Playing a Draw in Limit Holdem
Playing A Post Flop Draw In Limit Hold Em
Drawing hands can be some of the most profitable hands you experience while playing Limit Hold Em. Especially in the loose games at FullTiltPoker.com. A drawing hand is when you are 4 cards to either a straight or a flush, and is usually made most reference to after the flop.
When you are involved in a hand on Full Tilt Poker in which you are in a drawing situation, there are some key factors you want to take into consideration. The things you want to think about are:
- your pot odds
- what you are drawing to (nut draw vs. non-nut draw)
- if your opponents are on a draw as well
Pot Odds
When you are playing your drawing hand on Full Tilt Poker, you want to know what your odds are. When you are involved in a hand where you have either a open ended straight draw, or a flush draw, your odds are a little less than four to one to make your hand.
What this means is you want to be able to win about four times the size of what you have to call to make the hand profitable to play. These are your pot odds. Your pot odds will often be skewed a little one way or the other depending on your hand strength. Obviously you want to always be drawing to the nuts, and using good starting hand selection will let you do that.
If You Do Hit, Are You Guaranteed A Win?
This really ties in with if your opponent is drawing as well. You will get involved in a lot of drawing hands on Full Tilt Poker, and will want to know where you stand. If you are drawing to the low end of a straight and hit, what are your chances that you are going to win the hand? You need to look at the specific situation of the hand to figure this out. Are there a lot of people in the hand who were smooth calling raises? These players will often be on a draw as well. If you can break your opponent down, then you should not have much trouble throwing your hand away if you are beat. There will be times when even if you hit you are dead in the water.
You also need to be concerned with paired boards.
Players on Full Tilt Poker often play a full house very crafty, so be aware of that. You can still go after your draw on these boards, just be well aware of where you are at and your opponent. You will only really want to be on a nut draw in this type of situation meaning that if you are drawing to a flush on a paired board you should be drawing to the nut flush. If there is a lot of action in the hand, laying your draw down is not a bad idea.
One other gotcha you always want to be aware of is your straight being counterfeited by a card, giving them the one card nut straight. As an example, if you hold 8s-9s and the board is 10s-Jc-2s, you have straight and flush draw possibilities. If a Queen of diamonds hits the turn, you have a straight to the queen, but are easily counterfeited by A-K which is probably calling a bet on the flop almost every time, especially online.
Playing a draw properly is crucial to making money in Limit Hold Em on Full Tilt Poker. Use this as a basic guide, but remember, you have to trust your instincts and always strive to make the best play for the situation!
For more strategy articles, visit our poker strategy section for free strategy videos, articles and reviews of poker training programs. For more tips specific to beating the games at Full Tilt Poker, check out this new site packed full of Full Tilt Poker Tips!
Full Tilt FTOPS 2008
With over 15 million in guaranteed prize money, the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS IX series kicks off on August 6th, 2008! The FTOPS consists of 24 events ranging in buy ins ranging from $200 + $16 up to the main event which is a $2500 + $120. The Full Tilt FTOPS tournaments brings out the biggest online poker players from around the globe to compete in what is one of the largest events of online poker. Kicking off the series of a $1,000,000 guaranteed NL Hold ‘Em with a $200 buy in. This event is sure to draw some of your favorite full tilt poker pro’s like Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and others. Click here to find the 2008 FTOPS Schedule.
Last year, the main event was hosted by Phil Ivey and guaranteed 1.5 million with a hefty $2500 buy in, but still pulled in 899 of the best online poker players in the world.
Full Tilt FTOPS Satellites
This year, FullTiltPoker.com is adding in a FTOPS IX Satellite challenge. If you win your first entry into any of their FTOPS IX events and Full Tilt will automatically register you for that event. For every additional satellite seat you win to the same event, they give you T$ (tourney credits). If you win the most satellite entries above ALL other players they will give you the T$ equivalent of two more buy-ins. They also give something to 2nd place. In my opinion this satellite challenge is pretty weak unless you are a serious full tilt poker satellite player.
- $50 Daily Satellites - (7/10 - more available in lobby at lower buy-ins closer to start date)
- Visit FullTiltPoker.com and Play
FTOPS 2008 Bonuses
Along with the great tournament structure, seven figure prize pool guarantees FullTilt is sweetening the pot with a few cool bonuses. According to their site, if you final table an event you win a pretty sweet Full Tilt Poker limited edition “FTOPS Jacket”. It actually looks pretty sweet, much better than the Top 10 Dumbest Full Tilt Poker Gear choices. Fulltilt.com also offers the bubble player in every FTOPS event a seat in a ‘bouncebackability freeroll’ on the 23rd of August that gives a seat into the FTOPS main event. I guess it makes being the bubble boy less painful eh?
Sit N Go Strategy Video at Full Tilt Poker
This is a video of KAP Co-Founder Spry playing a $10+1 Sit N Go online at Full Tilt Poker. FTP is home of some of the best structure for their sit-n-go’s and all of most of their tournaments for that matter. This sit n go strategy article will take a look at a style of play explained in detail in the online sit n go training guide, called “Sit-N-Go Pro” which gives advice from a pro sit n go poker player who makes thousands of dollars playing a high volume of sit n go poker tournaments. The sit n go pro course is a paid course, but my poker videos are always free. Sit n go strategy changes at all levels and all situations, so the best thing to do is get started within your bankroll.
This video shows rational of using your reads to make calls at the table and taking the opportunity to accumulate chips when they are presented to you.
Part I: SNG Strategy Video
I’m not positive my call there with 99 early in the tournament is right, but I went with my reads and figured that not only could overs be a possibility but so could smaller pairs. If he had much bigger pairs I would expect him to slow down some and try and trap…
Quick Sit n Go Tips
- tight is usually right at first
- blinds don’t become worth stealing until $100/$200 usually
- Don’t let yourself blind off if your stack is getting low in relation to the blinds.
- Play within your bankroll
- Bet large enough to give those drawing the improper odds to call
- have a reason to bluff
What is a Sit N Go Poker Tournament?
A sit n go, or SNG, is typically a 1 table tournament with a fixed buy-in (no re-buys), everyone starts with the same number of chips, and the top of the field gets paid. Typically the top 3 players get paid in a 1 table SNG. Sit n go’s are offered from 1 table up to 180 person events at the larger poker sites like Poker Stars. The most common sit n go nl holdem tournaments are the low stakes, down to the $1.00 buy in, although I’ve seen thousand dollar plus sit n go’s kick off at FTP and PokerStars.
Part 2: Sit N Go Tips Video
Download Full Tilt Poker and try a SNG yourself!
Good luck and I’ll see you at the tables!
