Odds vs. Number of players

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roreyn02

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So im learning to calculate odds and I feel that im getting the hang of it. Its farily easy to do i'd say, just know what cards you need to win, determine how many are out there. So if you got 2-5 of spades, and the board is 3(spade)-4(spade)-K(heart)-A(heart) on the turn, you count all the cards that will help which would be all 6's, all spades. So theres 16 outs due to there being 4 sixes and 13 spades in a 52 card deck. So you take the cards that you see which is six and subtract it from 52 to get 46 unseen cards total. Divide 46 by 16 to get your odds of getting a favorable card on the river which would be 2.875 to 1. So the call is good as long as the pot is about 3 times your bet(this isn't considering all the other factors such as number of players left in the pot, the opponent's table image and all that).
I have a very mathematical mind. Im very logic oriented, but these attributes start to go away under pressure and intense situations. So its a good thing im not in the army or anything.
When its my turn, im playing online all the time due to it being hard to find a good face to face game, there is a timer, and im a very slow thinker. So it really destroys the chance to put my math skills to work.
Anyway... what happens to the odds of hitting your hand when the turn has more than one other opponent in the above hypothetical situation? Im guessing if its just me and one other player the 2.875 to 1 odds are accurate, but if theres 2 other opponents, the odds against me double right? So if its me, and two other opponents by the turn in the above hypothetical hand I need the pot to be 5.75 times my bet to call? Then if there are 3 others it needs to be 11.5 times my bet?
 
heroinsnattaren

heroinsnattaren

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First of all you need to exclude the spades already in play, so there are 9 spades + 3 sixes (not counting the 6 of spades twice)

Second
I have a very mathematical mind. Im very logic oriented, but these attributes start to go away under pressure and intense situations.

This will get better with more practice. Just go out and play a lot and you'll get better at doing things under pressure. Same thing with taking too long to do the calculations, you're just gonna need to practice more.

And the odds against multiple opponents change things a bit. But not really the way you describe. It's more like the hand that you're drawing to is maybe not gonna be as good. If you're drawing to the absolute nuts it doesn't matter at all, but if you're drawing to a low flush with many opponents chances are that someone will have a better one. I don't know if you can quantify this mathematically.

Also, remember that with more opponents the pot will be bigger, so even if you have a low % chance to draw the nuts it's gonna be worth it in the long run because you'll have to pay less to earn more.
 
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HooDooKoo

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So im learning to calculate odds and I feel that im getting the hang of it. Its farily easy to do i'd say, just know what cards you need to win, determine how many are out there. So if you got 2-5 of spades, and the board is 3(spade)-4(spade)-K(heart)-A(heart) on the turn, you count all the cards that will help which would be all 6's, all spades. So theres 16 outs due to there being 4 sixes and 13 spades in a 52 card deck. So you take the cards that you see which is six and subtract it from 52 to get 46 unseen cards total. Divide 46 by 16 to get your odds of getting a favorable card on the river which would be 2.875 to 1. So the call is good as long as the pot is about 3 times your bet(this isn't considering all the other factors such as number of players left in the pot, the opponent's table image and all that).
I have a very mathematical mind. Im very logic oriented, but these attributes start to go away under pressure and intense situations. So its a good thing im not in the army or anything.
When its my turn, im playing online all the time due to it being hard to find a good face to face game, there is a timer, and im a very slow thinker. So it really destroys the chance to put my math skills to work.
Anyway... what happens to the odds of hitting your hand when the turn has more than one other opponent in the above hypothetical situation? Im guessing if its just me and one other player the 2.875 to 1 odds are accurate, but if theres 2 other opponents, the odds against me double right? So if its me, and two other opponents by the turn in the above hypothetical hand I need the pot to be 5.75 times my bet to call? Then if there are 3 others it needs to be 11.5 times my bet?

This post is actually evidence that you aren't a logical thinker, as I'm pretty sure that a logical thinker can at least calculate their best 5-card hand correctly --- and you haven't done that. Based on the situation that you described, you already have the absolute nuts --- a straight from ace to 5 --- so you don't need any outs.

Talking about the sample situation as you (likely) intended, though, heroinsnattaren is correct --- you would have 12 outs (9 spades and 3 non-spade sixes). FWIW, you should also be discounting your spade outs since there is a small chance that your opponent has two better spades, making your flush a loser.

-HooDooKoo
 
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