DEAL ME IN; TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER in association with paddypowerpoker.com.

Byline: BY MAL COOLHANDLUKE DAWSON

It's difficult to calculate the exact odds of hitting a drawing hand when you're sitting at the poker table.

You could sit at home with a calculator figure out the odds for every possible combination of draws and then memorize them. But you would need the brains of Einstein to do that.

For those of us without a perfect memory there's an easier way. And it proves that poker keeps your mind sharp.

The first thing you need to do is to figure out how many outs you have. An out is any card that gives you a made hand.

To do this, count the number of cards available that give you the hand you are drawing to.

For example, suppose you hold Ace of spades and the 8 of spades and the flop comes the Queen of clubs, 9 of spades and the 3 of spades. You have the nut flush draw (that means the best possible hand) so there are 13 spades in the deck and you have 2 in your hand and the two on the board.

That leaves nine spades left in the deck and two chances to hit one of them.

So you need to figure out your chances of hitting your flush by multiplying your outs times the number of chances to hit it.

In this case that would be nine outs multiplied by two chances, or 18. Then take that number multiply it by two and add the percentage sign.

The approximate percentage of the times you will hit the flush is 36 per cent.

If you are going for a straight draw and on the flop you have a 6, 7 off-suit and the flop is 4, 5, Queen, then you would have an open-ended straight draw with 8 outs to hit your straight (four threes and four eights). Eight outs with two cards to come give you 16 outs.

Multiply it by two and you will hit the straight approximately 32 per cent of the time.

THIS week's bad beat was given to Angela by Stevie "Soft Chips" Sherlock on Monday night.

It's the final table with seven players left. The blinds are 2,000 and 4,000 and Angela, who is short-stacked, goes all-in under the gun for 22,000.

It gets folded round to Stevie in the small blind who is a massive chip leader and calls with an 8, 6 off-suit.

Angela shows pocket Aces, the flop is 4, 6, King. The turn card is another 6 giving Stevie trip 6s and Angela needing an Ace to win, but the river is another King giving Angela two pair and Stevie a full house 6s full of Kings. We don't call him soft chips for nothing.

ZEROZEROPOKER.COM holds its regular Thursday night tournament in Belfast's Devenish Complex. It is a pounds 20 tournament with three optional re-buys of pounds 10. The average payout is pounds 1,600-plus for 40 players. LISBURN'S Hibs Club holds its charity Texas Hold'em tournaments on Friday nights starting at 8.30pm. There is an extra allocation of chips if you register before 8pm.

MAGHERAFELT'S JPC Poker holds a Thursday night tournament which is pounds 50 with an optional pounds 50 re-buy starting at 8.30pm. Sunday nights is a pounds 100 with an optional pounds 100 re-buy and also starts at 8.30pm. Phone Matt for more details on 07866 694840.

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