Off topic help, please

[vexvelour]

Hank and TKO-

Thank you so much for such detailed responses. TKO, I appreciate you taking the time out to spell it out in retard talk, it helps a lot. Your second post is extremely helpful to me.

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The key is figuring out which outs of yours are live. You may also consider "bluff outs", which mean that your opponent might fold if a scare card comes and you make a move to pick up the pot.

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Would this factor into my math? As of now in my poker learning, I'd probably just read his betting to see if a bluff would work on a scare card. Thanks again for such great responses.

In terms of factoring bluff outs into your math, consider your chances of success.

eg.
vexvelour: 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]7 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
Flop: 9 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (3 players)
You have 6 clean outs to your straight. However, if you are 100% sure you will win the pot if the flush comes and you bluff it, then you have an additional 9 outs. If you are at least 50% sure of your bluff, then you can count 4.5 bluff outs to the flush. You now have 10.5 outs, which is about 3.5:1 (instead of the 7:1 from your 6 outs alone). However, with bluff outs, you cannot rely on implied odds to turn a fold into a call, as you are looking specifically NOT to gain any more bets.

Of course, there may be times where bluffing is not part of your plan, in which case it would make no sense to calculate your bluff outs.