Author: T

Perhaps surprisingly, there is not a lot to say here. If you have taken on board everything I have said about play on the flop, then you shouldn’t be in with a marginal hand. If you were betting with top pair, did not get raised and fourth street looks favourable, go ahead and bet again.
Be more worried about flush cards than overcards. For example, if you had A-10, the flop was 10H, 6S, 3S, you bet and were then called by one opponent, you would feel reasonably comfortable with top pair and top kicker. If fourth street brings a KD you need not be too worried about this overcard, as the only hand you would have to fear your opponent holding is K-10, which is not too likely. You might be more inclined to fear an overpair such as J-J. Nevertheless, if you are checked to, you should consider betting as your opponent is showing weakness by the check.
If, however, fourth street brings a spade then you have to be extremely careful as a flush is a likely holding for your opponent. If your opponent checks, be cautious and check yourself – he might be slow-playing the flush. If you are first to act then again take the cautious approach and check. Your opponent must also be fearful of a flush if he does not hold one himself. So give him some credit if he bets because now all you can beat is a bluff. If he is a tricky player you might suspect a bluff, but it is going to cost you to find out. So in this type of situation it is often best just to give your hand up. Remember it is only good players who can be bluffed, so if your opponent does show down a bluff after you have passed the winner, just mark it down to experience. Believe me you will feel more of a fool if you call one or more bets and he shows you a flush. You’ll be asking yourself for the next half dozen hands why you called when you knew there was a flush out there.

 

Drawing Hands
If the position is reversed and it is you that has the drawing hand which has come good on fourth street, you have the choice of whether to bet out or to check and try to trap your opponent. In a tournament, if I was short stacked, I would probably bet as I wouldn’t want to risk being outdrawn. But in a cash game, particularly if I hit the nut flush, I would be inclined to check hoping to elicit a bluff or trap my opponent into thinking I do not have the flush. Straights are more vulnerable so I would be much less inclined to slow play a straight. It is appropriate here to give a word of caution about straights. If you have the ignorant end of the straight you need to exercise circumspection. For example, if you have 7D, 6S and the flop and fourth street bring 9D, 8S, 4C, 10C, you have the lowest possible straight (ignorant end). It is probably a winner but your opponent could have the Q-J. Much less likely is the J-7 as not too many players will be in with this sort of hand. In Hold ‘Em it is still OK to bet the bottom end of the straight, but it is a recipe for disaster in Omaha.

Fifth Street
If you get as far as fifth street (‘the river’), remember there is now much less cause to bet. You no longer need to bet to protect your hand as all of the cards are out. Most large bets on the river are therefore from big hands or are bluffs. Most players, for example, will not bet top pair top kicker on the river, because it is too likely to be beaten if called. A player who has been betting all of the way, but then checks on the river, probably has a medium-strength hand which he wants to show down for nothing. Nevertheless, I would not recommend a bluff here. If you have got nothing, just accept your fate as a bluff is too likely to be called.
 

By a draw, I mean a hand that could turn into something big on the last two cards but at the moment doesn’t amount to much. These hands are very tricky to play. A lot of players get busted out of tournaments on a draw when, probably, they shouldn’t be playing them. As T J Cloutier, the prolific US tournament winner, says, ‘Draws are death’.

Let’s look at a typical layout where you might consider playing
a draw.

Your Hand                   Flop

JH, 10H                       KD, 7H, 3H

If a solid player bets the pot and everyone passes to you, should you call? We’ve all done it, but the answer is no, definitely not.Your opponent is a solid player, so give him credit for a pair of kings (any pair is in front of you at this point anyway). You must hit one of nine hearts to make your flush. In other words, you are about a 4/1 underdog to make it on the next card. If a heart does come, your opponent may well stop betting, since he must fear the possibility of a flush. If it doesn’t, he will likely bet the pot again. Do you want to call again with one card to come?
What if another player called in between you and the bettor? Some players now get it into their heads that they have ‘value’ but do they? Remember that your flush draw is only jack high. If somebody is playing a higher flush draw you may end up making your hand only to find out it is second best. The same applies if there is a pair on the flop. You can make your hand and lose to a full house. There’s little sense, in my view, in committing money with a draw that you can’t be sure will win.
There are some exceptions when you might want to play your draw in a tournament.

