Poker Articles

When to Play Draws in Poker Tournaments
by Ming Yo
Monday, July 17, 2006

Most experienced poker players use percentage realities to know if they have the odds to "chase" a flush or straight draw. That is the correct strategy for limit games, however if you are using such a guide when playing tournaments, you are playing an unnecessary, risky style of poker tournament game, and most likely costing yourself money. I recommend playing draws in a tournament only under the following specific conditions.

You are the short stacked and in the blinds, and the flop gives you an open ended straight or flush draw. In this case, you should go all in after the flop, and hope to take the pot right there giving you an extra opportunity to win the hand, and see another full round of cards. You are going to hit one out three times approximately and in this case, that is a good scenario. I once saw a "Magical WPT Pro" do this early in a tournament with his whole stack, only to be called by the cutoff with an overpair. He was out in the first hour saying "in these tournaments you have to double up early and take the chance". That is complete nonsense and rings of a cop out, not a strategy.

You can also play draws from the blind when it is an economical poker strategy to do so. As per the above example, if you can hit a draw 1 of 3 times, the pot size should be 3 times the size to make it a profitable play - that is, in ring games. Do not follow this guide in early stage tournament play because missing 1 or 2 profitable-play draws may mean that your whole tournament strategy will have to change for the duration, just playing catch up. On a flush or open ended straight draw, do not chase unless you are getting at least 6 to 1 pot odds, and I look for 10 to 1 as an even better guideline. At the early stages of tournaments, you want to have the made hand, and let others try to hit their draw against you. Can you see how this works? If all the early confrontations you have in the tournament force your opponents into expensive draws you will be chipping up the majority of the time, and setting yourself up for big stack play in the middle stages. And during an online tournament, you will have lots of customers chasing.

This brings us to the most acceptable time to play draws - as a big stack! Here you can use the normal percentage and odds realities, because you can now afford to miss 2 of 3 draws and not be hurt, especially against a small stack. Your tactic here should be to use your draw to take smaller stacks of their better hands by betting aggressively with the looming threat of taking them out. Choose your spots when doing this, against tight middle stacks, or real short stacks. Stay away from drawing against a big stack, until final table play, where aggression takes down the majority of pots.

About the Author

Ming Yo is an online NL Hold'em Tournament Pro having won over $250,000US in the past 2 years. He just started writing for PokerStrategyArticles.com and is currently developing an online tournament strategy ebook.