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Flawless Poker

Universal Law 13

SLINGSHOTS

Runner-runner draws

A backdoor needs both the turn and the river. It is a small piece of the pot, and it is still a real piece.

Both the turn and the river have to arrive. The straight row is one layout: eight-seven on a six-deuce-king flop, needing nine-ten, five-nine, or four-five.
Draw on the flopChancePlain English
Backdoor flush, three to a flush after the flop4.16%1 in 24
Backdoor straight, 8s 7d on 6c 2h Kd4.44%1 in 23

Each of those backdoors is a little over 4% of the pot if the hand is all in and the draw is clean. Small, and still part of the count.

When some outs are already gone.

The dead-out counts below are examples: cards you treat as burned or sitting in another hand. The percentages are the exact chance for the live outs that remain. Turn to river is one card from 46. Flop to river is both cards.

Sample counts of outs already gone. The percentages match the clean-outs table for the live count that is left.
DrawOuts already goneLive outsTurn to riverFlop to river
Flush draw0919.6%35.0%
Flush draw1817.4%31.5%
Flush draw2715.2%27.8%
Open-ended straight draw0817.4%31.5%
Open-ended straight draw1715.2%27.8%
Open-ended straight draw2613.0%24.1%

These counts are for study and post-session review. Where a row comes from a simulation, the caption names how many deals were run. Where a stack or a pot is made up, the caption says so. None of these figures is an instruction for a live pot.