Odds and Outs: Rule of 4 & 2

[kompressaur]

another key skill to playing poker is being able to work out your odds and outs and the like. this is one area where i just know the basics of it all but the basics is enough to do you in low level poker.

ok so you limp in after a few other limpers with A4 suited (hearts) say the blinds are 50/100 and there are 3 of you in plus the small and big blind. the flop comes K95 and 2 of them cards are hearts. how many outs do you have to win the hand? You have 4 to a flush so any heart would proably give you the winning hand. if the board doesnt pair then it would be the nuts (best hand possible) we wont count any aces as giving you the winner as your kicker is weak but you could still win it with an ace but lets forget that for now. k so there are 4 hearts you know about (2 in your hand and 2 on the board) that leaves 9 more hearts in the deck. so we will say you have 9 possible outs.

someone bets 250 chips into the pot. should you call? gain im confusing matters as raising would and could be the best move. If the bettor doesnt have a king he could fold to you possibly representing the king. If you raise and he calls you still have a back up plan with your flush draw. anyhow lets work out the odds of you hitting your hand...

the pot will have 3 limpers chips (you included) = 300, plus the small blind and his extra 50 to make it up and then the big blind. sorry im making this sound harder than it is. the pot is 500 and someone bets 250 into it. this will give you 2/1 odds. We will mention implied odds in a bit but just for simplicity sakes is 2/1 good odds to take? you need 9 cards (outs) a quick and easy way to work out your odds is the rule of 4 and 2. On the flop you multiply your outs by 4 (4 x 9 = 36) this number gives you a rough % chance of hitting your hand so 36% is about 2/1. to work it out on the turn you multiply your outs by 2. 2 x 9 = 18% which is about errrr 5/1? ;unsure

Its all quite simple if you keep it simple. some people work it out like there are 52 cards. you know your two cards and the 3 on the flop. this is 5 cards. 52 minus 5 = 47 cards. 9 of them are good for you (the hearts) and 38 are bad. 9 into ...bah i forget if you divide 38 or 47 so we'll leave that for now. thats why the rule of 4 and 2 works good. simply multiply your outs on the flop by 4 to get your % chance and multiply by 2 on the turn to get your odds of hitting your card on the river.

implied odds is just ...errr well its takign into account if you hit your hand will you get more money after you hit it. If the board is AJ3 and you have 4 to a flush and your sure the person in the pot with you will pay you all his chips on the turn and the river if you hit as he wont lay down a pair of aces even if there are 3 cards to a flush onbeard. I'm as cloudy as mud here. Basically if a person has an ok sized stack then be more inclined to call a bet on the flop or the turn even if you aint quite geting the correct odds.

errr any questions? ;lol