Count your outs, get the real odds of hitting your draw, and know instantly whether the pot is paying you enough to call.
An out is any card left in the deck that completes or improves your hand into a winner. Once you know how many outs you have, you can work out your exact chance of hitting. Pick a common draw or set the number of outs below, choose whether you are on the flop (two cards to come) or the turn (one card), and the calculator shows your odds plus whether a call is priced in. It runs entirely in your browser.
The percentages are exact, computed from the unseen cards (47 after the flop, 46 after the turn). The rule of 2 and 4 shown next to them is the quick mental shortcut you can use at the table.
An out is a card that turns your hand into (probably) the best hand. If you hold four cards to a flush, the nine remaining cards of that suit are your outs, because any one of them makes your flush. Counting outs is the foundation of every drawing decision in poker: outs become a percentage, the percentage becomes odds, and the odds tell you whether the price you are being offered is good enough to continue.
Look at your hand and the board, then count every unseen card that improves you to a hand you expect to win with. The most common draws come up again and again, so their out counts are worth knowing cold.
You will not do exact division at the table, so use the shortcut. With two cards to come (you are on the flop), multiply your outs by 4 to approximate your percentage to hit by the river. With one card to come (you are on the turn), multiply by 2. Nine outs on the flop: 9 × 4 = 36%, close to the true 35%. The estimate drifts a little high with a lot of outs, but it is more than accurate enough to make the decision.
All figures are from the flop with both the turn and river still to come. "By the river" is the chance the draw completes on either card.
| Draw | Outs | On the turn | By the river | Odds against |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gutshot straight | 4 | 8.5% | 16.5% | 5.1 : 1 |
| Two overcards | 6 | 12.8% | 24.1% | 3.1 : 1 |
| Open-ended straight | 8 | 17.0% | 31.5% | 2.2 : 1 |
| Flush draw | 9 | 19.1% | 35.0% | 1.9 : 1 |
| Flush + gutshot | 12 | 25.5% | 45.0% | 1.2 : 1 |
| Flush + open-ended | 15 | 31.9% | 54.1% | 0.9 : 1 |
Knowing you hit 35% of the time is only half the picture. The other half is what the pot is offering. Pot odds compare the price of a call to the size of the pot: if you have to call less, as a share of the final pot, than your chance of hitting, calling makes money over time. The calculator's pot-odds check does this for you, but the arithmetic is simple: break-even % = call ÷ (pot + bet + call). If your chance to hit is higher than that number, call.
For the full postflop picture, including your equity against a specific hand rather than a raw draw, use the odds calculator.
The count assumes every out actually wins. Sometimes it does not. If you are drawing to a flush but the board is paired, a card that completes your flush might instead give an opponent a full house. If you hold two overcards but a straight is possible, pairing your ace may not be good enough. These are "tainted" or "dirty" outs, and good players discount them: count the outs that win, not the outs that merely improve. When in doubt, shade your out count down a little and demand a slightly better price.
An out is any card still in the deck that improves your hand into what should be the winner. If you have four cards to a flush, you have nine outs, the nine remaining cards of that suit.
Divide your outs by the number of unseen cards. After the flop there are 47 unseen cards, so a nine-out flush draw hits the turn 9/47 = 19%. To get the chance of hitting by the river, combine both cards: about 35% for nine outs. Or use the rule of 2 and 4 as a shortcut.
A shortcut for turning outs into a percentage. Multiply your outs by 4 for the chance to hit by the river when two cards are still to come, or by 2 for the chance to hit on the next card when only one card is to come. It is accurate to within a percent or two.
A nine-out flush draw hits about 19% on the turn and about 35% by the river from the flop, which is roughly 1.9 to 1 against. On the turn with one card to come it is about 19.6%, or 4.1 to 1 against.
Eight. Two ranks complete the straight, and there are four of each in the deck. That gives about a 31.5% chance to complete by the river from the flop. A gutshot, which needs one specific rank, has four outs.
Pot odds are the price of a call relative to the size of the pot. If calling costs you a smaller share of the final pot than your chance of hitting your draw, the call is profitable over time. Break-even % = call divided by (pot + bet + call).
Counting outs and comparing them to the pot is a skill that becomes automatic with reps. Pair this with the odds calculator to see full hand-vs-hand equity, the hand rankings to know what you are drawing to, and position to understand when a draw is worth peeling.
Poker Spot builds this into practice: replay your real hands with the equity shown at every street, and track your sessions so you can see whether your draws are actually paying off.