The way poker differs from other casino games is that the success depends on skills, not luck. This is why poker players go to compete in tournaments, such as the World Series of Poker (WSOP). As you probably know, there are no tournaments for the casino games in which the players completely rely on luck, like slots, roulette, bingo, and others.
The success in poker is something that has so much to do with hiding emotions so that the opponents wouldn’t be able to spot small tells that give away what kind of a hand you have. Having the so-called poker face is crucial for winning live poker tournaments. In fact, this is the reason why some players decide to wear hat and sunglasses while playing it.
Of course, there’s no need for that when playing online poker. If you’re playing it on your computer, the only thing that can help win real money against tough opponents is the knowledge about poker odds!
How to Calculate Poker Odds?
Here’s a small online poker guide that will teach you the basics of poker odds calculating. Once you master this skill, your winning rates are bound to go up significantly. So, let’s start with the basics, learning what “outs” are. Basically, outs are those cards that improve your hand, making it better than the hand of the opponent.
For instance, if you have two cards of the same color in your hand, while two more are laid by the dealer as the flop. What this means is that in order to get a flush, you need either the turn or the river to be a card of that color. The question is, should you go for it or fold?
In order to come up with the right decision, you need to calculate the odds of winning a flush in this particular scenario. To do that, first you need to calculate the number of outs. As there are two cards of the same color in your hand and two on the table, you just need to subtract 4 from 13, which is the total number of cards of the same color in one deck.
The total number of unknown cards is 47, which you can calculate by subtracting the number of the cards you see (your hand + flop) from the total number of cards in a deck. What’s left to do is split those 47 cards into outs and losers. As previously established, there are 9 outs in this scenario, meaning that 38 cards are losers. This means that the chance you will lose is 38:9, which translates to roughly 4:1 chance.
What your decision will be, depends on one more factor – your opponent’s hand. You need to take a look at the flop, in order to see whether your opponent has a chance to get a better hand than you (if you happen to get a flush). In this particular case, in order to beat you, the opponent needs to get a Full house, Straight flush, or Royal flush. This is why it’s also important to learn more about the frequency of each poker hand!
Frequency of Poker Hands
By learning the probability of each poker hand, you will be able to have a better judgment of whether your opponent has a good chance of beating you. Here is the frequency of hands in 5-card poker games like Texas Hold’em, five-card stud, and so on.
- Royal flush – 1 in 649,739
- Straight flush – 72,192 : 1
- Four of a kind – 4,164 : 1
- Full house – 693 : 1
- Flush – 508 : 1
- Straight – 254 : 1
- Three of a kind – 46.3 : 1
- Two pair – 20.0 : 1
- One pair – 1.37 : 1
- High card – 0.995 : 1
What this means is that, most time, both you and your opponents are going to get a high card or one pair, while hands like royal flush will happen in extremely rare cases. You need to use this knowledge to develop your poker strategy. Of course, the easiest way to do it is through practice!
Where to Practice Your Poker Skills?
Calculating poker odds might seem too complicated to you at this point, but don’t worry, it all comes naturally as you gain more experience. The rule is simple – the more you play, the better you will get. However, in order to polish your poker skills, you shouldn’t wager real money. Inexperienced players are likely to lose to those who have been playing this card game for a long time.
The solution is to go to a website where you can play online casino games for free! This way, you will be able to get the real poker experience, without risking to lose real money. And once you think you’re ready for it, you can start playing with real money!
To help you find the best poker sites, you can check out any of the poker sites we recommend here.. All you have to do is go through our reviews and find a poker site that has our utmost recommendation! Poker is a game which luck has nothing to do with. Your poker skill is what matters the most if you want to be a winner, so make sure to learn how to properly calculate your poker odds!
