There have been countless hands

There have been countless hands when I had the nut flush draw or open-ended straight draw, only to watch my hand go to the gutter. However, what SEPARATES me from the players who insist it’s “luck” is the fact that when I get LUCKY I cash out.

And when I DON’T, I get out of the hand without losing many chips. To get a good idea of your chances of catching a good draw, you need to know the odds of getting a “make card.”

(For those of you don’t know, a “make card” is a card that basically COMPLETES a hand. Example: If you had 7, 8, 10, J the “make card” would be a 9.)

If you flop an open-ended straight draw, there are 8 cards in the deck that can give you your straight. An inside strait draw has only four “make cards,” and a flush draw can be completed with 9 different cards in the deck.

This means that you can invest more money into open-ended straight draws and flush draws than you can “belly-buster” draws. (Belly-buster = inside straight)

This may seem obvious, but there are many players who chase inside straight draws and end up wasting their chips in the process. Remember that when you are on a straight or a flush draw, odds are that you will NOT complete it. So you don’t want to invest too many chips on the outside chance that you’ll get lucky.

When I am in this kind of situation, I always want to get as many cheap cards as possible. Let’s say that you flop a nut-flush draw and the action checks around to you. At this point, you don’t know what anyone has. Some players would make a strong bet in this situation to buy the pot. This is a bad idea because when you are in this position, you need to see more cards in order to have a hand worth betting on.

If you make a strong bet, you may find that one or more of the players were slow-playing their cards. Now, a player with a solid hand makes a considerable raise over your bet. Everyone else folds, but you decide to see another card with your flush draw.

The turn doesn’t help out at all. Now, your opponent makes an even larger bet than before. You can either fold and cut your losses or call the big bet with the roughly 20% chance you will catch a card. Neither option is very appealing.

If you call and the river still doesn’t complete your hand, you are faced with the same situation. Some players will make huge bets and raises to try to buy their way out of a busted draw.

This can work, but often your opponents will not be scared out by a large bet on the river unless you have been playing aggressively the entire hand. Now, look back at your option to check before the turn card. If you checked, you get to see the turn for free. You put no money in the pot, and you discover that the turn wasn’t going to help.

This time when your opponent makes a big bet after the turn, you see that the odds of catching a make card don’t merit a call, so you fold the hand without losing many chips.

The difference between checking and betting before the flop means the difference between getting out of a bad situation without losing many chips or getting pot-committed and going home early. Any time that you are looking for another card to complete your hand; you should always be looking for cheap cards.

Warning: Some players think that they need to bet BIG to build up the pot when they are on a draw so they can “make bank” when they catch their cards.

However, if the cost is $40, there will usually only be 2 players in the pot which equals an $80 pot.

This is only a difference of $20 in pot size, but it saves YOU $30 right away. Plus, you can always raise the pot after/if you complete the hand. Learning to play hands when you need a make card is NOT EASY. But I’ll tell you, it’s really what separates the FISH from the SHARKS.

And learning this one skill can help you win a LOT more tournaments and poker games. When you learn techniques and strategies like this, people will start approaching YOU and saying, “Hey, how do you get so lucky at the card table?”

Keep Your Opponents Guessing Blindly

Million Dollar Poker Star

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