Example with a set against a flush draw

Example with a straght draw and overcards
You have KJ, and the board is A102. One of the four queens in the deck will make you a straight. If your opponent has a middle pocket pair, e.g. 99, then you have additional outs, as any king or any jack would give you a higher pair. In this case, the number of your outs would increase to ten (four queens, three kings, and three jacks poker online w88 ).

Example with a set against a flush draw
If you hold 77 and hit a set on a board showing 27J, you have a pretty strong hand. But it is not definitely a winner and could already be behind if any of your opponents has two spades in their hands.



However, you still have the chance here of improving your hand even further. There are seven cards that could make you a full house or better (a seven, three remaining twos and three remaining jacks), or the turn and river could be the same rank, which would also give you a full house keno w88 .

Example with a straight draw AND a flush draw
You hold 67 and the board is 45J. You have both an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw. This means you have nine outs to make the flush and eight outs to make the straight. At the same time, you have to consider that two cards are counted twice (in this case the 3 and the 8), which have to be subtracted. Therefore you have a total of 15 outs here.

Hidden Outs
Although the term “out” typically refers to a card that improves your hand, there are also sometimes “hidden outs”, which help you because they reduce the value of your opponent’s hand.

Example of hidden outs
You hold AK and your opponent has 33. The board is JJ56. Not only would the three kings and the three aces give you a higher two pair than your opponent, but any six or five would help as well. This is because with a five or six, the board contains two pairs that are both higher than your opponent’s pocket threes, meaning that the fifth card, the kicker, would decide the outcome of the hand. Your ace is the best possible kicker.

In this instance, you have 12 outs, six of which are hidden.

Discounted Outs
Advanced players don’t only calculate their own outs when on a draw. They also ask themselves what hand their opponent has, and whether one of the cards they hope to appear might also give the other player an even better hand. Cards like this are known as “discounted outs”.

Let’s look at the straight draw example again:
You have J10 and the flop is 6QK. You have calculated eight outs so far (four aces and four nines) club w88 .

But how will your outs change if one your opponents has two hearts e.g. 76 and is therefore drawing to a flush? In this example, two of your outs, i.e. A and the 9, would give your opponent a better hand – even if you hit your straight. This means you have to discount both cards from your outs. You would now only have six outs, which significantly reduces your chances of winning the hand.

In general you should take a pessimistic approach when it comes to discounting outs, as it is better to discount one out too many than one too few!