How do you play weak draws?

Introduction

In this article

• Implied Odds can vary greatly from situation to situation
  
  
• How to play weak draws in multiway situations
• How to play weak draws in heads-up situations
  

Even if you missed the flop with your hole cards, you will often find yourself in a situation in which you still have some chances of making a winning hand. Sometimes you hold a gutshot, a backdoor flush draw or any other weak draw and face a decision how to proceed with these draws.

On low limits it's certainly no mistake to follow a weak style with these draws and wait for stronger hands to stack your opponents.

This article is intended to show you how you can play your weak draws even on smaller stakes with a very positive expected value. You will face opponents you can play real poker with and make use of your edge postflop with weak draws aswell.

You will see that this piece of content is all about playing weak draws yourself, not about how weak draws might influence your play while holding a made hand.

What is a weak draw?

First off we have to make sure we are all on the same page regarding which situations can be considered a weak draw. In total, we count five different types of weak draws which can differ a lot in how you should play them. 

This draw is very likely to be overestimated by weaker players. You are holding the so-called "idiot end" of a straight draw and you always need to be aware that only four outs (four sevens) will provide you with the "nuts".

If a Q hits on the turn you would still have a straight, but K9 and AK have your hand dominated and such bad situations are likely to happen to you in such a spot.

Holding the same draw on a two-suited flop is even more dangerous as you lose one out for your nut straight. Ever so often your draw will come through, but you never know if it's profitable for you to play for a big pot when your opponents can hold either a better straight or even a flush.

You are holding a flush draw, but face the problem that it's neither the nut flush draw nor the 2nd or 3rd nut flush draw. There is a good chance that your opponent is holding a better flush draw or has a redraw for the river if a third heart hits already on the turn.

More players in the hand mean a higher likelihood your draw is dominated and you might already be drawing dead with your hand. So even if you have a decent amount of outs you should play carefully to make sure you don't lose big pots while only winning small ones in situations like these.

A gutshot like the one seen above offers you four (or three on a two-suited board) outs to the nuts which is certainly an advantage. It is also well concealed so if a ten hits on the turn, many players might overlook the possibility of a straight on a 5Q8T board. This means sweet payoff from weaker made hands if you can complete your draw.

These draws are very weak as they are both obvious and often dominated by players holding stronger draws. If your draw hits on the turn and you start making moves, your hand is often turned "face up" and you will have a hard time getting value from weaker hands as no reasonable player with a pair or set will invest any more chips with such a dangerous board. 

If you get action from your opponents even though your draw arrived, you might find yourself in an uncomfortable freeroll situation. In most cases you either split the pot or at least one villain has hit a better draw than you did. Being the sole winner of the pot is extremely unlikely.

Weak one-card-flush draws won't put you in the freeroll spots, but the threat of your flush being being beaten by a higher one remains. Keep in mind that only very few players overplay their single pair on a four-suited-board or try bluffing while actually being drawing dead.

On the one hand, backdoor draws have the great advantage of being really hard to read, but on the other hand you need two perfect cards to complete your draw, making it very unlikely to happen.

Backdoor draws are not playable in most situations against regular opponents who you have so special history with, but this changes if you combine more than one backdoor draw or add a made hand to your draw.

Holding a backdoor draw should not be underestimated. You can frequently go for a different line than usual as your draw provides you with a small but significant equity advantage and tons of implied odds if you get lucky and hit the draw.

Be aware of the different types of backdoor draws as they differ greatly from each other and therefore require individual lines for each type, not just a general line for every weak draw.

In the following paragraphs you will be introduced to the differences between the various draws and which situations you need to play your draws with a positive expected value.

Implied and reverse implied odds while playing weak draws

Depending on your draw and the associated board texture your implied odds can change a lot. Sometimes your weak draw will provide you with great implied odds whereas other draws might lead to more reverse implied odds. The following list will show you in which direction the different draws lean.

Yet another quick overview:

• One card draws: You use just one of your hole cards and in most cases you face heavy reverse implied odds. This can be explained by the fact that the completed draws are more than obvious and a skilled opponent would never play for a large pot if he can't beat the obvious draw. Another issue is the relative weakness of your hand. You use just one of your hole cards which means that your hand can easily be dominated by villain's hand, but you might still have trouble letting the hand go.

