Poker Math That Matters

50
The 4/2 Rule
I hope you’ve taken some time to practice counting outs on your
own and are getting pretty quick at it. Remember in our
previous section, we talked about the percentage we often see on
TV when players are in a hand. In this section, we’re going to
talk about that percentage, where it comes from and how to get it
quickly at the table.
As I’ve already said, this percentage tells us how often the player
will win the hand on average by the river. Many players call it
the equity in the hand, or more specifically, the showdown
equity in the hand.
Player A – 19%
Player B – 81%
If the hand went to showdown, player A would win the pot 19%
of the time, and player B would win the pot the remaining 81%
of the time. Being able to estimate your equity is important in
poker. We’ll talk about why in the next section, but for now,
let’s find out how to estimate this percentage quickly when we’re
playing. Of course, there is computer software you can use to
help you get equities in a given hand. One very popular one is
Pokerstove. It’s very easy to use, and it’s free. You can
download it at pokerstove.com. Let’s use this example.
Hero: A♠T♠
Villain: A♦A♥
Board: 5♠6♠2♦