Poker Math That Matters

Getting Started with
Numbers
Working with Fractions, Percentages and Ratios
Let’s get started by introducing some gambling terms. The first
term to introduce is probability. Probability is used to describe
the number of times a thing will happen out of the total chances
for it to happen. This is written as a fraction.
1
7
This fraction is read aloud “1 out of 7”. The total number of
possible outcomes is on the bottom (7), and the target outcome is
on the top (1).
Let’s look at an example. You are standing in front of four
doors. Behind one of these doors is a new car. What is the
probability that you pick the door with the car behind it? Let’s
start with the bottom number of the fraction. Again, this is the
number of total outcomes. You have four total outcomes. You
could pick any one of the four doors. So, the number four goes
on the bottom. The top number is the number of target
outcomes. There is only one door with a car behind it, so you
only have one target outcome. The number one goes on the top.
The probability of you picking the car is one out of four ( 1
4 ).
How about rolling a die? What is the probability of rolling a 5?
Let’s start with the bottom number again. There are six total
23