How to Play Draws in Poker - What the Pros Do [2024]

I have been meaning to write an article on playing draws at the micros forever now so here it finally is! The reason why is that people ask me a lot about these particular situations.

The "common knowledge" for quite awhile now has been to play draws fast versus most regs and even some fish. This is not bad advice.

Any time we do something that makes us appear more aggressive that is definitely a good thing. And the beautiful thing about most draws is that they give us some reasonable equity to put in our back pocket as well.

But there is a lot more to it than this.

How to play draws in poker depends on the player type, the board texture, the betting action and the stack sizes. In some situations it is good to play your draw passively by checking and calling and in some situations you should play your draw fast by betting and raising.

In this article I am going to break it all down for you with specific examples.

How to Play Your Draws at the Micros is Opponent Specific

However, what many of the biggest winners understand in today's games at the micros is that tailoring your actions versus each specific opponent and situation is the real key to success in playing draws or in any other scenario for that matter. 

The specific opponent and the specific situation are what matters.

So for instance versus some ridiculous nit at NL2 it might be best to just call with a draw if the math and implied odds are there. 

This is especially the case on a broadway type board that smacks his (extremely tight) range. He probably has TPTK+ a lot of the time and isn't folding. 

TPTK = Top pair, top kicker

So by raising with our draw we would just be putting money in bad and potentially pricing ourselves out should our opponent choose to re-raise us.

However, versus many of the weak/tight TAGfish that you see all throughout the micros raising with our draws often does make a lot of sense because they will have a wider range and they don't like to go to showdown without the nuts. 

This is especially effective when we are in position and can apply even more pressure on later streets. This is something that I talk about in this week's new video, with a huge bluff example hand.

Lastly, versus many of the good, solid and aggressive regs (i.e., the real TAGs) in today's games issues of balance come into play. 

So some sort of mix between raising and calling with our draws and the occasional big multi-street bluff will probably work out best. 

Again though, board texture, position and history with these players in particular will play a vital role.

In this article I am going to look at a couple of common scenarios with a draw at the micros versus a reg and talk about the best line to take. 

Assume 100bb effective stacks in all examples.

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Playing Draws at the Micros Example Hands

Hand #1

NL2 Full Ring

Villain ("The Ridiculous Nit"): 10/6/2 (VPIP/PFR/AF)

Key Stats:

• CBet Flop 50%
• Fold to Flop CBet Raise 50%
• Fold to Flop Float Bet 100%

Villain raises in EP

Hero calls on the button with J♥T♥

The flop comes

A♥8♥K♣

Villain CBets

Hero???

Discussion:

So in this spot we called preflop with a suited connector in order to outplay a terrible reg in position. We did this because he has massive glaring weaknesses in his postflop play.

By looking at the stats above we can see that he only makes a CBet on the flop 50% of the time and he folds half of the time when raised (50%)! 

We can also see that when he fails to make a CBet on the flop he is folding 100% of the time when somebody bets in position.

It should be very obvious that this is a profitable situation for us. We will bluff/raise a fair bit on the flop when he CBets and we will bet every single time when he checks to us no matter what we have.

I actually walk you step by step through another advanced semi-bluff raise with a draw in my new video as well.

As we can see in this particular example though, villain does go ahead and make a CBet. We flopped a big draw with the flush and gutshot (12 outs). What should hero do?

Hero should call. 

We have already established the fact that this player is incredibly fit or fold after the flop. He is also on a very tight range (10/6 SuperNit). 

By the way, if you want to quickly determine the player type in online poker, I recommend using a good free poker HUD.

This flop (with the ace and the king) smacks a tight range extremely hard with hands like AK and AQ for instance. 

We need to realize that when a player like this continues to show aggression on a flop like this, he is going to have a solid piece of it quite a bit of the time.

Not only are we not getting these hands to fold but we could face a re-raise which is the absolute worst outcome of all. 

This is because we have a huge hand but would be putting money in bad by continuing. Our 12 out draw here is a statistical dog versus AK and AQ for instance.