• Generally speaking, weak flush draws and the so-called "idiot OESDs" have reverse implied odds, too, but less than one card draws. There will still be cases in which you can stack a set or twopair with your completed draw, but you are always in danger of being dominated by a stronger draw. You should still be careful with a draw like this.

• Gutshots and backdoor draws have the best implied odds, given that you use both of your hole cards and it's no one card draw. If a gutshot, backdoor straight draw or backdoor flush draw is completed, your opponent will have a hard time reading you and realizing you are holding such a strong hand. In most cases he will assume you didn't play such a weak draw, see no reason behind your betting sequence and pay you off. As you can see, the weakest of draws can lead to the biggest pots for you and this is what makes these weak draws so powerful. With a completed backdoor draw or gutshot you are flying under the radar and have a good chance that your opponent is simply overlooking the possibility of you holding such a hand. 

As you can see, implied odds of the various weak draws can be different, but keep in mind that implied odds are not only depending on your own hand.

Aside from your own hand you have to take the board texture and your actual opponent into the equation. For example, a gutshot has less implied odds on a 1-suited board. Keep that in mind and don't just play your own hand.

$0.25/0.50 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)

Hero $65.36
BB $9.35

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q , 8
2 folds, CO calls, 1 fold, Hero calls, BB raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Hero calls.

Flop: ($3.50) 3 , T , 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $2.50, Hero??

You need one out of four jacks in the deck to complete your straight and you can assume one more out for a heavily discounted overcard. This leads to corresponding odds of 8,4:1, but your pot odds for this call are just 2,4:1, which means you would normally have to fold here.

Maybe the implied odds can convince you that calling is a winning play here: Your optimistic implied odds amont to 4,54,1, considering villain's remaining stack of $5.35. That's not enough for a call. If you also consider the fact that you have to play out of position, this hand is a an easy fold for you.

Weak draws in multiway pots

If you play a weak draw in a multiway pot, you will quickly realize that this is not the place to get cute. You will most likely be lacking the proper odds or the foldequity to play your weak draw differently from regular play. Only in very rare cases you will be able to assume sufficient yet correct implied odds for a move with a gutshot.

If this isn't the case you should play your weak draw straightforward in a multiway pot. Leave out semi-bluffs and don't call the flop bet to make a move on the turn.

Try minimizing your potential losses and don't get caught up in too big pots with a weak draw.

$0.50/$1.00 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)

BB $110
CO $50
Hero $130
SB $80

Preflop: Hero is BU with J , T
2 folds, CO calls, Hero raises to $4, SB calls, BB calls, CO calls.

Flop: ($16) 3 , K , 9 (4 players)
SB bets $8, BB calls, CO calls, Hero??

You have four outs for the nut straight which means you need direct odds of 10,75:1 to make a profitable call. The pot offers odds of 5:1. If a queen hits the board on the turn you would have to extract another $50 of value from your opponents and the pot would have to grow to $90 to justify a call here.

All in all, the conditions are favorable in this case as you can easily assume a much larger pot in the end. You are in position, the involved stacks are pretty deep, you raised proflop and three opponents are interested in playing the flop even though they are out of position.

In addition to that you hold a pretty deceptive hand. The hypothetical board reads 3K9Q, leading to a fairly low connectivity. The term connectivity describes how close the cards on the board are connected based on their sheer value. If the board shows a high connectivity, your opponent can easily realize the straight possibilities, but in this case only K and Q are next to each other. The other players in the hand might overlook a possible straight or just consider it very unlikely.

If you look at the board from the perspective of which hands your opponents might hold, there are plenty of scenarios possible. There could be a set in play (especially 33 is a typical limp/call hand) or someone holding two pairs. Now consider the fact that there are three players remaining in the hand and given the action so far, it's very likely that the $90 necessary for your call will be in the eventual pot. Even a single player with a weak hand like a pair of kings would probably be enough.

