When playing poker, some people like to work out their odds of getting the cards they need and others just follow their instinct and hope for the best. Sometimes luck will prevail and the poker gods will give you the cards you want; other times luck will prevail and the river card will go against you. It is this reason I think that poker is classed as gambling and not a game of skill. My answer is; if it is a game of luck, then why do the same people win on a regular basis.

Working out your odds of hitting the card need to make that flush or straight can help you decide if it is worth calling of folding the hand. You do also need to consider that if you get your hand, will it still beat the other player, but that is something you learn as you go.

There are a number of ways to calculate, but I always use the following way.
First of all, you only every take in to account the cards you can see, so assume that none of the other players have the card you want or need. Say you are holding AK Hearts; you have the same chance of making a hand or pair as someone holing 57. If the flop comes down 3h,8h,9c. You will need one more card to make your flush. There are 13 cards of each suit in the deck, less the 4 you can see, will leave you with 9 outs. You then multiply your number of out by 4, to get the rough estimate of your % chance of hitting the card. This will give you the % chance of 27%. Now if the next card comes down and it is a club, then you still have another card to give you your flush. But as there is only one more card due out then you will reduce your % chance by half; or multiply your outs by 2; thus giving you the chance of hitting your card down to 18%.

Now you also need to consider the chance of hitting a pair, which will increase your chance % chance of getting a hand. You have AK, so you also have the chance of hitting a pair with these cards. There are 3 A’s left and 3 K’s left. So you have 9 + 3 + 3 = 15 outs after the flop. Multiply by 4 will give you 60% chance of hitting a hand after the flop and 30% after the turn.
A tip when working out your outs is to make sure you never count the same card twice as an out.

You also need to consider if it is worth making a call or a raise if you hit a pair. This is where the skill element comes in. You need to read your player and try to figure out if they are trying to bluff you off the pot, or if they do really have a hand. This is where making a note of your opponents playing style will come in handy. If they are a tight player, then they are more than likely to have a good hand. If they seem to call everything down to the river or rise on a regular basis then they could be a lose player and be trying to bluff you off the pot.

For more help or poker chat, come speak to us in our forum www.ukpokertalk.co.uk

I have been asked to write a few articles for an email newsletter that is soon due to be sent out from www.ukpokerreview.co.uk who review poker sites available in the UK.

Welcome to the first news letter from UK Poker Review. We thought we would start off by maybe helping you learn how to bluff in poker. It’s not something that has a strict rule, but can help you bluff people off a pot, or make them call when you have a top hand (known as the nuts).

Now there are many opinions out there on the best way to try and bluff in poker, but it does depend on how aggressive other players are and also how you have been playing the table. Firstly we wouldn’t recommend trying to bluff on the first hand or too early in the game. You are almost guaranteed that someone else will have a better hand than you and many players will be cautions calling any big raises straight away as it really isn’t worth them risking a stack of chips to bust out of the game early. We would normally play quite tight early on; then try to bluff a bit later in the game. By playing tight early on in a game, it will help you throw players off a hand later, as they should have noted you are a tight player. After I have played a few hands and managed gauged how other players are playing their cards and let other people lose a few chips we might play a bit more aggressive for the odd hand. Be careful that you don’t run in to a big hand and bust out of the game though.

If you get premium hole cards and you raise it pre flop by up to 2.5 times the big blind, which is a standard raise. You should get a couple of callers then you are in a good position. You are not likely to get many callers with 28 off suit, who might otherwise try to limp in. If you hit the flop you are laughing, if not you can bluff a trap check. By this I mean you check the flop and see if you get any raisers, then when you get the turn card try putting in a medium bet, normally by this time it would be about 4 times the big blind. If you get a call then the other player is likely to be on a drawing hand. Try to think what hands could be made. Then when the turn card comes, try another slightly larger bet or if you are confident that they don’t have a decent hand try an all in move. This is what can throw people off the hand. To do this you have to hope the person you are up against has only hit a pair and the community cards allow you to bluff a straight or a flush as an example.

Alternative after the flop you can try a large raise on the flop and see if anyone calls or re rises. If you get a re-raise, then they might have hit a set (3 of a kind) or might be trying to see if you are bluffing. It is quite dependant on how they have been playing. If they are a lose player then they might have been lucky and hit a decent hand. The main rule I can give you though, if you are consistently a tight player and then make a big raise, then most players will credit you with having a big hand. Bluffing is an art and can take years to master. There isn’t anything better in our opinion than bluffing someone off a big pot.

If you do try our approach, let us know how you get on and if you found it to be of any use. Or if you have another approach you would like to share with us then please feel free to send us your comments or come and chat to us on www.ukpokertalk.co.uk

Future articles include:
To Show or not to Show – Should you show players when you have a hand or if you are bluffing?
Playing tips – General tips on how to play different types of poker
Playing live V’s Online – How to approach your first visit to a casino when you are used to online play

Every man and his dog seem to be going on facebook these days. I have created a group on facebook to promote the poker sites that I help run. If you are on facebook have a look for a group called UK Poker Friends. I will be promoting the site more this weekend and also doing lots of updates and links to promotions etc. I like facebook as it is easy to use and also people can post photos of you and tag you in them, so you can view photos of friends easy. One think that does annoy me on the site though is all the stupid add on sections that people ask you to sign up to. It is good though in that people can’t mess about by putting stupid pictures in the back ground, so you are unable to read what is on the page (unlike myspace). Search for me Darren Meredith on face book and add me and also join the UK poker Group.