One very important skill to winning more chips in poker is knowing your math for the game. You need to know when to play or when not to play your cards, recognize patterns, and be able to read your opponents. Although these maybe vital, you cannot forget the math that needs to be done so you can make the right calls. When you get flush draw, it doesn’t always mean that you should be going all out trying to hit the flush.
Let us say you get two diamonds (pay attention here, this isn’t online bingo). The dealer gives you a flop with 2 diamonds and without any pairs forming on the table. Now, in order for you to hit the flush, you need the turn or river to be another diamond. You might get it on the turn, or on the river or on both.
You have two cards plus the 3 cards upon flop. Now that gives you 47 remaining cards from the deck of 52. Nine of the remaining cards will be diamond so your chance will be 9/47 to hit the flush on the turn. Here comes the turn card which now gives you an 8/46 chances when the river is revealed.
Seeing these scenarios gives you you 9/47×8/46 as your chance of hitting two more cards to complete your flush. Punch that into your calculator and you will get 72/2162. Putting into a more comprehensible term that is 1 of 30 times that you can hit a flush.
Looking at the turn and river, here are your chances to get the card that you want:
- Turn – 9/47×38/46 =342/2162
- River- 9/46×38/47= 342/2162
When you combine all the scenarios, you will have a 756 of 2162 odds of making the flush.
Looking at these, having 4 cards for a flush upon the flop, you know you are in good shape. Aside from the math, you still need to consider other factors like other players having a better flush or a full house. Now that will be another discussion for poker math.
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