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
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 is: what did I 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 needs no help at all.
- Incomplete hands / draws
These are hands that do need help from the coming community cards. If, for example, you have two spades and two more spades show up on the flop, you would have a flush draw. This means that a spade on either the turn or the river would give you a flush.
- Worthless hands / trash
Worthless hands (or trash) are neither made nor have much chance of getting 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 current situation.
DOWNLOADS
The starting hand chart as a PDF file
What are made hands?
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MONSTER
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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 which is a two pair or better. Such a hand is also called a monster because it is usually very solid and can make a lot of money if you play it right.
A pair can be a made hand too. There are two kinds of pairs (explained in detail below) 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 community card.
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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 a 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 a two pair. Doing so exaggerates the strength of your hand, since you really only have one pair. The posibility of an opponent having three-of-a-kind or a full house increases when the board is paired. This 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 have the potential to become strong if a useful card shows up on the board.
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, two outs would give you a three-of-a-kind.
If between your hole cards and the board you have four cards in numerical order, you have an OESD, or an open ended straight draw.
You don't have a straight yet, but if the fifth card on either 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 in the deck and the four nines.
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If you have four cards of the same suit, a fifth suited card would give you a flush.
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A 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 called 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 this draw, you have two gutshot draws for two different straights.
If you
look at the example below, 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 double gutshot draw is just as strong as an OESD, as they both have 8 outs.
The article on implied odds will show you that a double 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. They don't present a particularly strong draw, but if you do hit one of your 6 outs, you will get a 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 covers how to evaluate your hand once the flop has been revealed. You can place any hand in one of these three categories:
- made hands
- incomplete hands / draws
- worthless hands / trash
You' should have also become familiar with the most common hands you will encounter: monster hands, top pair, overpair, flush draw, OESD, gutshot, double gutshot, monster draw and overcards.
What this article doesn't cover 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 that treat 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
