Odds for idiots OR "the rule of 4/2"

[AZDuffman]

Good posts on odds above, but at the table you are excited and not doing complex math well so a few "shortcuts." As the saying goes, they are not perfect but close enough for government work. (And maybe better considering the government doesn't even read what it is spending $800MMM of our money on, but I digress.)

I won't go into counting outs again. But say post-flop you have 5. Simply take the number "5" and multiply it by 4 to see your odds of getting what you need on either 4th or 5th street. Thus you have a 20% chance post-flop. So you need 5:1 to make it worth the odds.

Now, with only the river card to come you do the same but multiply by 2. So it is a 10% chance of "rivering" the other guy and picking up that card you need.

For math geeks out there I know these are not "exact" percentages. But at the table multiplication by 2 or 4 is a lot simpler than doing long division in your head.

[KillJoy]

Thanks for this, I completely forgot about it! I've updated the post about odds and outs with this tips