I've been making a numerical call on straight and flush draws that is kind of suspect to me as its lost me more than its won while playing hold'em. A commonly known draw that involves the fact that you're going to hit a flush or an open ended straight a little better than 1 time in 3(you're a 2 to 1 underdog) with 2 cards to come. Its a draw that seems to make sense for tournaments far more than cash games given the nature of hitting random events. I'm having a hard time with it because I've made the call a few times getting much better than 3 to 1 on my money and not hitting it.(a no brainer because you need 2 to 1 to make the call profitably) I've made it at least 5 times with a gut shot straight and a flush draw and yet to hit it. Whats worse is because of the real life nature of small town no limit cash games I get the odds more often than you would think in no limit play. In cash games this gets expensive and tough. A couple of times I've won it by hitting an over pair but financially I've lost more on the call so I'm feeling as if I may need to adjust the nature of how I handle this situation for actual play over mathematical. Maybe I'm not lucky enough lately?!

I haven't been playing casino cash poker for long but I started a tight and aggressive player from reading various poker books that prevented me from losing money. I've been a winning player which is lucky for inexperienced players but with experience I'm starting to learn a bit about how to play certain hands and this one has been a big one for me. I don't think I'm going to be calling this from now on with out at least getting 3.5 to 1 on my money. I've thought I might be wrong in calling instead of moving in on the draw. It seems like you're likely to push off weak Aces and other hands that may be better than yours at the time. That might start getting me less for my money which is something you don't want with big draws. So whichs is the right approach? Not sure but I'd appreciate anyone mailing me their views on this hand. I get emails on my various topics from time to time and this is one I'd like to hear about. I'll even post them and reference you if you'd like.

Useful Poker Pages

• Limit Vs. No Limit - Another card players page thats pretty good. There is discussion specific to this pages current conversation.
  
• CardPlayer.com - A Cardplayer.com article on hand draws. I use the odds calculator for things like this discussion.
  

- Jerry Odom
September 27, 2005