Odds of Winning a Poker Hand

Video Transcript

"On behalf of ExpertVillage.com, my name is Michael Sohaski, and I'm here to tell you about percentages. How are percentages determined? Well, this is a short hand way to do it, without a calculator so that you will have rough estimates. There are fifty-two cards in the deck. For the sake of argument, let's say each card is worth two percent. Now, I have a pair of tens. What is the percentage chance that there will be an over card, in other words, that there will be a card higher than a ten on the flop? What are those cards? These cards are these, we have an ace, king, queen, jack. These are known as over cards. So what is the chance of this happening? Well, you take the four cards. One, two, three, four. Multiply that by the number of over cards which is four suits. that's sixteen. There are three cards that come up on the flop, times three. Then we have our approximate percent which is about forty-eight percent chance. So, if you are wondering just how strong your pocket tens may be, the chance is almost fifty percent that there will be an over card that will turn up on the flop. Now, if your opponent holds jacks, for instance, queen, king, or even an ace, your tens are, suddenly worth less. Needless to say, on the turn and the river, the percentages likewise go up that a card higher than your tens will show up. Indeed by the river, it would be surprising not to see a card higher than your pocket tens."