Tips for Draws in Poker

Continued from: Basic Math for Playing Holdem Let's go into some examples of draws you should be willing to call with and ones you should release. First, some rules of thumb to consider for drawing hands in holdem poker:

Drawing Hand Tips

1) Consider the amount of money it would cost to call compared to the amount of money you could win if you "get there" (make your draw). Also consider your chances of making your hand. These are the two most basic considerations when determining whether you should pay to draw or not. A general rule of thumb for standard situations (early and mid game) is ½ of the pot. You should usually only be willing to call bets of ½ of the pot or less on most draws, such as open-ended straights and high flushes. That is a pretty general guide line and has to be modified under some circumstances.

2) Avoid drawing to weak or semi-strong hands. You should only draw to hands that are almost guaranteed to be the best hand if you make your hand. You should rarely chase draws to the low end of a straight; poker players call this drawing to the "idiot end." There's a reason for that. When you are drawing to the low end of a straight it is possible that someone else has a draw to a bigger straight. If you both make your straights and your opponents' straight is bigger, it will be difficult to not go bust. You should rarely chase low flushes. If you are drawing to a flush, you have to be very confident that you will have the best hand if you "get there" (hit your draw). It can be catastrophic to draw to a hand and hit your draw and have it be the second best hand.

3) Don't chase draws to straights or flushes when there is a pair on the board. This doesn't seem as bad as it really is; remember that the object of poker is to lose small pots and win big ones. The problem with drawing to a flush or straight with the board paired is two-fold. First of all, the paired board makes it possible for your opponent to have a full house that will beat you even if you do make your hand. The other, less obvious, reason that drawing with a paired board is rarely profitable pertains to implied odds and negative implied odds. Implied odds refer to the amount of money that isn't in the pot yet but that can be won on future bets. Reverse or negative implied odds refer to the amount of money you stand to lose on future betting rounds, usually situations when it is hard for you to see that you don't have the best hand.

Remember, the reason it is sometimes right to draw to flushes and straights is not just the money that is in the pot now; it is also the money that you might be able to win after you make your hand. Now, if there are two tens on the board and your opponent doesn't have one, it will be difficult for him to call a bet once a flush or straight also becomes possible. Even if he has pocket aces, if the board is paired and then three flush cards come out, there will just be too many hands that can beat him for him to pay off a big bet. That's why you don't have good implied odds with a paired board.

Conversely, if your opponent actually has three of a kind, there are two many cards out that would give him a full house; he may already have a full house. If your opponent has a full house or makes a full house and you hit a high flush, it will be very difficult for you to get away from the hand with any chips left. That means that drawing to a flush when your opponent has a boat, or is drawing to a boat, has huge negative implied odds (again, negative implied odds refer to the future bets you will have to pay off when you hit your hand, usually referring to situations where it appears that you have the best hand but do not). So, if your opponent doesn't have a set, you don't have good implied odds, so you can't win a big pot. If he does have a set, then you could end up losing a big pot due to the negative implied odds. To put it simple, drawing to a flush or a straight when there is a pair on the board will win small pots or lose big ones, even when you are "lucky" enough to make your hand. That's just not good poker. Don't draw when the board is paired.

4) Don't draw slim. By that I simply mean that you should not pay to draw when there are very few cards you can catch that will complete your hand. Stay away from back door flushes (three to a flush) and inside straight draws. Let your opponents do that.

5) Be more willing to draw to big hands when the blinds are very small compared to your stacks. The reason for this is that you have better implied odds when you and your opponent(s) have a lot of chips than when you don't have a lot of chips.

If you have A5h and the flop comes out 2h 8h Kd, and the fourth card is a Ts for a board of 2h 8h Kd Ts, you have a draw to the nut flush. If another heart comes off you will know that you have the best hand. An ace may also give you the best hand, so if your opponent leads out and bet's half the size of the pot on fourth street, should you call? Your not going to like the answer. The answer is… it depends. If you each have 200 in chips and the blinds are 25-50 and, let's say, there are 200 chips in the pot and your opponent bets 100, should you call? Probably not. It's only a half pot bet, but it's a no.

Now, if you each have 2000 chips and the blinds are 25-50 with 200 in the pot, should you call a 100 chip bet? Of course you should. The reason is that you can only win what you and your opponent have in front of you. In the first example you would be calling a 100 chip bet to win 200 chips plus the 100 chip bet. You'd have to call 100 chips to win another 300 chips. That's 3 to 1 against, and you are about 4 to 1 against filling your hand. Even if you make your draw and can get the rest of your opponent's chips in the pot, it's only a total of 400 chips, 4 to 1 at best against your 100 chip call. That's break even at best. You can find better spots. What are we doing? Gambling? If, however, you each had a ton of chips, say 2000, then you could justify the call based on the fact that you can win a lot more chips if you make your hand. That's called implied odds. The pot odds in the examples were identical, 3 to 1; the implied odds changed a lot, which changes a fold into a call.

Again, the big decision is, of course, how much you should be willing to call when drawing. The short answer is no more than one half of the pot, that's if you have an open-ended straight draw or a high flush draw. You can conceivably call up to the full size of the pot if your hand gives you a draw with some extra possible outs. For instance, you hold J9s, and the flop comes Ts 9d 8h. If someone bets the full size of the pot, you'll have a decision to make. I might even consider raising in that spot.

If there was enough money in the pot, I think an argument could even be made for moving all-in as a semi-bluff. A semi-bluff is a bet that's intended to take the pot down now, almost certainly which will not be the best hand if called, but which has potential to become the best hand on later streets. The most typical semi-bluff is when you have a flush draw on the flop and your opponent bets or checks to you. In this example you then move all-in hoping to end the hand now, but with the understanding that you will still have a reasonable chance to hit your flush if you are called, at about 2 to 1 odds against.

♣ Continued at: Playing Before the Flop in Holdem

♣ Back to the index of resources for playing free holdem poker.