life cards

hello everybody,

can anyone tell me please, what life cards are? I think, they could be thoose ones, that are helpful after the showdown, is this correct?

Greetings, birgolst

Live cards are those that can help your hand. If you end up all in with JQ and your opponent has AK, you have two live cards. If he has AQ, you only have one live card.

What roundcat said, pretty much.

People sometimes also talk about "live outs", which are the outs you have that are still available in the deck.

If you get all in with the abovementioned QJ vs AK, you've got six live outs - three quees and three jacks (assuming your opponent doesn't improve). If someone (as someone invariably does) then says "Oh, I folded a QJ as well" then two of your outs are now "dead" because you know they can't possibly be dealt, and you only have four live outs left.

This can be a big deal in stud games, where you need to keep track of how many of your outs have been dealt to other players as up cards. If you've got four diamonds on fifth street, but six diamonds have been dealt as upcards to other players' hands, you've only got three outs to fill your flush. If there hadn't been any diamonds dealt to other people's hands, however, you'd have nine live outs.

ok, so I got the right idea...

the tipp with life outs is interesting , because I also play some stud sometimes.

thx! birgolst

Beware, not nessesarily true, you have to take into account suits, eg, your holding 6h 6d and there is a raise before you act, you call hoping for a 3rd 6 to hit, meaning if some has an over pair or the board are all overcards, you have 2 outs. However, if the board is 3 spades, you potentially only have 1 out as the 6 spades will almost certainly give someone a flush, the 6 clubs is your only out. Be carefull in these situations.

I think I phrased that awkwardly. What I think of as live cards are the ones in your hand that have a shot at improving and are not dominated by the cards in your opponent's hand.

Outs are a totally different subject.

It is a very interesting subject, the difference between "live" cards and "outs", both subjects indicate that you are all in or potentially all in, and behind. The math behind the probabality of catching a live card or hitting your outs however is entirely different. Live cards means at best you have 2 different suited cards from the player who's ahead which gives you only 6 outs, lets say the leader has Qh Qs and your holding Ad Kd, you have 2 "live" cards as they are both overcards to the leader. Your "outs" however have increased as there are so many diamonds left in the deck, you are also a fav to catch a straight.