Big Stack Strategy: What You Can Hit on the Flop
Introduction
In this article we will cover...
- the three kinds of hands you can have after the flop
- two pair or better as a monster
- incomplete hands, or draws
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You caught a hand in the Starting Hands Chart and made it to the flop. So far so good. The first question you should ask yourself once the flop has been revealed: What did you hit?
Depending on the three cards in the flop, your hand will fall into one of three categories:
- Made Hands
These are hands that are already strong enough to win, such as a pair, three-of-a-kind etc. A made hand doesn't necessarily need any help from the coming community cards, sometimes it can use little help at all.
- Incomplete Hands / Draws
These are hands that need help from the coming community cards. If, for example, you have two spades and two more spades show up in the flop you would have a flush draw. This means that a spade on the turn or the river would give you a flush.
- Worthless Hands / Trash
Worthless hands, or trash, are neither made, nor do they have much of a chance at betting better. You will hardly ever win a showdown with worthless hands; they can be played as a bluff at best.
The following chapters will show you what kind of card combinations are possible. The follow-up articles will focus on how to play these hands depending on the situation at hand.
What are made hands?
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You should be familiar with most made hands from the article on the rules of Texas Hold'em:
Go to this article: The Rules of Texas Hold'em
A made hand is any hand two pair or better. Such a hand is also called a Monster because it is usually very solid and can bring in a lot of money if you play it right.
A pair can be a made hand, too. There are two kinds of pairs, to be explained in detail, which can be played profitably, namely top pairs and overpairs.
A top pair is a pair made up of one of your hole cards and the highest card in the community.
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A pocket pair higher than the highest community card is called an overpair.
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You only really have two pair when both of your hole cards hit cards in the community.
In other words: You can't count a pair on the board and a paired hole card as two pair. Doing so overinflates the strength of your hand, since you really only have one pair. The danger of an opponent having three-of-a-kind or a full house increases when the board is paired, as well, which is why the second example hand isn't nearly as strong as the first.
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What are incomplete hands / draws?
Draws are hands that aren't strong yet, but would be if another useful card turned up in the community.
There are strong draws and weak draws, depending on how many helpful cards (outs) remain in the deck. A flush draw, for example, has 9 outs. If you have a pocket pair, you have two outs that would give you three-of-a-kind.
If you have four cards in numerical order between your hole cards and the board, you have an OESD, or open ended straight draw.
You don't have a straight yet, but if the fifth card on the upper or lower end of the sequence turns up, you will. In the example below, 8 cards would complete the straight, the four aces and the four nines.
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If you have four cards of the same suit, a fifth card of that suit in the community would give you a flush.
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The monster draw is a combination of an OESD and a flush draw.
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A straight draw, in which a card in the middle of the sequence is missing, is appropriately named a 'gutshot draw'.
In the example below, any of the four tens would complete the straight. A gutshot draw only has half as many outs as an OESD and is therefore only half as good.
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The third type of straight draw is the double gutshot, or belly buster. In other words, you have two gutshot draws for two different straights.
Let's look at the example below. As you can see, there are 8 cards that would give you a straight, the four kings (A-T) and the four nines (Q-8). A gutshot draw is just as strong as an OESD, since they both have 8 outs.
The article on implied odds will show you that a gutshot is slightly more profitable than an OESD, as it is more difficult for opponents to recognize.
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If you don't have any of the above draws and you don't have a made hand, but your cards are higher than the highest community cards, you have overcards. The don't present a particularly strong draw, but if you do hit one of your 6 outs you will have top pair.
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What are worthless hands / trash?
Worthless hands are hands that are neither made, nor do they have any drawing potential. They are simply trash and you shouldn't hesitate to fold them.
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Conclusion
This article taught you how to evaluate your hand once the flop has been revealed. You can always place your hand into one of these three categories:
- Made hands
- Incomplete hands / draws
- Worthless hands / trash
You've also become familiar with the common hands you will encounter: Monster hands, top pair, overpair, flush draw, OESD, gutshot, double gutshot, monster draw and overcards.
What this article didn't teach you is how to play these hands after the flop. When you play the Big Stack Strategy, your decisions depend heavily on the situation at hand. There are several articles covering this subject for you to read. The first in the series covers the basics of play after the flop.
Go to this article: How to Play After the Flop
