Drawing with a Pair on Board
I’m always surprised to see how many online poker players will continue to put money in a pot drawing after a straight or a flush when a pair is already on board. They probably realize that they can’t make the nuts no matter what, and you may already have them crushed, but those 4 hearts together just might make something that is second best, and they want to see if it will. Because it is hard to give a player credit for a big poker hand, many players will draw themselves into going broke.
The logic of these players seems if they hit their draw against the flopped trips they’re going to get paid, though you always have to wonder when those big river bets come if you’re playing against a full house.
One of the most important factors, then, in deciding whether or not you should continue in a online poker hand on a draw, is whether or not that hand will be worth raising with when you make it. If you can’t milk value out of your hand when you draw against the odds to make it, you are playing ‘behind the curve,’ in that you are both drawing with short odds and have no implied value when you make the hand. Maximizing your draws for their value is the only way they can become profitable in the long run.
