Introduction

• Passive or aggressive?
• Fold equity or implied odds?
  
• In position or out of position?
  

The special thing about Hold'em poker is that you are only dealt two cards to begin with. In most cases, the strength of your hand changes drastically on the flop.

Often, you won't hit the flop as desired and find yourself with an incomplete hand. These hands, called drawing hands, or draws, turn into very strong hands when they improve on one of the remaining streets. This article describes different kinds of draws and explains their peculiarities in detail.

What types of draws are there?

A draw is characterized by the fact that you have outs. We can generally distinguish the following kinds of draws:

• Overcards
• Flush draws
• Straight draws
• Combo draws

$25 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks MP ($25) CO ($25) UTG ($25) BB ($25) SB ($25) Hero ($25)

Pre-flop: Hero is Button with A K
UTG calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.25, 2 folds, UTG calls $1.25

Flop: ($2.85) J 5 2 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $2.25, UTG ...

Overcards are a very common draw. While being in great shape pre-flop with AK, you are stuck with an ace high hand on the flop if you don't hit your top pair. Your strong hand has turned into a draw and must hit one of the outs by the river to gain reasonable showdown value.

$25 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks MP ($25) CO ($25) UTG ($25) BB ($25) SB ($25) Hero ($25)

Pre-flop: Hero is Button with 8 7
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.00, 1 fold, BB calls $1.00

Flop: ($2.10) A J 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB ...

A flush draw usually has 9 outs. There are 13 cards of the same suit in the deck, four of which have already been revealed.

$25 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks MP ($25) CO ($25) UTG ($25) BB ($25) SB ($25) Hero ($25)

Pre-flop: Hero is Button with 8 7
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.00, 1 fold, BB calls $1.00

Flop: ($2.10) K 6 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB ...

This is an example of an open-ended straight draw (OESD). This gives you 8 outs, as the straight can be completed at both ends. Its little brother is the gutshot straight draw, which is missing a card in the middle, and has only 4 outs.

Each of the above examples illustrates one type of draw. Sometimes you will even have more than one draw with a single hand. These are so-called combo draws.

The important thing is that you recognize immediately how many outs you have, as this is crucial for your equity and dictates how to play the hand. Further on in this article you will learn when and how to discount outs, i.e. determine how many of your outs are actually helpful to your hand. But we will ignore this for now and continue with a simple analysis of your outs:

$25 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks MP ($25) CO ($25) UTG ($25) BB ($25) SB ($25) Hero ($25)

Pre-flop: Hero is Button with A K
UTG calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.25, 2 folds, UTG calls $1.25

Flop: ($2.85) J T 2 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $2.25, UTG ...

Again, you hold AK and raise pre-flop, and as before, you don't hit anything directly on the flop, ace high is all you've got. However, in this example, you have additional outs.

You do, of course, still have the six overcard outs. In addition, you have a gutshot straight draw, as each queen gives you the nut straight. This gives you another 4 outs.

Due to the fact the there are two s on the board, you can even give yourself one more out for the backdoor flush draw. Backdoor means that you must hit on both the turn and the river (two more diamonds would give you a flush). Your hand can therefore be analyzed as follows:

$25 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks MP ($25) CO ($25) UTG ($25) BB ($25) SB ($25) Hero ($25)

Pre-flop: Hero is Button with 8 7
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.00, 1 fold, BB calls $1.00

Flop: ($2.10) A J 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB ...

A similar hand to the flush draw example above, but the third card on the flop is now the 9 instead of the 4. This gives you 3 more outs, as you now hold a gutshot. The T was already counted towards the flush outs. We can therefore conclude:

$25 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks MP ($25) CO ($25) UTG ($25) BB ($25) SB ($25) Hero ($25)

Pre-flop: Hero is Button with 8 7
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.00, 1 fold, BB calls $1.00

Flop: ($2.10) 8 6 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB ...

This time we see a different board. The 8 gives you not only top pair, but also additional outs. With another 8 you would have trips. With another 7 you would have two pair. You now have:

In this example, it is worth taking a closer look at your outs, as some of them might not be clean.

Think about it: If a 7 comes up on the turn, you will hold two pair, but what is this hand worth? You are behind against any 4 and any 9. Either you opponent holds the straight, or he will be so afraid of the board that he will not pay you off with a worse hand.