Implied odds can be calculated as follows: The chance of a queen hitting the board on the turn amount to 8,5% and if you combine turn and river it's 16,4%. It is very likely that this nut straight will be the best hand at the showdown and at least one opponent is willing to invest further money into the pot even if you complete your draw. If the turn doesn't bring in the desired queen, you can still fold or call according to your pot odds or receive a freecard if the action is checked around.

Implied pot odds for a call at the flop: (16+24+50)/8 : 1 = 11,25:1

As you can tell, even these odds are better than the necessary 10,75:1 for four outs and you haven't even included a possible freecard on the turn yet.

EV(Call) = P(Queen on the turn) * EV(Pot with Implied Odds) - P(No queen on the turn)*EV(Investment)
= (0,085*90) - (0,915*8) = 0,33

The call would be correct in this case.

This example may seem made up and a situation like this is certainly not the standard case, but it should explain how implied odds are calculated and what you have to consider in spots like these.

It is also obvious that such exact calculaions can never be performed at the table. Therefore you need to develop a gut feeling if a call or a fold is the more profitable play in a given situation. It's also not guaranteed that your calculation will always be correct because of the different unknowns that come into play that can only be measured empirically.

$0.50/1.00 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed) 

Hero ($65.36)
BB ($55.35)
UTG ($60.85)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9, 9
UTG raises to $4, 3 folds, Hero calls $3.50, BB calls $3.

Flop: ($12) Q , 2 , 4 (3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $5, UTG calls, Hero??

In this example your pot odds are 4,4:1. Given that you have nine real outs for a flush and two for a set, yout flop-to-turn odds would be 4,3:1. This is close, but enough for a call.

But there are quite a few aspects you should not ignore. The main argument against a call here is certainly the possibility of a better heart card with one of your opponents. Another reason for a fold would be your position. You are in the small blind and going to the showdown will most likely be an expensive move. Your effective pot odds are worse than they seemed at first sight and you are playing with reversed implied odds. 

The board texture makes it really difficult for you to extract value from in an inferior yet strong hand. You also have to take into account that there is a good possibility that your outs for a flush are non-existent. A call would clearly be a mistake.

This simple example should show you why folding on the flop can be the best play even if you hold a flushdraw and you get a relatively cheap price on the turn card. The danger of being dominated and the very slim likelihood of a player with an inferior hand investing substantial money into the pot make up two good reasons for an easy fold.

You will come across a weak flush draw mostly in situation in which you hold a pocket pair, as you should tend to play only suited cards or at least offsuited cards of high value. Of course, there is always the possibilty of you hitting a set with your pocket pair, but a the strength of a set can be deceiving if a flush is possible.

Playing weak draws heads-up

In a heads-up pot you have the chance to play your weak draws unconventionally for a couple of reasons, but you should always keep in mind that this largely depends on the opponent you are playing.

If you are playing against a loose-agressive player ("calling station") you will have a hard time creating the necessary foldequity to make agressive play profitable. These players rarely think about your betting sequence and the hand range you are representing, so you should apply the following moves with utmost care.

Rocks, TAGs and semi-LAGs on the on the other hand have to be approached differently. These players are capable of folding weak or intermediate made hands and also spend more time on thinking about your hand range and what you might have.

You will also see that many players are sitting at multiple tables at the same time and therefore your moves with weak draws will go unnoticed. These players also tend to give up their hands if they experience resistance.

Let's image a heads-up situation. You are in position and your opponent has been the aggressor preflop. In a situation like this floating your opponent on the flop can be a great play while holding a weak draw.

Quite a few players place a continuation bet on any flop and don't start evaluating their actual strength before the turn. Those players tend to get very weak-passive on the turn when their flop bet was called and a float is the best way to exploit such a line.

$1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)

CO $200
Hero $200

Preflop: Hero is BU with 7, 6
2 folds, CO raises to $7, Hero calls, 2 folds.

Flop: ($17) K, 8, 4 (2 players)
CO bets $13, Hero calls.

Turn: ($33) 2 (oder 2) (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $21

The flop brought you a gutshot and you decide to float your opponent. The board texture is certainly helpful in this case. The cards on the flop have close to zero connectivity and the board looks very dry from your opponent's point of view as only gutshot draws are possible.

