Big Hand And Draw – Now What?

No one likes to get busted playing poker, especially after you make it deep into a big tournament. So what do you do when you have a big hand, there are drawing hands on the flop (Texas Hold'em) and you are being pushed hard? You might bust out… but then again you might not. Read on to find out the best poker tactics for playing a big hand with a draw on the board.

Say you have two Tens in the small blind late in an event and you raise, getting a couple of callers. The flop hits T A 5 with two of the same suit. You hit a set of tens but that over card worries you just a bit, so you check. It is checked around to the turn, which hits K. Now you are really worried about a straight, so you check it again, one of the other players pushes you all in and you make a crying call. Busto! He did pick up Broadway with that turn card and your game is over.

How could you have played that better? By making it too expensive for him to stick around and catch that king. If you had pushed all in on the flop instead, or at least made it so much that it would make the other players cringe, a few things could have happened.

1)You win the pot right there and add to your stack. Not a bad outcome.
2)You get a caller on a draw and he misses his hand. You make a lot more money.
3)You get a caller who makes his hand and busts you. Well, if you slow play and he makes his hand you are likely going to call and go busto anyway, are you not?

The lesson to take home from this is: when you have the nuts on the flop and there are drawing hands out there, play them hard enough to make people think twice before calling you.