Free poker Tips - Hand Odds

If you're at all serious about your poker be it free poker games or top level tourney play then knowing what you hand odds are is key information.

Very briefly, this information when combined with pot odds and table position (another article) give you a good feel for your winning probability. This is critical strategy data for anyone who's into poker to make money. Free poker game fun players need not worry!

For free poker online you'll find software tools that will do the math for you. You still need to know how to sue this information of course so it's a good idea to at least know how the odds are worked out.

Now onto hand odds:
No one can know for sure what the hand odds are because they don't know what the other players have.

The best you can do is guesstimate your approx. odds depending on what the other players may have in the best case for them.

For beginners to free poker and hand odds the quickest way to get a close guess on your odds is your outs multiplied by 4 after the flop and x2 on the turn.

For example, say you have a flush draw with no over pair or other draws. You have 4 cards (2 in hand,2 on board) that's 13 (suit cards) -4=9, 9x4= 36% (actual odds 37% with "back door runners").

On the turn if you miss the flop you still have your 9 outs but now x2 and you have 18% which is right about on the money.

The downfall here is that you're not really sure if these are your outs. You just think they are based on what you thought the best hand the other player could have.

He could already have you beat that's why odds should only be used as a guideline when deciding what to do.

Also odds can change dramatically on any given card. Even if they are only 18% once they hit they are most likely 100% or close to it.

Keep up the aggression to better determine if they have what you think they had. If you figured they had top pair and hit your low flush draw then bet say 1/2 the pot and the other player come over the top of you 3x your bet most likely your guess of top pair was mostly likely a better flush draw or even top pair with a better flush draw! You won't know until you bet.

This may sound scary but poker need not be a complex game, if you just want to have fun then knowing how this works is not essential. For free poker online there are also many little software tools that will do all this for you. Of course you still need to know how to apply it.

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