[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
Hand 1: You have AAKK, and your opponent has A2QJ, and the board is KT98. So your opponent has the straight and you have a set and need to hit your full-house on the river to win, and there is no low draw. 10 of 40 unseen cards make your boat, and 30 of 40 cards get you nothing. So your equity as calculated by twodimes is 25%. You have 10 scoop outs.

Hand 2: You have A23K, your opponent has KKJ8, and the board is 679K. So your opponent has top set (KKK) and thus will always win high. You are drawing for low, and have 20 outs to win the low half (any A,2,3,4,5,8 that are not already in someone's hand). So 20 of 40 cards win you the low half of the pot, and the other 20 of 40 cards give you nothing. So your equity in twodimes is 25%. You have 20 half-pot outs.

Here's the important part: Your equity in both cases is the same. Your profit in both cases is the same your bank account after running this situation millions of times will be identical. A half pot out is equal to exactly one-half of a scooping out in terms of the money you win or lose.


[/ QUOTE ]

Here's another example: No suits; you have KKQQ; opponent has A256; pot $800; opponent bets $100; 4th street.

Hand one: Board is K34 7. You have 10 outs to split. You call $100. Run four times, you will invest $400 and win one $500 pot for a $100 profit, or $25 per hand.

Hand two: Board is K78 9. You have 10 outs to scoop. You call $100. Run four times, you will invest $400 and win one $1000 pot for a $600 profit, or $150 per hand.

No getting quartered, no duplicated hands, yet the 10 scoop outs are worth six times as much as the 10 split outs.

You may occasionally have to worry about splitting in high-only games, but not nearly to the same extent. Omaha 8, Stud 8, Binglaha, Studugi, River-down hi-lo hold 'em, Anaconda--all the hi-lo games share this fundamental concept.

jmo

Mack