1.    You’re short stacked. In this case, you’ve just got to put your money in and hope. If you are all in on the flop, at least you will get two cards for your money.

2.    Your opponent is short stacked. In this case, gambling with a draw isn’t so bad because you know, once your opponent is all in, it can’t cost you any more.

3.    The initial bet is very small. In a low ante game, if all the players have plenty of money, you can even call on the flop with something like this layout:

Your Hand                   Flop

10S, 8S                       9D, 6C, 4H

If a 7 comes on fourth street, you have the nuts and hopefully someone who turned another good hand such as trips on the flop will not be able to get away from the hand.
I must admit I do loosen up when it comes to the nut-flush draw. You know you’ll win if it hits (providing a pair doesn’t come) and it also has the added value that pairing the ace might win on its own.
That’s all I’ve got to say about draws. It’s boring not playing them but that’s how the top players take down the money in the big tournaments (so I’m told!). But if you want to play them, play them aggressively. Raise all-in on the flop. A draw has a lot more value with two cards to come than with one, and there’s a fair chance your opponent will be too terrified to call, but pick your spot. There’s no point in putting all your chips in with a draw against a player who only worries about what he has and pays no attention to what his opponent might have. Against these types, you’ll be called and you’ll have to hit your hand.

In standard Omaha the rules are identical to those of Texas Hold ‘Em except that each player receives four hole cards instead of two and each player must use exactly three board cards and two hole cards to make the hand. This second difference can be confusing for beginners and players who are used to Hold ‘Em.

These examples show how it works:

Hole Cards         Flop              4th Street     5th Street

AC, KC, JS, JH     KD, KH, QD    9H               9C

Best Hand 

The hole card KC makes trip kings but note that this player does not have a full house. This would require the use of only one hole card and four board cards, or three hole cards and two board cards, which are prohibited combinations.

 

Hole Cards         Flop              4th Street     5th Street

AC, 2H, QS, JS    AD, KC, 3C    9C               10C

Best Hand

This player’s best hand is the ace-high straight using the QS, JS hole cards and AD, KC, 10C from the board. Note that he does not have a flush as this would require the use of only one hole card and four from the board.

 

Hole Cards         Flop              4th Street     5th Street

AC, KH, QH, JH   4S, 4H, 4D     4C               QC

Best Hand

Here a beginner might think that he has four of a kind with an ace as the kicker. Alternatively, he might think that he has a full house of three 4s and two queens. But neither of these hands is allowed because in each case he is using only one hole card. The highest hand this player can have is three 4s with an ace and a king as kickers. The nuts in this example would be where a player holds two queens in hand, making a full house of three queens and two 4s.

Hold ‘Em allows a player to use both his hole cards and three from the board, or only one hole card and four from the board, or indeed he can choose not to use any of his hole cards and instead play the five board cards as his hand. This latter case is known as ‘playing the board’. Thus, if the board cards were AC, KD, QD, JH, 10S all the players left in contention would have the highest possible straight (called the top straight) and hence would split the pot between them. Note that in this case there is no flush possible because there would have to be three cards of the same suit on the board. Similarly, for there to be a full house or four of a kind there would have to be at least one pair on the board.

Here is an example:
              Hole Cards        Flop              4th Street    5th Street

Hand1     AH, KD             

Hand2     AC, QC              AS, 9D, 7S     QD             9S

Hand3     7H, 7C

Hand4     JS, 10S

On the flop, hand 3 is ahead with three 7s (called ‘trip 7s’). Hand 1 is second best with two aces and a king as the next highest card (the king in this instance is called the ‘kicker’). Hand 2 is third best also with two aces but only with a queen kicker. Although hand 4 is last at this stage the player is not without hope as fourth street, turn, could bring a spade card giving a flush or an 8 making a straight. Notice that two of the players are using the same board card (the AS) as part of their hand which is allowable.

