When you play Texas Holdem you’re going to run into many hands where you have a straight draw or a flush draw and you’re going to need to decide whether or not you want to chase after the draw. When it comes down to chasing draws in Holdem you simply need to make sure you do the proper math. You need to find out the probability of hitting your draw and you also need to figure out whether or not you’re getting the right pot odds to stay in the hand.
* Figuring out the probability of hitting a flush or straight is really simple. You simply need to figure out how many cards are left in the deck that will make your draw hit and divide that number by the amount of cards that you haven’t seen. For instance, if you’re holding two clubs in your hand and two clubs come on the flop then you need to do the following. You simply need to divide 9 into 47 to figure out the probability of hitting your flush.
* Once you have calculated the probability of hitting your draw on PokerStars.it you need to calculate the pot odds you’re getting. You only need to figure out the pot odds if somebody makes a bet. If you’re sitting with a four card flush draw after the flop and your opponent bets $20 into a $50 pot then you should fold unless you think you’re opponent has nothing. If your opponent were to have bet $20 into a $200 pot though then you should always make the call and try chasing after your flush draw.
* You’re going to have more flush and straight draws in Holdem then you can probably imagine. There is no way that you can possibly chase after every draw you have because it just wouldn’t be feasible. You need to make sure you’re getting the right odds to chase the draw, but you also need to use your gut feeling sometimes. Just because you’re getting the right odds to make a call doesn’t make it the right call. If your gut is telling you to fold your hand then you should go with your gut very single time. The second you start second guessing yourself is the second that you need to stop playing poker.
* You should only chase flush draws when you have a four card flush draw on the flop. If you don’t have at least a four card flush draw then you’re better off just folding your hand. When you’re chasing after a straight draw you should only chase if you have an open ended straight draw such as J-10-9-8. If you have an inside straight draw such as a 9-8-7-5 you should just fold your hand.
There is definitely money to be made by chasing, but at the same time there is a time and a place for chasing hands. You need to be selective about the hands you chase. If you have a low flush draw then you could potentially lose the hand to a higher flush draw so you might not even want to chase after your flush draws unless you’re drawing for the nuts or close to the nuts.