ultimate texas holdem math questions.

I have just recently started playing UTH and I love it. Seems like it is really hard to get destroyed all day and eventually the blind hands seem to catch up to the dealer and so many people play so poorly and that alone is enough entertainment. Anyway I have some questions about the math of the game.

1. In the cases of when you play just a high card on the last bet. there seem to be three situations. if there is a pair on the board and your high card holds up you get paid ante bet play bet and get refunded blind and ante posted bets which you would have lost had you folded, so this spot seems to me to pay 4-1 for the play bet. In the case of the dealer does not qualify you win play bet and get refunded ante and blind bet that you would have lost, so in essence you are getting 3-1 to call. Finally in the last case you play the board and hope to push, you get refunded blind and ante bets in essence getting a return of 2-1 on otherwise lost money. In order to make a decision I think to justify a play bet with a high card in the 4-1 the dealer needs to have about 23 outs or less not counting the possibilities of pocket pairs, in the case of 3-1 I was figuring around 20 outs or less, and in the 2-1 case I was thinking about 17 outs or less. Can anybody give me more info on this, it seems like instead of remembering the chart, counting the dealer outs would make it simple although counting the outs does not account for pocket pairs by the dealer.

2. My next question is as follows: I was playing at a table where everyone was showing their hands and the Casino really did not seem to care. What strategies can be implemented to take advantage of the fact that you know extra cards for example:

a) You have K5 a 4x place bet hand, but the guy next to you has a king also. Should you still bet the 4x bet or should you wait to see the flop?
b) The other question I have is about playing with my wife. I understand that the other players hands don't directly affect you chances of winning or losing, but if my wife and I are playing at the same table, are we at an advantage, disadvantage or it doesn't matter from the perspective that we are playing two hands at the same table from essentially the same bankroll.. In essence are our hands working against each other because it is harder to catch cards with both hands, thus making it harder to win both. Or possibly do we pick up an edge by knowing each others cards and somehow take advantage of situation "a" above. For now my preference is that we play at separate tables but I don't know if this is a valid thought or not.

Thank you all in advance for any help you might be able to give me on these situations.

GrandpaVegas

First, I suggest buying James Grosjean's strategy card from LVA. There is a link to it from WoO. Simple to use and understand, and very close to optimal.

As for knowing other players' cards, this helps a little bit, but not very much. There is a writeup about it on discountgambling.net. Remember that with a high card, a lot of your equity comes from the fact that your hand wins unimproved a lot of the time.

If you like playing with your wife, you should play on the same table. You are not hurting each other, and instead can gain a little through knowing each others cards.