Knowing your poker odds is an essential part of playing poker, it’s not as hard as it looks all you really have to know is basic math.
Let me give you an example: let’s say that you are holding two spades and there are two cards on the flop that are also spades, then your odds of hitting a flush are 2:1 which means that 1 out of every 3 times you play that hand you will end up with the flush hand
When you are holding two hearts and there are 2 more on the flop you need to quickly know how many outs you have in order to get the flush, it’s very simple an out is a card in the deck that helps you make the hand. So in the example mentioned before you know that there are 9 more hearts in the deck since every suit has 13 cards you know that you have 9 outs in order to make your hand but not necessarily win the hand because another player can have a better hand than you.
Something that you might be asking yourself is how about if someone else on the table is holding a spade, well since you probably don’t know if someone else is holding a spade or not then you have to calculate your outs as if you were the only player at the table.
By knowing how many outs you have in order to get your hand you can calculate the odds of hitting your hand in a very simple way. All you have to do is multiple your outs times four, then divide 100 into the number you got before and subtract one. You will then have something like 2:1 odds which really means that one out of every three times you play that hand you should make your hand.
After you can figure out your poker odds easily you will be able to apply advanced techniques like raising on the flop, if your chances of winning the hand are good you can raise on the flop and narrow down the players that will play the other two cards. This technique should only be applied if your hand has great odds to win. As time goes by and you have more and more hands in your play history you will be able to spot situations in which you can apply advanced techniques like the one mentioned before and take control of a hand in which you are favorite to win.