What are outs?

First things first. If you don't know how to play poker, this website is going to be pretty much useless. If you're here and don't know anything about poker, I probably personally sent this to you, or you saw this website on some CV. In that case, welcome, and I suggest you learn how to play poker before continuing. It's a fun game to play with friends, even if you don't gamble!

Imagine the following scenario. You're playing a game of poker, and you think you have a bad hand.

Wow, that sucks.

No flush, no straight, not even a pair. Not yet anyways.

Obviously, there are 2 more cards left to see, and they might give you a better hand than you currently have. You might get a 10, giving you a 10 pair. Or a Jack, giving you a straight.

But how likely is this? You can measure the likelihood of your hand improving by counting the number of cards still left in the deck that might improve your hand to a winning hand. These cards are called outs.

If you didn't quite get that, read it again. The concept of what an out is is vital to using this tool.

Well, how do you count outs?

Counting outs is both an art and a science. For example, I might ask you: how many cards left in the deck would improve your hand to a straight? After looking at the cards and realising that only another jack is needed to complete a straight, you might say 'There are 4 jacks we haven't seen left in the deck, so 4 outs?'

That can be both right and wrong. If none of the other players have a Jack, you would be right. If the 4 jacks are all with other players, you would be completely wrong. You can never know for sure what your opponents have, and therefore never consider the cards your opponents might have in your poker calculations. So in this case, if you want a straight, you have 4 outs.

Counting outs also depends on what cards you think your opponent has. If your opponent is not betting too much, you might think to yourself 'Huh, this guy probably doesn't have a good hand' and be confident that you could beat him with just a pair, in which case any 10 or 9 would be considered outs.

If you're playing more cautiously, you might only be confident of success when you have a straight, in which case your outs are only the 4 Jacks left in the deck.

Huh, all this seems very guess-work based

This uncertainty is a feature, not a bug. Poker is a game about making good decisions using limited information. By getting good at counting outs, you will gain another tool with which you can make good decisions.

There is a lot more to be said about counting outs, but there are other places on the internet where it is explained much more in depth

I hope you have fun using this tool I've created. It allows you to practice counting outs in a wide variety of situations and hopefully improves your poker game. I'm not a professional poker player, so if you notice any errors feel free to report them to me.

If you want to get in touch to report a bug, offer advice on improving the tool or send a joke or job, do so at my email