What is an out in poker?

An out is an unseen card that turns your hand into the likely winner. A flush draw has 9: the 13 cards of its suit minus the 4 you can see.

How many outs does an open-ended straight draw have?

Eight: four cards of each of the two ranks that complete it. A gutshot, which needs one rank only, has four.

Should I count an out that completes two draws twice?

No. A card that completes both your flush and your straight is one card: with a flush draw and an open-ended draw, you have 15 outs, not 17.

How do I turn outs into a percentage?

With one card to come, divide your outs by the unseen cards: once the turn is out, 9 outs give 9 ÷ 46 = 19.6% on the river. With two cards to come, use the table on this page, or the rule of 2 and 4 for a fast estimate.

Poker Outs: How to Count Them and What They Are Worth

By the Poker Puzzle Trainer team · Published October 20, 2026

Poker outs are the unseen cards that turn your hand into the likely winner. To count them, take the cards that complete your hand and subtract those you can already see: a flush draw has 13 cards of its suit, 4 of them in view, so 9 outs. Count a card only once even if it completes two draws, and discount the outs that could still lose.

Count the outs of this draw

You defend the big blind with 9♣8♣ against the button. The flop comes K♥ 7♣ 2♣ and the button bets 25% of the pot. How many outs do you have, and is that enough to continue? Fold, call or raise?

This puzzle on its own page →

See the answer

The outs. Four clubs are in view, 2 in your hand and 2 on the board: 13 − 4 = 9 outs for the flush. A 9 or an 8 pairs you, but that pair is not likely enough to be the best hand to count as an out.

The price. For every 100 in the pot, a bet of 25 makes it 125, and you call 25 for a final pot of 150: you need 16.7%.

The decision. Even counting the turn alone, 9 outs out of 47 unseen cards give 19.1%, already above the price, and the river is still to come. The expected answer is a call: the draw stays cheap and the button keeps its bluffs.

Outs and exact odds of common draws

Draw	Outs	Flop to river	Turn to river
flush draw	9	35%	19.6%
open-ended straight	8	31.5%	17.4%
two overcards	6	24.1%	13%
gutshot	4	16.5%	8.7%
flush + open-ended	15	54.1%	32.6%

"Flop to river" is the chance to hit with two cards to come, out of 47 unseen cards; "turn to river" is the chance with one card to come, out of 46. Both are computed exactly by counting the cards. For a quick estimate at the table, the rule of 2 and 4 gets close.

Three counting mistakes

Counting a card twice. With J♠T♠ on Q♠ 9♦ 2♠, the flush draw has 9 outs and the straight draw 8, but the K♠ and the 8♠ are in both counts: you have 15 outs, not 17.
Counting outs that lose. With 9♣8♣ on K♥ 7♣ 2♣, a club gives you nothing against A♣Q♣, whose flush is bigger. When a bigger draw is likely, discount those outs.
Counting pairs as outs. An overcard is an out only if the pair it makes is likely to be the best hand; against a strong range, it often is not.

From outs to a decision

Outs give your chance to hit, the core of a draw's equity; on their own they do not tell you whether to call. Compare that equity with the price of the call, the pot odds: if your chance to hit is higher than the equity the price requires, the call pays. When hitting also wins you chips on later streets, the implied odds let you call a little below the price.

Keep going

The other half of the decision: pot odds.
Practice with the price: the pot odds quiz.
Exact equities against a hand: the best poker equity calculators 2026.
One spot every day: the daily poker puzzle.
When hitting costs more than it pays: reverse implied odds.
Exact numbers for a common case: flush draw vs top pair.
The coin flip in exact numbers: pair vs overcards.
A set against the draws: set vs flush draw.
The straight version: open-ended straight draw vs overpair.
Flush and straight draw together: the combo draw.
Every key probability on one page: the poker odds chart.
Exact equities on an ace-high dry board: the ace-high dry flop.
When the flop has three cards of one suit: the monotone flop.
Hands built for draws: suited connectors.
Betting a draw instead of calling: the semi-bluff.
Giving a draw a free card: slowplay.
When the turn completes the opponent's draw: turn strategy.
Hitting on the turn or the river, and what a bet changes: equity realization.
What the next card costs a draw: the protection bet.
Draws that need the turn and the river: backdoor draws.

Today's spot →

All of these reference numbers fit on one page in our poker cheat sheet.

Sources

Definition of an out: PokerSkill glossary (read October 10, 2026).
Every percentage on this page is computed exactly by counting the unseen cards, checked on October 10, 2026.
The answer to the spot follows rules written by the app's author; it does not come from a solver.