Free poker tool
Poker Cheat Sheet
Rankings are step one
Sharkling turns them into real decisions with a solver-graded trainer.
To print or save this as a PDF, use your browser’s print dialog — Cmd-P on a Mac, Ctrl-P elsewhere. The layout below is built to survive it.
1. Hand rankings, strongest to weakest
- 1Royal flushAs Ks Qs Js Ts0.00%
- 2Straight flush9h 8h 7h 6h 5h0.03%
- 3Four of a kindQs Qh Qd Qc 7s0.17%
- 4Full houseKs Kh Kd 4s 4c2.6%
- 5FlushAd Jd 9d 6d 3d3.0%
- 6Straight9c 8d 7h 6s 5c4.6%
- 7Three of a kind8s 8h 8d Kc 4s4.8%
- 8Two pairJs Jh 5d 5c As23.5%
- 9One pairTs Th Ad 8c 3s43.8%
- 10High cardAh Qd 9s 6c 3h17.4%
The last column is how often you finish with that hand across seven cards in Hold’em, not the odds of being dealt it in five.
2. Draw odds by number of outs
| Outs | Typical draw | Flop → turn | Flop → river | Turn → river |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Pocket pair improving to a set | 4.3% | 8.4% | 4.3% |
| 4 | Gutshot straight draw | 8.5% | 16.5% | 8.7% |
| 6 | Two overcards | 12.8% | 24.1% | 13.0% |
| 8 | Open-ended straight draw | 17.0% | 31.5% | 17.4% |
| 9 | Flush draw | 19.1% | 35.0% | 19.6% |
| 12 | Flush draw plus a gutshot | 25.5% | 45.0% | 26.1% |
| 15 | Flush draw plus an open-ender | 31.9% | 54.1% | 32.6% |
3. Pot odds: the price of a call
| Bet you face | Odds laid | Equity needed |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter pot | 5 : 1 | 16.7% |
| Third pot | 4 : 1 | 20.0% |
| Half pot | 3 : 1 | 25.0% |
| Two-thirds pot | 2.5 : 1 | 28.6% |
| Three-quarters pot | 2.33 : 1 | 30.0% |
| Pot | 2 : 1 | 33.3% |
| One and a half times pot | 1.67 : 1 | 37.5% |
| Twice pot | 1.5 : 1 | 40.0% |
Read it as call ÷ (pot + bet + call). A $50 bet into $100 means calling $50 to win $150, so 50 ÷ 200 = 25%.
4. Preflop and flop frequencies
| Situation | How often |
|---|---|
| Dealt a specific pocket pair, such as aces | 1 in 221 (0.45%) |
| Dealt any pocket pair | 1 in 17 (5.9%) |
| Dealt ace-king, suited or offsuit | 1 in 83 (1.2%) |
| A pocket pair flops a set or better | 11.8% (1 in 8.5) |
| Two unpaired cards flop a pair or better | 32.4% |
| Two suited cards flop a flush draw | 10.9% |
| Two suited cards flop a flush | 0.8% |
| Bigger pair beats smaller pair, all in preflop | 81% |
| Pair beats two overcards, all in preflop | 55% |
| Ace-king beats ace-queen, all in preflop | 74% |
5. Position, in order of action
- UTGUnder the gunFirst to act before the flop with five players still behind. The tightest range at the table.
- HJHijackCalled MP at six-handed. One seat wider than under the gun; mid pairs and suited broadways come in.
- COCutoffDirectly right of the button. Suited connectors and offsuit broadways become profitable opens here.
- BTNButtonLast to act on the flop, turn and river. The widest opening range and the most profitable seat in poker.
- SBSmall blindPosts half a big blind, then acts first on every street after the flop. The worst seat at the table.
- BBBig blindPosts a full blind and acts last before the flop. Defends wider than anyone because of the price already paid.
Nine-handed adds UTG+1, UTG+2 and the lojack between under the gun and the hijack. Everything from the cutoff onwards is unchanged.
