How to Count Combos and Blockers in Poker

Counting combos in poker is an intermediate skill that can really elevate your game to the next level.

While this topic may seem intimidating at first, counting combos is relatively simple once you understand a few basic concepts.

This article will show you how to count combos like a pro, which will help you make better decisions at the felt.

Let's get right into it.

What Are Combos in Poker?

A poker combo (or a combination) refers to specific hole cards a player can hold in a given spot. Poker combos are suit-specific.

For example, A♥A♦ is one combo, and A♥A♠ is a different combo.

Of course, the exact order of cards in a combo is not important (i.e. A♥A♠ and A♠A♥ are the same combo).

Why Are Poker Combos Important?

Counting combos is an important skill when it comes to hand reading. In no-limit hold’em, there are 169 possible starting hand combinations.

This is represented in the starting hand matrix below.

However, you are not equally likely to be dealt any of these hands.

That’s because there’s a different number of combos of each hand.

In no-limit hold’em, there are:

6 combos of each pocket pair

12 combos of unpaired offsuit hands

4 combos of unpaired suited hands

In practice, this means you’re much more likely to be dealt an unpaired hand than a pocket pair.

Same goes for your opponent, of course.

What Are Blockers in Poker?

Blockers are cards in your hand or on the board that reduce the number of specific combos from your opponent’s range.

For example, let’s say you are dealt A5s.

An Ace in your hand reduces the number of combos of pocket Aces from your opponent’s range from 6 to only 3, and the number of AK combos from 16 to 12.

Why Are Combos and Blockers Important?

Hand reading

Combos and blockers can help you make better reads and narrow down your opponent’s range.

By counting the number of specific combos in your opponent’s range, you’ll be able to make better in-game decisions.

Bluffing

If you know your opponent is less or more likely to have a certain hand, you can make more effective bluffs against them.

For example, if you have an Ace in your hand, your opponent may be more likely to fold to your 3-bet bluff preflop, because they are less likely to have strong combos like AK, AQ and so on.

Equity Calculation

Combos help you calculate the probability of winning based on ranges and potential outs.

How to Count Combos in Poker?

Counting combos of potential sets in your opponent’s range is quite simple, because there’s only 6 possible combos of pocket pairs.

With no blockers, there are 6 combos of pocket pairs.

With 1 blocker, there are 3 remaining combos of pocket pairs.

With 2 blockers, there’s only 1 remaining combo of a certain pocket pair.

For example, let’s say you see the following flop:

A♥9♣4♦

There are 9 potential combos of sets in your opponent’s range.

But let’s say you are dealt A♠5♠.

Now, there’s only one potential combo of pocket Aces in your opponent’s range (A♥A♦).

What about other combinations like one pair hands, two pair hand and so on?

The rule to count combos of two pair hands is to multiply the number of each unseen card with each other.

This may sound confusing, so let’s use an example hand to simplify it.

Let’s say you see the following flop:

A♣Q♥7♦

How many combos of AQ does your opponent have in their range?

There are 3 available unseen Aces, and 3 available unseen Queens.

So 3 x 3 = 9.

There are 9 potential combos of AQ in your opponent’s range.

Now, let’s add a blocker to see how it influences the number of combos.

Let’s say you are dealt Q♦J♦.

Now, there’s 3 unseen Aces and 2 unseen Queens, so 3 x 2 = 6.

Now there’s only 6 available combos of AQ in your opponent’s range.

Going a step further, there’s only 1 potential combo of AQs, and that is A♠Q♠.

So you can see how blockers can dramatically influence the number of combos in your opponent’s range.

So keep that in mind next time you try to narrow down your opponent’s range.

You can use the same principle to count combos of other hand combinations like one pair hands.

You simply multiply the number of unseen cards by each other.

Of course, don’t forget to take the blockers in your hand into account!

Counting Combos Exercises

1. You are dealt A♦2♦ and the flop is:

A♣T♥8♦

How many combos of Ace-King are in your opponent’s range?

2. The flop is: A♠J♥2♥

Your opponent 3-bets preflop and you assume their range is JJ+ and AQ+.

How many combos of top pair and sets do they have in their range?

3. You are dealt A♣K♣s and the flop is: J♠T♥9♦

How many combos of potential straights are in your opponent’s range?

4. The flop is: J♣9♣2♦

Assuming your opponent is only playing a range of 65s+, how many combos of flush draws do they have?

Your opponent can’t have the clubs combos of QJ, JT, T9, and 98, which only leaves AKs, KQs, 87s, 76s, 65s.

5. You are dealt J♠T♠ and the flop is K♦T♣9♥.

Assuming your opponent is not playing K9o and T9o preflop, how many two pair combos do they have in their range?

Answers:

1. 8 - There are 2 AKs and 6 AKo combos.

2. 30 - 3 AA, 3 JJ, 12 AK, 12 AQ

3. 28 - 16 Q8, 12 KQ

4. 5 - Your opponent can’t have the clubs combos of QJ, JT, T9, and 98, which only leaves AKs, KQs, 87s, 76s, 65s.

5. 9 - 6 KT, 2 K9s, 1 T9s