How to play draws in Texas Holdem Poker
When playing limit Texas Holdem there will be many times when you will not have the best hand but instead are drawing to improve to the best hand. When deciding whether or not you should call a bet, fold, or raise with your draw you must thoroughly understand poker probabilities and how to calculate pot odds. Once you have these principles in your arsenal you will need to take your analysis one step further by thinking through what your opponents may have and how this affects your draw. This is discussed in detail below. Drawing to the dummy end of the straight There are several poker draws which really should be avoided unless the pot is quite large and you are quite certain of what your opponents have. One of which is drawing to the low end of the straight (also called drawing to the dummy end of the straight). When you are drawing to the low end of the straight you have a hand such as 6, 7 and there is a flop such as 8, 9, Q. If there is 3 or 4 way action in this hand and it is up to you to call a bet you should fold. Although this sounds counterintuitive to the poker pot odds article noted above it really is not. Instead it is applying intelligence to the poker pot odd concept and making it flexible for real life situations. The reason that you should fold in our example is for several factors which you should consider when drawing. What do your opponents have? Your opponents could easily have already flopped a straight with Jack, ten. If this is the case then you have absolutely no way that you can win this hand and you are drawing dead. An opponent could also easily have queen, jack. If this is the case then you have only 4 outs (hoping for one of the four cards in the deck that will help you win) to win the hand because if a ten comes your opponent will make a higher straight. Finally, if your opponent has queen/ten there are only 3 tens left that you were hoping for. Therefore, if you decide to play this hand you're really drawing to a 5 and hoping that no one already has a straight. That means you have very few outs if you are even drawing live and why I recommend throwing this hand away immediately. There's a reason they call it the "dummy" end of the straight and that's because only dummies draw to it. Now consider if you have ten, jack and the flop is 9, 8, 2. You now have an excellent chance at winning the hand because there are no high cards on the flop and you may be able to steal the pot right there with a bet. If you don't have the best hand you have 8 outs to improve to the nuts (4 queens and 4 sevens) and you might be able to win the hand if a Jack or a ten comes. This potentially increases your outs to win the hand by 6 more cards(3 jacks or 3 tens). Thus you have many more possibilities and a good example of why the high end of the straight is so much more valuable when drawing.
Drawing to a flush when the board is paired
Another mistake that many players make is drawing to a flush when the board is paired. For example, if there has been a preflop raise and there is a board such as A, A, K with 2 hearts and you have queen, 9 of hearts you should realize that unless the pot is large you may want to give this hand up immediately since you may be drawing dead. If he bets it's quite likely that your opponent has kings full of aces (if he holds 2 kings) or aces full of kings (if he holds Ace/King). This is an extreme example but the point is that you need to have a really strong read on your opponent if you're going to draw to a flush when the board is paired. It's quite easy for a player to have a full house. This is not to say that you should never draw to a flush when the board is paired. The pot should just be larger and you must be able to read your opponents well. Please note that drawing to a flush with a board such as J, J, Q which is quite likely to yield a full house is very different from not drawing to a flush with Ace, King of hearts on a flop that is 10, 2, 2, with 2 hearts. In situations like this you still have a strong hand. It's quite unlikely that a player has a 2 (although not impossible), you might have the best hand on the flop and certainly have a good shot at winning the pot if an Ace or a King falls.
Texas Holdem draws that you should raise
There are certain times when you will have a draw that should be played extremely aggressively. You may want to raise, reraise or even cap a hand with these draws. One such hand is when you flop an open ended straight with a flush draw. For example, if you have J, T of spades and the flop is 8, 9, 2 with the 8,9 of spades. Not only have you flopped a straight draw and a flush draw but you also have a straight flush draw. You have 15 outs which may give you the best hand, about 53% assuming that your flush draw will win the pot. Since yOu've studied poker probabilities you know that although Jack high is probably not the best hand you have the best shot at winning the hand at the river. This means that you want to get as many chips into the pot as possible. Therefore if you have the opportunity you should raise and/or bet. The only thing you should be aware of is that you don't want to lose anyone in the hand, you want them to contribute chips to the pot as well. Thus, if you are on the back side of a hand and there was a bet in early position and multiple callers inbetween you can safely raise hoping to get more callers. However if there is a bet right in front of you your raise may scare away your potential customers which you don't want to do. Nut flush draws should be played in this way as well if you think you can get more than 4 callers.
Conclusion
As you can see simply understanding odds and probabilities is not enough to know when to draw in Texas Holdem. You need to have a good read on your competition and the type of draw as well. We encourage you to analyze the concepts presented above and incorporate them along with your mathamatical knowledge into your game. You will become a far superior player by doing so.
Drawing to a flush when the board is paired
Another mistake that many players make is drawing to a flush when the board is paired. For example, if there has been a preflop raise and there is a board such as A, A, K with 2 hearts and you have queen, 9 of hearts you should realize that unless the pot is large you may want to give this hand up immediately since you may be drawing dead. If he bets it's quite likely that your opponent has kings full of aces (if he holds 2 kings) or aces full of kings (if he holds Ace/King). This is an extreme example but the point is that you need to have a really strong read on your opponent if you're going to draw to a flush when the board is paired. It's quite easy for a player to have a full house. This is not to say that you should never draw to a flush when the board is paired. The pot should just be larger and you must be able to read your opponents well. Please note that drawing to a flush with a board such as J, J, Q which is quite likely to yield a full house is very different from not drawing to a flush with Ace, King of hearts on a flop that is 10, 2, 2, with 2 hearts. In situations like this you still have a strong hand. It's quite unlikely that a player has a 2 (although not impossible), you might have the best hand on the flop and certainly have a good shot at winning the pot if an Ace or a King falls.
Texas Holdem draws that you should raise
There are certain times when you will have a draw that should be played extremely aggressively. You may want to raise, reraise or even cap a hand with these draws. One such hand is when you flop an open ended straight with a flush draw. For example, if you have J, T of spades and the flop is 8, 9, 2 with the 8,9 of spades. Not only have you flopped a straight draw and a flush draw but you also have a straight flush draw. You have 15 outs which may give you the best hand, about 53% assuming that your flush draw will win the pot. Since yOu've studied poker probabilities you know that although Jack high is probably not the best hand you have the best shot at winning the hand at the river. This means that you want to get as many chips into the pot as possible. Therefore if you have the opportunity you should raise and/or bet. The only thing you should be aware of is that you don't want to lose anyone in the hand, you want them to contribute chips to the pot as well. Thus, if you are on the back side of a hand and there was a bet in early position and multiple callers inbetween you can safely raise hoping to get more callers. However if there is a bet right in front of you your raise may scare away your potential customers which you don't want to do. Nut flush draws should be played in this way as well if you think you can get more than 4 callers.
Conclusion
As you can see simply understanding odds and probabilities is not enough to know when to draw in Texas Holdem. You need to have a good read on your competition and the type of draw as well. We encourage you to analyze the concepts presented above and incorporate them along with your mathamatical knowledge into your game. You will become a far superior player by doing so.
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