Playing Straight Draws
A straight draw is when
you need one, or more, cards to make a straight.
On the totem pole of made hands, a straight is
sitting on the bottom. Before deciding to draw
for a straight, it is important to establish the
value of completing your hand. If there is a
pair on the board and two cards of the same
suit, the probability of ending with the best
hand are less likely than a rainbow flop without
a pair. Therefore the latter situation allows
for a better situation to draw to a straight
than the former.
Different Kinds of
Straight Draws
Open Ended
- There are different kinds of straight draws.
An Open Ended straight draw is where you have 4
consecutive cards and you need either the top or
the bottom card to make your straight. So, if
you have an open ended straight draw on the
flop, assuming that one of the cards that you
are using is not paired on the board, you will
have 6 possible cards that will make your hand.
These are called “Outs”. Since out of the 52
cards in the deck, you have seen 5 of them,
unless you have been peeking at other player’s
cards, that means there are 47 possible cards to
come out on the turn, and then 46 possible cards
to come out on the river because you have seen
one more of them. So, this means that on the
flop, you have 6 out of 47 chances of making
your straight.
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Gut Shot – A gut shot straight
draw is when you need one specific denomination
card to make your straight. This could mean that
you have a sequence of 5 with one missing
somewhere in the middle, or that you have four
consecutive cards starting with the ace, either
the top or the bottom end of the rank, and you
need to get one on the end. If this is the kind
of a straight draw that you have then you only
have 3 outs, so your odds of catching your
straight are twice as bad as with an open ended
straight draw.
Big and Little Ends
If the board is a J 10 2 and
you are holding a 9 and an 8, you have a
straight draw, but you are drawing to the low
end of the straight because someone could have
the Q and a 9. In this hand, someone might also
have a K Q. So, if you are drawing to lower than
the top end of the straight, then you need to
factor that in to your decision to draw for your
hand. Certainly if you get a free pass to the
next card, then you can postpone your decision
and re-evaluate it after you see the turn card
or the river card. But, if there is betting
involved and you have to make the decision to
draw for your straight of to fold your hand,
then you have to consider other factors such as
the pot odds and the implied pot odds.
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