My friend is waiting for a litter to arrive and is hoping to buy a puppy,she has wanted a red poodle for many years and has just retired so her dream is about to become a reality.The mother of the puppies is a lovely deep red colour and the dad is pale cream but seems to come from a  long line of creams,doesnt seem to be red on that side.What a re the chances of there being red puppies.I know she shouldn't pick by colour,just a life long dream because she loves them.thanks

Wish I could be more helpful but not knowing much about your breed all I can say is that in my breed red is recessive and in order to get a red puppy in a litter the parents must either be red ( aka liver etc) or carry the gene for red . IMO if the dad is from a line of creams ,I 'm sorry to say that the chances of a red puppy will be very small indeed. But, your puppy will have a percentage chance of carrying the red gene and should you breed from her to a stud either red or carrying red you have a good chance of having reds in the litter. Breeding is all about forward planning. However, no good breeder will ever breed for colour alone, as I'm sure you are aware -type. temperament and health issues should be priority.

Not a geneticist but have experience with colour genetics in my breed.

Depends what you call RED.  Real red is EE from Yellow to Red as in setter Red. For example Welsh Springers are RED, but English Springers are Liver/Brown, (in some breeds chocolate) but this colour in border Collies is often erroneously called Red, as many of them are not a dark liver/chocolate/Brown colour.

As I understand it in Poodles Brown is Brown (the colour I referred to in English Springers).  then they have Red, and I am nto sure if Cream is of the same genetic make-up as Red but dilute.

If it is then you should get Red pups in such a litter, unless I am completely off track..

Are creams 'Apricot' in poodles ? - I think the Apricot is the 'Cream' - or dilute to brown ?
not in this breed so not sure.

If cream is Apricot - or is the dilute to the brown then presuming the brown is red then the Dad is the dilute to red so would carry the red gene being a dilute of it.

Unless im way off track - which is VERY possible as I dont know this breed at all.

As I now understand it you get:
Black
Blue
Silver
Cream
White
Apricot
Brown
and Red
Red standard poodles are relatively new and lines must show 1 of 2 kennels in the pedigree - Palmares or Shangri-la