On fourth street, there is minimal change in the order. Hand 3 is still ahead, but now hand 2 is second with two pair and hand 1 is third with one pair. Hand 4 is still last, but now any spade, 8 or king will improve this hand to make it the winner.

On fifth street, all five board cards have now been dealt. Each player can use a combination of the board cards and his own hole cards to make the best five-card combination or hand. In this case, hand4 has indeed improved to a flush (five spades), but hand3 has also improved to a full house and wins the pot.

Another example is:

               Hole Cards       Flop              4th Street     5th Street

Hand        AC, KC            KS, 9C, 7C      AD              3C

On fourth street, the player can use the AC and KC from his hand along with the AD and KS from the board to make two pair but on fifth street he can use the two clubs in his hand and the three dubs on the board to make a flush. Therefore, at various points in the play of the hand, the player used different combinations of cards to make the best five-card poker hand.
Remember that poker is a five-card game, so if the board was 10-10-10-10-3, all players would have four 10’s, but the winner of the pot would be the player with the highest hole card. The best possible hand is known as ‘the nuts’, so if the board was KH, 6S, 3D, 4H, 10H the player holding two hearts, including an ace of hearts would have the nuts and win the pot. But if the 3D were instead a 6D, this player would no longer have the nuts, since now a full house or four of a kind is possible. Of course, the player might still win the pot with his ace-high flush, but he would not have the nuts.

 

Previous article

 

 

Texas Hold ‘Em (usually just called Hold ‘Em) is the one most commonly played in casino card rooms. Hold ‘Em can be played with only two players or, theoretically, with as many as twenty-two players (this exhausts the number of cards in the deck). In practice, however, it is rarely played with more than ten players due to the size of the table, with six to ten players considered the optimum range.
The first betting round is structured slightly differently from draw or stud. There is usually no ante put in by every player. Instead, the two players on the dealer’s left each put in small initial bets called ‘blinds’. These bets are called blind bets (blinds for short) because they are made at a stage before the players receive their cards. As the deal passes round the table a different two players put in (or post) the blinds. Thus over time every player will post the same number of blinds.
In the majority of casino games there is a house dealer, and to ensure that every player has a chance of sitting in what would nominally be the dealer’s position a small disk or’button’is moved around the table. The house dealer always deals the first card to the player on the left of the dealer button. The player with the dealer button is last to act on every round of betting for that hand, with the exception of the first one where the blinds are ‘live’, meaning that the players who posted the blinds have the option to raise.
The game starts with each player receiving two cards face down. After they have looked at their own cards, there is a round of betting. As the first two players on the dealer’s left have put in bets, it is the third player on the dealer’s left who is first to act and because a bet (blind) has already been made he cannot check. He must call the blind, raise or fold. If the action proceeds all the way around to the players who posted the blinds, without being raised, then these players have the option to raise themselves. If they do not wish to do so, they simply say’no raise’ or tap the table.
Once the first betting round is over, the dealer discards (or ‘burns’) the top card of the deck. It is dealt face down on to the table, this card is called a ‘burn card’ and it is not used in the play of the hand. This is to ensure that cheating is made difficult or impossible to achieve. If the top card was not burnt then players might be tempted to mark particular cards and try and spot them on top of the deck. If the cards are marked, a player who is able to read the backs will know what the top card is and this information could be very advantageous. For instance, if a player had 6-6 in hand and knew that the first card dealt would be a 6, then that player could bet and raise with impunity.
After the first betting round, three cards are turned face up in the middle of the table. This is called’the flop’. After a further round of betting, a fourth card, called the’ turn’ or ‘fourth street’ is turned. Another round of betting is followed by a final face-up card (called the ‘river’ or’fifth street’). The five cards in the centre of the table are collectively known as the ‘board’, After the last round of betting the players reveal their hole cards.

 

Part 2