Playing Combo Draws
A combo draw is a draw where
you can make more than one hand. You have more
than one possible draw. The most common combo
draws are a straight and a flush draw. Combo
draws are very attractive because you have more
possible cards that could make your hand, more
outs. This means that you have a better chance
of hitting your hand and the pot odds improve in
your favor.
An Example of a Combo
Draw
Here is an example of a
combo draw. You start out with two hole cards
that are J♠ 10♠.
This itself is a pre flop combo draw, to an
extent, because you are considering the straight
draw and the flush draw possibilities. Then the
flop comes out with 2♥
Q♠
9♠. You now have 3
draws. Any spade makes you a flush, any 8 or K
makes you a straight. And an 8♠
or a K♠ makes you a
straight flush. So, as a flush draw, you would
have 8 outs. There are 12 spades in the deck,
and you know where 4 of them are. There are 47
unknown cards still in the deck, so your chances
of hitting a flush are 8 out of 47. Now, there
are also 2 non spade 8’s and 2 non spade kings
in the deck that give you a straight. This means
that the combo draw gives you 12 outs instead of
the 8 that you had only for the flush draw. So,
you can see that a combo draw has a significant
advantage over a one-way draw like a straight
draw or a flush draw.
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Bet It Like You Have
It
Because a combo draw is so
attractive, some poker players will treat them
as made hands in the way that they bet with
them. This is actually a very good strategy for
more than one reason. First of all, if you bet
out in a multi way pot, then if everyone calls,
you are still getting your money into the pot in
the correct percentages. The other advantages of
playing the combo draw aggressively is that if
you do not make your hand, you may still be able
to bluff at the pot and win without a show down.
Even Combo Draws
Don’t Always Come In
Just because you have more
outs and better chances of making your hand, you
will still miss it a good percentage of the
time. You have to remember that this is a game
over time. By consistently making poker
decisions that put your money in the pot against
favorable odds, you will not win every one of
the hands, but you will win more money on the
ones that you win than on the ones that you
lost. You have to believe this down deeply in
the core of your inner being. Good or, even
great, basketball teams do not shut out their
opponents. In fact, their opponents still
usually score 80 or more points against them. It
is not about one basket, or one quarter, or one
half, or one game. It is about winning over time
and when it counts.
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