For all of these reasons we should realize that fastplaying our draw is the wrong answer versus a player like this, in this situation.


Hand #2

NL10 6max

Villain ("The TAGfish"): 20/16/2 (VPIP/PFR/AF)

Key Stats:

• 3Bet 4%
• Donk Bet 20%
• WTSD 21%

Hero raises in MP with 8♣9♣

Villain calls from the BB

The flop comes

J♥T♦2♣

Villain donk bets

Hero???

Discussion:

So in this spot we made a fairly typical open from MP and got called by a bad reg in the big blind. 

Typically we would put this player on a bunch of pairs that he is set-mining with and a few broadways or big aces that he didn't know what else to do with. 

As we can see this player only 3Bets at 4% which is definitely on the low end for 6max.

Anyways, in this particular example we flop an open ended straight draw and he donks into us. What should hero do?

Hero should raise

This should be a pretty straight-forward spot to raise against a player like this. First of all his donk bet is fairly high for these stakes at 20%. 

This means that he is leading into us with a lot more than the 'set or better' range of most nits in these games.

To learn how to read ranges better by the way, just grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.

Secondly, typical of TAGfish we can see that he doesn't go to showdown very often (21%). We don't really expect him to fold his AJ, KJ, QJ and AT type hands all that often on the flop to a raise. 

However, we do expect him to fold them a lot on the turn and/or river when we apply additional pressure (whether we make our straight or not).


Hand #3

NL 50 Full Ring

Villain ("The Real TAG"): 18/16/4 (VPIP/PFR/AF)

Key Stats:

• 3Bet 10%
• Fold to 4Bet 55%

Hero raises from the CO with A♦5♦

Villain 3Bets from the BTN

Hero calls

The flop comes

3♦7♠T♦

Hero???

Discussion:

We make a standard open preflop and get 3Bet by a TAG who is also in LP. This is very suspicious from a 10% 3Bet player. His range is so incredibly wide here. 

We could quite easily just 4Bet here (and we would a lot of the time especially since he folds a reasonable 55% of the time) but we decided to just make the call this time in order to balance our actions versus a good, thinking opponent.

This is something I discuss in much more detail in Crushing the Microstakes.

*Please note that calling out of position with a hand like this is very player specific and I would never do it versus the villains in the two previous examples.

With this preflop decision we intended to take various lines to try and win the pot after the flop regardless of the board versus this player. 

Because as you should know, calling out of position with no plan to win the pot when you don't catch a piece (which happens most of the time) is a recipe for winrate suicide. 

The fact that we managed to flop the nut flush draw in this particular example though is a huge bonus. What should hero do here?

Hero should donk bet

Versus good players you should always be thinking about which lines allow you to get the last bet in (i.e., the all-in bet). This is because there are a lot of head games and bluffs that go on amongst good players but in order to call off your stack you actually have to have a hand.

So one of the main reasons that I like the donk bet line here is because if he raises it allows us to shove (remember this is a 3Bet pot) and absolutely force him to have top pair or better.

Versus good players at these stakes it is important to mix up our play a fair bit also. I want this particular player to know that I can check/call in a spot like this as well so I will take that line from time to time as well.

I am not a huge fan of the check/raise line in this particular scenario though. Why? Because as I just mentioned it allows him to potentially get the last bet in.


How to Play Draws - Final Remarks

I hope you found this discussion useful. 

The main point to take away here is that playing draws at the micros, especially versus regs, has everything to do with tailoring your play to the particular opponent and the particular situation.

You could just fastplay the heck out of them and do ok because blind aggression still works great at these stakes a lot of the time. However, this is no longer the optimal approach.

For those of you who have read my latest book, Modern Small Stakes, you will know that finding the right line versus a particular opponent and situation is the central focus.

I need to mention also that I in no way claim to know everything about this game or be some sort of poker genius. If you think that another line is better in any of these examples then please explain why in the comments below.

Or if you have any questions about any of the discussion above then please feel free to leave a comment as well.

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