Shortstack strategy: Evaluating your hand on the flop

1. Introduction

As soon as you are in the hand and have one or more opponents the first three community cards will be dealt - the flop. Now you have to determine the quality of your hand as well as your further actions.

The possible combinations on the flop can be categorized the following way:

2. Made Hands

A made hand is a hand like two pair or better like you know them already from the article Pokerhand rankings:

	Your cards	Flop	Explanation
Royal Flush			Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace all of the same suit.
Straight Flush			Five connected cards of the same suit.
Four of a kind			Four cards of the same rank.
Full House			A pair and three of a kind.
Flush			Five cards in one suit.
Straight			Five connected cards.
Three of a kind / Set			Three of a kind with a pair as hole cards and one card of the community cards.
Three of a kind / Trips			Three of a kind with one card of the hole cards and a pair of the community cards.
Two Pair			Two pair out of one community card and a hole card per pair.

Attention: Two pair don't count if there is a pair on the board (in the community cards) because this pair counts for every player and there is a chance that one player has trips already. In this case you only play the pair which you can build out of a hole card and one card of the community cards. In the following example you would play like you would have only a pair of aces:

Your cards	Flop

Pairs

Single pairs are only interesting for the Shortstack strategy if they belong to one of the following categories:

	Your cards	Flop	Explanation
Top pair			A top pair is one pair which consists of one of your cards and the highest community card.
Overpair			An overpair is a pair which is already in your hand and higher than the highest community card.

3. Draws

The term "draw" determines all the hands which are not yet a made hand but can develop to a strong hand if an advantageous community card will be dealt. Therefore draws are unfinished hands where one card is missing.

If you play according to the short stack strategy the following three categories are interesting:

	Your cards	Flop	Explanation
Open ended straight draw (OESD)			An open ended straight draw is a draw to a straight where the top or bottom card is missing. It consists of 4 connected cards.
Flush draw			A flush draw is a draw to a flush. It consists of 4 cards of the same suit. The fifth card of that particular suit is missing to finish the flush.
Monster draw			A monster draw is a combination of a flush draw and an open ended straight draw.

4. Trash Hands

A hand which is neither a made hand nor a draw is valueless according to the short stack strategy and is called trash. Normally you can only win with these hands if you get your opponents to fold their hands meaning that you bluff them out of the pot.

Examples for trash hands:

Your cards	Flop	Explanation
		You have a pair of eights, but there are a queen and a nine on the board. That means it is not unlikely that one of your opponents has a higher pair.
		Although you have the chance to hit a top pair with your king or queen during the course of the hand you only have a trash hand here.
		An ace and a king are really good cards before the flop. But if you do not hit anything on the flop - like in this case - you only have trash.
		Also in this case you have a pair in your hand but because of the queen on the board a higher pair is possible.

5. Sample hands

Your cards	Flop

You have two pair aces and kings.

Your cards	Flop

You have top pair queens and in addition an open ended straight draw with ten, jack, queen, king.

Your cards	Flop

You have an overpair with the pair of queens, because every community card is smaller than the queen.

Your cards	Flop

With two nines as hole cards and an additional nine on the board you are holding three of a kind nines - in this case a set.

Your cards	Flop

Since you do not have a draw or made hand, your hand is a trash hand.

Your cards	Flop

In this hand you are holding top pair queens as well as a flush draw to the spade flush.

6. Conclusion

In this article you got an overview about the types of hands which can exist on the flop: made hands, draws and trash hands. In the next article "Flop play" you will learn how to play these hands most profitably.

In addition you should invest some time to recognize your hands on the flop because many beginners make a lot of mistakes here. For example they see a hand which they do not have or they overlook a possible draw.

7. Appendix: Answers

Question 1: What is a draw?
Answer b is correct. A draw is an unfinished hand, where one card is missing to become a strong made hand.

Question 2: What is a trash hand?
Answer c is correct. A trash hand is a valueless hand because it is neither a made hand nor a draw.

Question 3: What is a top pair?
Answer c is correct. A top pair is a pair which consists of one of your cards and the highest community card.

Question 4: How do you proceed if you have two pair and one pair consists of two community cards?
Answer a is correct. You only count the pair which you can build out of one of your hole cards and one community card because the pair on the board counts for every player and it is possible that one opponent already has trips.

Question 5: What is an open ended straight draw?
Answer b is correct. An open ended straight draw are four connected cards. One additional card is missing to a straight.

Question 6: What is a flush draw?
Answer b is correct. A flush draw are four cards of the same suit. One additional card is missing to finish the flush.

Question 7: What is a monster draw?
Answer a is correct. A monster draw is a combination of a flush draw and an open ended straight draw.

Question 8: What are trash hands?
Answer a is correct. trash hands are hands which are neither a made hand nor a draw.