Poker Room Radio

www.pokeroom.com – It is very often the case, that when you are involved in a pot, you can work out whether you are ahead or behind in the hand and act accordingly. The trouble with draws however, is that you are in a position where you usually know you are behind, and know you will be in front if you make your hand.

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This raises the question of whether you should be chasing these draws and how to play them if you are first to act.
If I am first to act with a big draw on the flop I always feel it best to be aggressive, because you would rather not be forced to hit your hand to win the pot, and if you do get called, then you have already built a good pot if your hand hits.

In terms of calling bets to try and hit a big hand, you must make an informed decision based on the size of the bet, the potential size of the pot, and of course the odds of you making your hand. I was recently raised a third of my short stack on a flop of (4d,10d,6h) whilst holding (7d,8d) in a tournament. I pushed all in over the top which I feel was the right play because I had 15 outs for a straight or flush, and two chances to hit one of them, but neither card fell.

I wouldn’t advise doing the same with only a straight or flush draw, but some players do. These decisions can often be pivotal to a tournament, and although the aim in poker is not to go all in when you are behind, sometimes there are just too many outs for you to get away from the hand.
When your draws are hitting in poker, you will find it difficult not to succeed I feel, but we would all prefer to turn over the best hand with all our chips in the middle when at all possible.