Page "Out (poker)" Paragraph 3

Note that the hidden cards of a player's opponents may affect the calculation of outs.

For example, assume that a Texas hold ' em board looks like this after the third round: 5 ♠ < font color = red > K ♦ 7 ♦</ font > J ♠, and that a player is holding < font color = red > A ♦ 10 ♦</ font >.

The player's current hand is just a high ace, which is not likely to win unimproved, so the player has a drawing hand.

He has a minimum of nine outs for certain, called nut outs, because they will make his hand the best possible: those are the < font color = red > 2 ♦</ font >, < font color = red > 3 ♦</ font >, < font color = red > 4 ♦</ font >, < font color = red > 6 ♦</ font >, < font color = red > 8 ♦</ font >, < font color = red > 9 ♦</ font >, and < font color = red > Q ♦</ font > ( which will give him an ace-high flush with no possible better hand on the board ) and the Q ♣ and < font color = red > Q ♥</ font >, which will give him an ace-high straight with no higher hand possible.

The < font color = red > 5 ♦</ font > and < font color = red > J ♦</ font > will also make him an ace-high flush, so those are possible outs since they give him a hand that is likely to win, but they also make it possible for an opponent to have a full house ( if the opponent has something like K ♠ K ♣, for example ).

Likewise, the Q ♠ will fill his ace-high straight, but will also make it possible for an opponent to have a spade flush.

It is possible that an opponent could have as little as something like 7 ♣ 9 ♣ ( making a pair of sevens ); in this case even catching any of the three remaining aces or tens will give the player a pair to beat the opponent's, so those are even more potential outs.

In sum, the player has 9 guaranteed outs, and possibly as many as 18, depending on what cards he expects his opponents to have.