Any straight draw with more than 8 outs is considered a wrap. For PLO newbies, it can be time consuming to count up all your outs when you could have as many as 20 (not even counting flush and boat outs). In fact, many seasoned players just guess at the number of outs because it can take too long to count in a game time scenario.
But don’t let that be you! Study these pages and learn how wraps are structured. Then just memorize the number of outs for each wrap type. Knowing your outs will help you quickly turn gray areas into clear fold, call, or raise scenarios.
Wrap Structures
All straight draws classified as wraps use both board cards and 3 or 4 of your hole cards to wrap around (or surround) the board cards. Wrapping the board can mean your hole cards are above, below, in between the board cards or all of the above.
If you do use 4 hole cards and they are sequential with no board cards in the middle, only those 3 hole cards closest to the board should be used for calculating outs. In this case, the last card in a four card sequential rundown is still useful though as a higher redraw if you hit your straight.
When we look at wrap structures, we’ll use H’s to reflect your hole cards and B’s to reflect the board.
The hand below would be represented by the format H H H B B H
Hand: Q♥ J♠ 10♦ 7♣
Flop: 9♥ 8♠ 2♦
7(*4), 10(*3), J(*3), Q(*3) = 16 outs
Nut Wraps versus Sucker Wraps
When evaluating a wrap the most important thing to know is the number of nut outs. Drawing to outs that aren’t the nuts is a good way to get stacked since it may give your opponent a better hand. That’s not to say non-nut outs aren’t important, because they can be helpful, but nut-outs are key.
In this next example H H B B H you have 17 outs, but only 11 of which are the nuts.
You: J♥ 10♠ 7♦ 4♣
Flop: 9♥ 8♠ 2♦
To hit your straight you need one of the following:
6(*4), 7(*3), 10(*3), J(*3), Q(*4) = 17 outs
Only 11 of these outs are the nuts: 6(*4), 7(*3), Q(*4) and that means the 10’s and J’s could give your opponent a higher straight if they are holding QJ or Q10.
Use outs to calculate your winning chances: The rules of 2 and 4
There’s a simple rule of thumb to figure out your chance of winning a pot. It’s not exact, but it will get you within a couple percent. Take your number of outs and multiply them by twice the number of cards that remain to come. So on the flop you’ll multiply the outs by 4 and on the turn multiply the outs by 2.
Example:
You have 10 outs on the flop. Multiply 10 by 4 and you are about 40% likely to win.
You have 10 outs on the turn. Multiply 10 by 2 and you are about 20% likely to win.