Poker hand
This article is about poker terminology relating to drawing cards or drawing hands. For the variant of poker, see 🎉 draw poker
A poker player is drawing if they have a hand that is incomplete and needs further cards to become 🎉 valuable. The hand itself is called a draw or drawing hand. For example, in seven-card stud, if four of a 🎉 player's first five cards are all spades, but the hand is otherwise weak, they are drawing to a flush. In 🎉 contrast, a made hand already has value and does not necessarily need to draw to win. A made starting hand 🎉 with no help can lose to an inferior starting hand with a favorable draw. If an opponent has a made 🎉 hand that will beat the player's draw, then the player is drawing dead; even if they make their desired hand, 🎉 they will lose. Not only draws benefit from additional cards; many made hands can be improved by catching an out 🎉 – and may have to in order to win.
Outs [ edit ]
An unseen card that would improve a drawing hand 🎉 to a likely winner is an out. Playing a drawing hand has a positive expectation if the probability of catching 🎉 an out is greater than the pot odds offered by the pot.
The probability P 1 {\displaystyle P_{1}} of catching an 🎉 out with one card to come is:
P 1 = o u t s u n s e e n c 🎉 a r d s {\displaystyle P_{1}={\frac {\mathrm {outs} }{\mathrm {unseen} \,\,\mathrm {cards} }}}
The probability P 2 {\displaystyle P_{2}} of catching 🎉 at least one out with two cards to come is:
P 2 = 1 − n o n o u t 🎉 s u n s e e n c a r d s × n o n o u t s 🎉 − 1 u n s e e n c a r d s − 1 {\displaystyle P_{2}=1-{\frac {\mathrm {non} \,\mathrm 🎉 {outs} }{\mathrm {unseen} \,\,\mathrm {cards} }}\times {\frac {\mathrm {non} \,\mathrm {outs} -1}{\mathrm {unseen} \,\,\mathrm {cards} -1}}}
n o n o u 🎉 t s = u n s e e n c a r d s − o u t s {\displaystyle 🎉 \mathrm {non} \,\mathrm {outs} ={\mathrm {unseen} \,\,\mathrm {cards} }-\mathrm {outs} }
Outs One Card % Two Card % One Card Odds 🎉 Two Card Odds Draw Type 1 2% 4% 46 23 Backdoor Straight or Flush (Requires two cards) 2 4% 8% 🎉 22 12 Pocket Pair to Set 3 7% 13% 14 7 One Overcard 4 9% 17% 10 5 Inside Straight 🎉 / Two Pair to Full House 5 11% 20% 8 4 One Pair to Two Pair or Set 6 13% 🎉 24% 6.7 3.2 No Pair to Pair / Two Overcards 7 15% 28% 5.6 2.6 Set to Full House or 🎉 Quads 8 17% 32% 4.7 2.2 Open Straight 9 19% 35% 4.1 1.9 Flush 10 22% 38% 3.6 1.6 Inside 🎉 Straight & Two Overcards 11 24% 42% 3.2 1.4 Open Straight & One Overcard 12 26% 45% 2.8 1.2 Flush 🎉 & Inside Straight / Flush & One Overcard 13 28% 48% 2.5 1.1 14 30% 51% 2.3 0.95 15 33% 🎉 54% 2.1 0.85 Flush & Open Straight / Flush & Two Overcards 16 34% 57% 1.9 0.75 17 37% 60% 🎉 1.7 0.66
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A dead out is a card that would normally be considered an out for a particular drawing hand, but 🎉 should be excluded when calculating the probability of catching an out. Outs can be dead for two reasons:
A dead out 🎉 may work to improve an opponent's hand to a superior hand. For example, if Ted has a spade flush draw 🎉 and Alice has an outside straight draw, any spades that complete Alice's straight are dead outs because they would also 🎉 give Ted a flush.
A dead out may have already been seen. In some game variations such as stud poker, some 🎉 of the cards held by each player are seen by all players.
Types of draws [ edit ]
Flush draw [ edit 🎉 ]
A flush draw, or four flush, is a hand with four cards of the same suit that may improve to 🎉 a flush. For example, K♣ 9♣ 8♣ 5♣ x. A flush draw has nine outs (thirteen cards of the suit 🎉 less the four already in the hand). If a player has a flush draw in Hold'em, the probability to flush 🎉 the hand in the end is 34.97 percent if there are two more cards to come, and 19.56 percent (9 🎉 live cards divided by 46 unseen cards) if there is only one more card to come.
