the first three community cards revealed by the dealer), the calculations change, and we will also learn about that.

Remember that to increase your earnings, you must know your odds of winning against one player and against several players.

Pre Flop Odds Calculator Against 1 Player

Check the odds of your hands against a variety of hands that the opposing player can hold.

Calculator Odds – After Flop

After the first betting round and dealing the flop (The three visible community cards) the odds for winning are changed for each player.

The best way to analyze your chances and the strength of your hand after the flop and after the turn is by memorizing the 4-2 rules.

Before we explain the 4-2 rules, you must know what an Out card is. An out card is a card that strengthens your hand and increases your chances of winning in a certain hand.

The more outs card you will have the easier it will be for you to decide whether to call a bet, a re-raise, or, to fold.

First example

For instance, if you hold pocket cards – an Ace and 10 suited Hearts – and the flop comes with 6, 2 Hearts, and a King of Clubs, you can evaluate that you have at least 9 out cards. This should give you a flush, one of the strongest hands in poker.

Why 9 out cards? Each suit has 13 cards (from 2 to Ace) as the player holds 2 cards of the suit of Heart and 2 cards of the suit of Heart opened on the flop, this leaves us with another 9 suit of Hearts cards, and we can estimate that if we get a fifth card of the same suit, we will probably win. In order to avoid over-complication of the explanation at this point, we will not go into the additional outs, such as an ace card which might give you a victory as well with a top pair.

Second example

If you hold suited 9 and 10 of Spades, and on the flop, 7 of Diamonds, 8 of Hearts, and Ace of Clubs are revealed, you can estimate that there are 8 out cards for you. That should give you a Straight and probably a victory in this round.

Why 8 out cards? In the deck, we have 4 Jacks and 4 Sixes. None of them appeared on the flop, and since we value them as winning cards, we can say that we have 8 outs. Very simple, right?

Now that we understand what an Out card is, we can go back to the 4-2 rules.

The 4-2 Rules

To win poker games, it is very important to know either what your odds are to achieve the dominant hand at each round or, what your odds are of getting the out card that will strengthen your hand in the hand ranking. To make this calculation fast we will use the 4-2 rules.

The 4 Rule – After we see the Flop (before revealing the Turn card), we count our out cards and multiply them by 4. The number obtained is your percentage to get your out card on the turn card or river card. For example, if you have 10 outs after the flop, we will multiply 10 * 4, and the result is 40%. This means that you have a 40% chance of strengthening your hand, and hence you should continue to participate in the hand – to call, bet, raise, or re-raise.

The 2 Rule – After we see the Turn card (before revealing the River card) we will count our number of outs and multiply by 2. The number obtained is your percentage to get your out card on the river. For example, if have 4 outs after the turn we will multiply 2 * 4, and the result is 8%. This means that your percentage is quite low to strengthen your hand and if a player has made a bet, you should think carefully about whether you want to continue to participate in the hand or give up and make a fold.

Odds Calculator – Pre Flop

Here’s another way for calculating your odds of strengthening your hand pre-flop.

As you have only two cards (Pocket Cards), before the flop (Pre-flop betting round), you can’t be sure if your victory is guaranteed, even if you hold a premium hand such as pocket Kings. But you would still like to know what your chances are of strengthening your hand after the flop cards have been revealed. For that reason, you would use Rule 6.

Rule 6 – Quickly calculate your number of outs. If you are holding a pair, then of course you have 2 direct outs and if you are holding an Ace and a King then you have 6 direct outs. Multiply the number of outs you have by 6 and find out what odds you have to strengthen your hand after the flop.

For example, you have a pocket sixes, which means there are two more 6 cards left in the deck. Multiply 2 by 6, the result is 12% to get six card on the flop.

Use this calculation to know the viability of paying other players' early bets as it is not always worth putting a high percentage of your stack for a 12% chance to strengthen your hand.

Conclusion

Using the 4-2 rules is the fastest and most convenient method for beginners to know their odds of winning, but it's not the most accurate calculation. Once you will improve your poker skills, you will learn additional parameters that affect your odds of winning such as, what cards your opponent is holding and if there are any dead cards that when dealt, are most likely to make your opponent stronger and lead you to a loss.