6. The rule of 2 and 4
- One card to come: outs × 2. Eight outs on the turn is about 16%, against a true 17.4%.
- Two cards to come, all in already: outs × 4. Nine outs on the flop is about 36%, against a true 35.0%.
- Above eight outs, subtract the excess: (outs × 4) − (outs − 8). Fifteen outs gives 53% by that correction against a true 54.1%, where plain ×4 would say 60%.
- If betting continues, use ×2 per street. Multiplying by four when you still have to pay for the river is the single most expensive misuse of the rule.
Want to know how every hand performs in every spot?
Hand rankings tell you who wins at showdown. Sharkling's neural solver tells you how to play the hand before you get there.
How to use a cheat sheet properly
A reference sheet is a scaffold, not a strategy. The rankings and the seat names are things you should stop reading within a week or two of playing — they become automatic through use, and looking them up is only useful while they are not. The odds tables are different. Those stay useful for a long time, because the arithmetic they compress is real arithmetic that nobody does at the table.
Learn them in the order they cost you money. Position first: opening too many hands from early seats is the most expensive habit in poker, and the fix is a list you can memorise in an afternoon. Pot odds second, because every call you make is priced whether you price it or not. Draw odds third.
The three numbers that do most of the work
If you learn nothing else from this page, learn these. A flush draw comes in 35% of the time from flop to river and 19% on the next card alone. A half-pot bet asks you to be right 25% of the time. A pocket pair flops a set 11.8% of the time, which is why small pairs want cheap flops and multiple opponents rather than raised pots heads-up.
Those three cover most of the decisions a beginner gets wrong. The flush-draw figure stops you calling turn bets as though you still had two cards coming. The pot-odds figure stops you folding hands that were priced in. The set figure stops you calling a raise with deuces for a third of your stack.
What a cheat sheet cannot tell you
Every number here answers the question “how often?” None of them answer “what should I do?” Pot odds tell you the price of a call, but not whether raising is better than calling, and raising is frequently better. Draw odds ignore implied odds entirely: a gutshot with 16.5% equity can be a fine call at 4-to-1 if stacks are deep and the payoff when it hits is large, and a clear fold at the same price when they are short.
The tables also assume your outs are clean. Nine flush-draw outs are worth nine only if none of them pairs the board into a full house for your opponent, and on a paired board they are worth considerably less. Counting outs honestly is a skill of its own — the full guide to counting outs covers the discounting rules that this page has no room for.
Where to go next
A cheat sheet gets you to competent. Past that, the useful work is drilling the spots no chart covers: which hands to three-bet, and how to price a draw when the stacks are deep. That is decision practice rather than memorisation.
Frequently asked questions
What should be on a poker cheat sheet?
Four things, and no more than that: the ten hand rankings in order, the number of outs each common draw has and how often it gets there, the equity a call needs against each bet size, and the seat names in order of action. Everything else is strategy rather than reference.
Can I use a cheat sheet while I play?
At a home game or a live casino table, no — looking at notes at the table is against the rules almost everywhere, and it slows the game down. Online, most sites allow static charts open beside the table. Either way the goal is to stop needing it.
What is the rule of 2 and 4 in poker?
Multiply your outs by 2 for a rough percentage chance of hitting on the next card, or by 4 if two cards are still to come and no more betting can happen. Nine outs on the flop is about 36% by the rule and 35.0% in fact, which is close enough to act on.
How often does a flush draw come in?
A flopped flush draw has nine outs. It hits on the turn 19.1% of the time, and by the river 35.0% of the time if you see both cards. If you fold to a bet on the turn, the number that matters is the one-card figure, not the 35%.
How much equity do I need to call a pot-sized bet?
33.3%. You risk one pot to win two, so you break even by winning one call in three. Against a half-pot bet the figure is 25%, and against a two-thirds pot bet it is 28.6%.
Related tools
- Preflop ChartsSolver-generated opening ranges for all six seats.
- Equity CalculatorHand vs hand, hand vs range, range vs range.