Outside straight draw [ edit 🎉 ]
An outside straight draw, also called up and down, double-ended straight draw or open-ended straight draw, is a hand with 🎉 four of the five needed cards in sequence (and could be completed on either end) that may improve to a 🎉 straight. For example, x-9-8-7-6-x. An outside straight draw has eight outs (four cards to complete the top of the straight 🎉 and four cards to complete the bottom of the straight). Straight draws including an ace are not outside straight draws, 🎉 because the straight can only be completed on one end (has four outs).
Inside straight draw [ edit ]
An inside straight 🎉 draw, or gutshot draw or belly buster draw, is a hand with four of the five cards needed for a 🎉 straight, but missing one in the middle. For example, 9-x-7-6-5. An inside straight draw has four outs (four cards to 🎉 fill the missing internal rank). Because straight draws including an ace only have four outs, they are also considered inside 🎉 straight draws. For example, A-K-Q-J-x or A-2-3-4-x. The probability of catching an out for an inside straight draw is half 🎉 that of catching an out for an outside straight draw.
Double inside straight draw [ edit ]
A double inside straight draw, 🎉 or double gutshot draw or double belly buster draw can occur when either of two ranks will make a straight, 🎉 but both are "inside" draws. For example, in 11-card games, 9-x-7-6-5-x-3, or 9-8-x-6-5-x-3-2, or in Texas Hold'em when holding 9-J 🎉 hole cards on a 7-10-K flop. The probability of catching an out for a double inside straight draw is the 🎉 same as for an outside straight draw.
Other draws [ edit ]
Sometimes a made hand needs to draw to a better 🎉 hand. For example, if a player has two pair or three of a kind, but an opponent has a straight 🎉 or flush, to win the player must draw an out to improve to a full house (or four of a 🎉 kind). There are a multitude of potential situations where one hand needs to improve to beat another, but the expected 🎉 value of most drawing plays can be calculated by counting outs, computing the probability of winning, and comparing the probability 🎉 of winning to the pot odds.
Backdoor draw [ edit ]
A backdoor draw, or runner-runner draw, is a drawing hand that 🎉 needs to catch two outs to win. For example, a hand with three cards of the same suit has a 🎉 backdoor flush draw because it needs two more cards of the suit. The probability P r r {\displaystyle P_{rr}} of 🎉 catching two outs with two cards to come is:
P r r = o u t s u n s e 🎉 e n c a r d s × o u t s − 1 u n s e e n 🎉 c a r d s − 1 {\displaystyle P_{rr}={\frac {\mathrm {outs} }{\mathrm {unseen} \,\,\mathrm {cards} }}\times {\frac {\mathrm {outs} -1}{\mathrm 🎉 {unseen} \,\,\mathrm {cards} -1}}}
For example, if after the flop in Texas hold 'em, a player has a backdoor flush draw 🎉 (e.g., three spades), the probability of catching two outs on the turn and river is (10 ÷ 47) × (9 🎉 ÷ 46) = 4.16 percent. Completing backdoor draws is generally unlikely; the probability of seeing two out of seven outs 🎉 on the turn and river is roughly the same as completing a draw with only out on either the turn 🎉 or the river (1/47 + 1/46 = 4.3%). A backdoor outside straight draw (such as J-10-9) is equally likely as 🎉 a backdoor flush, but any other 3-card straight draw (such as J-8-7) is less likely than getting a specific card 🎉 after the flop, calculated above.
Drawing dead [ edit ]
A player is said to be drawing dead when the hand he 🎉 hopes to complete will nonetheless lose to a player who already has a better one. For example, drawing to a 🎉 straight or flush when the opponent already has a full house. In games with community cards, the term can also 🎉 refer to a situation where no possible additional community card draws results in a win for a player. (This may 🎉 be because another player has folded the cards that would complete his hand, his opponent's hand is already stronger than 🎉 any hand he can possibly draw to or that the card that completes his hand also augments his opponent's.)
See also 🎉 [ edit ]