Thus it's safe to assume he'd place a continuation bet with any two cards he might have raised preflop. If he actually has a hand you can assume great implied odds for your gutshot and you are also holding a backdoor flush draw which is a little plus.

Watch out for the high card on the turn. Good TAGs and LAGs will fire a second barrel when another high card hits on the turn. However, king high on the flop is an excellent card as your opponent will place a bluff bet only if he sees an ace on the turn which would mean you have to fold.

A blank on the turn means in most cases that your opponent will check, passing the action on to you. You don't have to care if your backdoor flush draw now became a flush draw. Of course, more outs for having an actual winning hand are always good, but you will always float here anyway as it's the best chance to win the pot after your opponent has shown weakness on the turn.

You can see that a float with a weak draw is a sweet move here, but that's not the whole story. You should polarize your hand range versus regulars while floating, giving them still a hard time playing against your whole hand range.

If you are holding a medium made hand with showdown value in this situation (in this example it would maybe be a hand like 99 or 98), a float isn't the perfect play for you. Your action on the turn will scare away weaker hands and only stronger hands will call you. It would be a better play to look for pot control and seek a cheap showdown.

A good yet vulnerable made hand is not the right hand for a float either. You should balance your bluff raising range at the flop, raise for value und see that you have your hand properly protected.

Floating is also only good with a weak draw, a strong draw should be played differently. You leave out the opportunity of a free card and potentially induce a checkraise on the turn. This checkraise would put you in a really tough spot. Your hand might be beaten already and you will have to give up your significant share of pot equity.

Sometimes the pot odds will even force you to go all-in as an underdog in such a spot as the pot odds offered are too favorable. With these difficulties in mind you should consider semi-bluffing at the flop and subsequently take a freecard on the turn.

Keep in mind to balance your strong made hands and weak draws, as you should play your strong made hands in the same fashion. Call on the flop to see if your opponent is willing to invest more money with a bluff or an inferior made hand. If he isn't, bet.

Balancing this correctly will create plenty of foldequity and you can avoid a showdown in most cases. And even if you get called on the turn you can at least assume that you have great implied odds if the river completes your draw.

Now let's assume you are still playing heads-up, but now you are in position with the initative. You have two options at the flop: Continuation bet or a delayed bluff raise.

$1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)

BB $200
Hero $200

Preflop: Hero is BU with 7, 5
3 folds, Hero raises to $7, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: ($15) A, 4, 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($15) 3 (2 players)
BB bets $12, Hero raises to $40, BB calls $28.

River: ($95) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $82

This line seems rather unconventional at first sight, but if you take a closer look you will see the advantages and thoughts behind it.

Preflop you place a standard openraise from the button and the big blind calls. The texture of the board on the flop would normally invite you to do a continuation bet, but this kind of play will not scare any four, ace or pocket pair away. If your opponent calls, you will find yourself in a tough spot on the turn. Fire a second barrel or give the hand up? In the best case you have reads on the villain to make a good decision, but this is obviously not always the case.

Leave out the continuation bet on the flop and you will see that many players try to pick up the pot with a bluff bet on the turn or place a protection bet for their pocket pair. Now go ahead and raise this bet and your opponent will have difficulties going on with his pocket pair. This bluff raise forces better hands to fold and you win information villain's hand.

You could certainly pull off such a bluff bet with a hand such as JT or anything similar, but you have close to no chance of winning a potential showdown. Holding a weak draw on the other hand has enormous advantages in such a spot as it leaves the possibility of winning the showdown open.

The chances for this weak draw to complete are fairly slim obviously, but they have a sweet expected value in the long run. If you hit your draw on the river, your opponent is likely to go into tilt mode after he has been sucked out. This can have great impact on the meta game between you and your opponent. Even regulars on smaller stakes might not be familiar with such a move and might consider you completely clueless, and your play is leading them to bad hero calls when you have an actual made hand from the start.

