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The worst position that a poker player could put themselves in is a position where they are stuck with no outs. No outs means that you have absolutely no way to win; and it is a terrible feeling. No matter how bad of a call you may make during a poker game just make sure that you have outs. Putting yourself in a position where you are drawing dead is a sure way to end your night fast. Even if you are ahead at the time of going all in; you still want to have more outs to improve your hand just in case.

One movie that is often referenced is the movie Rounders. In this movie the main character gets a hand where he thinks he is trapping his opponent but he is actually getting dominated. In the movie he was holding an Ace 9. On the flop he had two pair and then on the turn he got another 9 to give him a full house. Well, he ended up losing all of his life savings on that hand to a better full house (Aces over 9’s). Afterwards he talks about not having any outs. Even though he had a great hand he didn’t leave himself with any outs. Going up against the hand he was against was unbeatable.

Of course, there is no way to know that the other guy had the hand he had and you would never fold a full house because you don’t have any outs. The point is however, that outs are very important. No matter how bad of a position you seem to be in you can always get out of it with an out. It may hardly ever happen; but at least you have something to back you up.

Sometimes having outs is actually better then having a made hand already. For example; if you have an open ended straight draw (8 outs) and a flush draw (11 outs) then you are going to be better off then a player with a hand that is already made. You could be up against a pair of aces, and you are going to have a better chance to win in that position. With 19 outs on the flop you would have roughly a 77% chance to catch one of your outs and win the hand. So which position would you rather be in?

That is the mistake that a lot of people make and don’t quite understand. They think that because they already have a pair that they are ahead. The fact is however, that they are making a big mistake. They will lose that hand 77% of the time that they are in that position. With only a 23% chance that their hand is going to hold up they are far from ahead. That is a race that they are only going to win 1 out of 4 times. A lot of the time having outs is more valuable then having pairs or even trips.