What Are Outs?

Outs are the remaining cards in the deck that will complete or improve your drawing hand. Counting your outs is the first step in calculating your poker odds and deciding whether to continue in a hand.

The more outs you have, the more likely you are to hit your draw. A hand with many outs is a strong draw worth playing, while a hand with very few outs is usually not worth chasing.

Each type of draw has a specific number of outs. Learning these common counts lets you quickly assess your hand strength at the table without doing complex math on the spot.

To count outs for a flush draw, start with 13 cards of your suit in the deck. Subtract the ones you can already see — your 2 hole cards and the community cards of that suit. With a flush draw on the flop, you typically see 4 of your suit (2 in hand + 2 on board), leaving 9 outs.

For straight draws, count how many cards complete your straight. An open-ended straight draw (like 6-7-8-9) can be completed by cards on either end, giving you 8 outs. A gutshot (like 6-7-_-9-10) needs just one specific rank, giving you only 4 outs.