If you succeed with this you can exploit your image in later hands with thin value bets and have an advantage over your opponent. Sometimes this bluff bet on the river can have a negative expected value once in a while, but keep the implications for later hands against this player in mind as they might exceed the negative value that came off this one hand

If you decide to implement the line check behind Flop, bluffraise turn into your play you have to be aware of the following:

• Use this line as a value line, too. In the example shown above you could also check AK or a 4 behind on the flop and make a value raise on the turn
• Don't be scared money and be clear that you might have to place an (expensive) bluff bet on the river for maximum foldequity. You also don't want to show your opponent your bluff just like that
• Don't use this line against players that are not likely to fold their hands and make sure that your table image is solid enough for that. Calling stations that will call with any ace are no targets for such a move

A contination bet on the flop in a heads-up situation while beeing the preflop aggressior is not exactly a surprise. And that's for a good reason. You can add the line shown above to the mix once in a while when the chance arises, but the contination bet should be your play of choice in most situations.

If you were the preflop aggressor, a continuation bet will already create sufficient foldequity in most cases. Sometimes opponents call, but if you are holding a weak draw this also means that you will have great implied odds since your continuation bet provides very little information to your opponent.

Playing out of position is different and you shouldn't check on the turn and don't go for a passive line too often. Your options for taking a free card or controlling the pot size are very limited out of position, so keep the pressure up.

All in all, a contination bet remains the best standard play even with weak draws. If you start playing weak draws out of position more passively, you also have to start to implement more check/bluff raise moves at the flop into your play, but this requires more care and reads on your opponent.

0.5/1 No-Limit Hold'em (5 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T , T
3 folds, SB raises to $2.00, Hero raises to $6.00, SB calls.

Flop: ($12.00) K , 9 , 5 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $10, SB calls.

Turn: ($32.00) 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero ??

This is a tough situation for you on the turn as it's obvious that your opponent might have a better flushdraw or a better made hand.

Advantages of a bet (2nd Barrel):

• High foldequity due to the dangerous board
• More information about villain's hand than with a check
• If he raises, you don't have to make a difficult decision on the river

Advantages of checking behind:

• You receive a free card
• You don't have to play a big pot with a marginal hand (more pot control)
• Prevent being checkraised
• Thanks to the smaller pot and your position your river decision will be easier
• If he calls the second barrel, you don't extract much more information than with a check

You can see there are good arguments for both options, but the arguments are different in their value. On the one hand you have foldequity as a very strong argument whereas the other arguments for a bet are rather weak.

The point is that strong hands rarely fold in such a situation, but only hands you have beat anyway. If you look at the river card posted below you will see that a free card is more of a disadvantage than an advantage in this case, but with a marginal hand like this, pot control remains the most important priority over foldequity, so a checking behind is the proper play here.

River: ($32.00) J (2 players)
SB bets $20, Hero??

The flushdraw hits on the river and any hand with an ace or queen of spades has your tens beat. Now you are in position and you have to pay $20 to see a showdown.

Let's look at the development of this hand. The 3-suited board came up on the turn and you might find clues for your hand in how your opponent played the 2-suited board first, then the 3-suited board and eventually the 4-card-flush. A good player carefully evaluates all of these situations to judge the opponent more precisely just like you should be doing everytime you find yourself in a difficult spot on the river.

The SB is very passive until the jack of spades hits on the river. Maybe he was holding a draw, too. Maybe he is now playing the king with a block bet or bluffs since he interpreted your check on the turn as a weakness. Sure, it's possible he is holding the ace or queen of spades, but even if you don't have any reads on your opponent it would be a reasonable play to call his bet here and take the risk, as you are ahead against most of the hands he could be holding.

This example should show you what's important while playing a weak flush draw. Think ahead and make up you mind what to do if the flush hits or the situation goes in this or that direction. Don't forget that unlike with a gutshot you cannot be sure to win even if the draw hits.

Summary

This article has shown you that there are spots in which more creative play can be put into place. Keep in mind that you have to either have the necessary implied odds or create enough foldequity to play +EV.

Calculating implied odds is a vital part of this concept and should be done with extra care.

To sum it up, there are three things you should take away from this article:

• In mulitway pots you should stick to a weak-tight approach to minimize your potential losses
• Depending on your implied odds and the board texture you can play your weak draws heads up as a float or delayed bluff raise
• If you are playing a heads-up pot out of position, a continuation bet is the way to go.

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