Playing your draws correctly can be the difference between winning and losing at poker. Are you good on the draw? Find out in the latest PokerPlayer quiz
Q1. Simples
Players: 6 Blinds: $0.25/$0.50 Your stack: $50 Your hand: A♥-K♥
Action
You raise preflop to $1.50 and get called by the fairly aggressive big blind. On the T♥-J♥-2♣ flop you bet $2 and are check-raised to $7. What should you do with your gutshot royal flush draw?
Decision
a) Fold
b) Call and see a turn
c) Raise to $20 and call a shove
d) Move all-in
Q2. Adjustment stations
Players: 2 Blinds: $0.50/$1 Your stack: $250 Your hand: 7♥-6♥
Action
You’re playing heads-up against a fish who never, ever folds. The effective stack size is 250BBs. You raise to $3, the villain three-bets to $12 and you call. The flop is 6♠-Q♥-K♥, giving you a pair and flush draw. Villain bets $25. What is your plan?
Decision
a) Call and exercise your equity by seeing a turn
b) Raise to $50 in the hope of him checking all turns
c) Raise to $75 and fold to a shove
d) Raise to $75 and call be happy to get it all-in
Q3. Shot to the gut
Players: 9 Blinds: $1/$2 Your stack: $200 Your hand: Q♣-J♠
Action
In a full ring online $1/$2 game a very straight-forward nit raises to $6 in the cut-off and you call on the button with Q♣-J♠. The two of you see a T♠-8♠-5♣ flop and he continuation bets $10. What should you do with your gutshot?
Decision
a) Fold
b) Float, looking to win the pot on the turn
c) Raise to $28
d) Both b) and c) are good options
Q4. Tourney tank
Players: 8 Blinds: 1,000/2,000 Your stack: 60,000 Your hand: J♣-9♠
Action
It’s Day 2 of a UKIPT and you have below average chips. A large stack raises to 5,000, two players call and you call from the big blind with J♣-9♠. The flop is T♣-8♠-4♦. You check, the raiser bets 15,000 and gets one caller. What’s your move?
Decision
a) Fold
b) Flat call the 15,000
c) Raise to 30,000
d) Move all-in
Q5. Drawing board
Players: 8 Blinds: 3,000/6,000 Your stack: 240,000 Your hand: T-8
Action
It’s near the final table of a $50 online MTT when you call a 15,000 raise on the button with T♦-8♦. Both of the blinds
call. On the A♦-2♦-J♣ flop the small blind checks, big blinds donks out 30,000 and the initial raiser makes it 75,000.
What do you do?
Decision
a) Fold
b) Flat call
c) Re-raise to 150,000
d) Move all-in
Answers
- c) Raise to $20 and call a shove. You’ve flopped one of the biggest draws in hold’em and your only intention should be to get all-in as soon as possible. As you have so many outs you will be a huge favourite against worse draws and one pair hands – you even have 34% equity against a set.
- a) Call and exercise your equity by seeing a turn. The answer here is opponent dependent. Versus this type of calling station your fold equity is essentially nil, making raise-calling a high variance play where you are essentially just gambling for two and a half buy-ins. Even though you have decent equity versus his range (unless he has a set) it will be much smarter to beat opponents like this by playing small-ball.
- d) Both b) and c) are good options. Even nits will c-bet with air so you shouldn’t assume the raiser has hit this board. While you only have a gutshot and overcards this is a flop where you can represent a lot of hands. If you choose to fl oat, then a tight opponent will often check many turns and you can take it away by repping a Ten.
- d) Move all-in. There’s a decent chance that by shoving here you can get both opponents to fold, almost doubling your stack without going to showdown. Even if called you still have 8 clean outs to the nuts and your Jack overcard may be live too.
- a) Fold. Despite having a decent stack left to shove in the middle it appears that your fold equity will be limited in this case. You may be up against sets, a strong Ace or – worst of all – a better draw that leaves you drawing very thin at such a critical stage of the tournament.
Your score
0-2 Busted flush
You’re chasing more lost causes than Wile E Coyote.
3 Going straight
You’re getting there but make sure you keep your head when you get a draw.
4-5 Feeling flash
Bravo! You play your draws like a pro. Keep up the good work!
