However, using the rule of 4 and 2 is a much easier way to calculate your odds in poker, and it can also be applied to your gutshot draws. When the calculations are done in full, the odds of making your gutshot are 8.5% to make it on the turn, and 16.5% to make it by the river, assuming you hold your inside straight draw on the flop. Holding a gutshot straight draw in a game of poker gives you exactly four outs to make your straight if we disregard any other outs that might also give you the best hand. In fact, such draws can be quite powerful bluffing hands, especially if you hold overcards to the board or a back door flush draw along with them. Yet, four outs to what is often the nuts are not nothing, and you should not completely disregard gutshots, as players used to do back in the day. Quite clearly, this type of straight draw is much weaker than an open-ended straight draw, as it only gives you four outs instead of eight.
So, the first question we have to ask is, what is a gutshot in poker, and how do we recognize that we are holding such a draw?Ī gutshot straight draw, or an inside straight draw, is a type of drawing hand that can improve into a straight with exactly one card rank.įor instance, on a board of 4h5sJd, holding any 78 combo would mean you have a gutshot straight draw, as any six would make you a straight. What is a Gutshot Straight Draw in Poker?
