Know Your Ins and Outs
Knowing how likely you are to win a hand at the casino online poker table is an essential skills, especially if you don’t want to find yourself investing more money than you should in order to complete a draw. Indeed, calling with incorrect odds is one of the biggest leaks amateur players have and something that causes them considerable losses over time.
To avoid this you first need to know how to calculate your outs. The full equation for this is far from complex but it’s one that can’t easily be done during the heat of a hand. All is not lost though as there is a simple, yet effective, way to do it at the table and you don’t need a degree in advanced mathematics to do it.
In the poker world this is known as the “rule of 4 and 2” and it basically means when you are on the flop you multiply the number of cards that will make your hand by four. The same process applies when you’re on the turn, except this time you multiply it by two. So, for example, let’s assume you’re aiming to hit a flush after the flop and you have two cards to come. At this point there are nine cards in the deck that will make you a flush, thus you multiply nine by four. This gives you the answer: 36, which means you have roughly a 36% chance of making your flush by the river.
Once you know this you can see if the pot odds – the amount of money you have to call vs. the size of the pot – are good enough for you to continue. In the above scenario you’d need the pot to be offering you odds of 3/1 or greater to profitably make a call.
Going through this procedure away from the table will help you to understand the situations when it’s best to call and when it’s best to fold. Do this enough and your time at the poker table will be a lot more profitable.