Poker Strategies

During a certain game at the World Series of Poker,  David “DevilFish” Ulliott had flopped a set of kings holding Ks-Kh-7c-2s.  The flop fell Kd-Jc-5d.  His opponent, Markus Golser, had a holding of Ad-Qd-10c-4s.  He had both a nut flush draw and a nut straight with 17 outs to hit his hand (Jd would give Ulliott a full house and this had to be subtracted from the equation).  At this point, Golser was around 70% to make his poker hand but Ulliott was behind.

Omaha Poker is a game of big cards and big draws. The game between Ulliot and Golser was a very good example of how a big draw can actually be better than a made hand.  Golser caught a 9 on the fourth street and had a hand that had multiple straight and flush draws. In the end, he was able to knock out a player when his draw got there.

A wrap is a poker hand that has at least 3 coordinated cards that can help make a straight.  An example of this is A-Q-10-4.  Hands such as J-10-9-8 are also very powerful hands because these can make any potential winning hand from a nine high straight to broadway.  Hands that are also suited and coordinated will be even more valuable.

Players who have a big wrap like A-Q-J-10 or J-10-9-8 will usually raise pre-flop. This is not a really bad play, actually. If the board flops low or paired then you will have some kind of a straight draw with many flops. There is also a very good chance for flopping high pairs and even sets when the board comes paired. You get additional outs when you catch a flush draw if your wrap is suited.

When doing flop a solid draw, many Poker players get a bit confused as to how they should play a wrap. Some recommend pushing draws like what Golser did. This play is solid because a lot of times you will have a lot of outs to hit your draw. Just be careful pushing if you only have a gutshot draw because then you will only have four outs and you want at least an open-ended straight draw with at least 8 outs. If you have a straight and flush draws, you will usually have 18 outs. You can feel confident about your Poker Games now as the odds are in your favor for hitting your hand.

Be a little more careful if you’re pushing a wrap on the turn. Here, your odds will be reduced by half due to the fact that only a single card can come and you might not hit your hand. Thus, at this point, it becomes more important to look at your pot odds, which you can compute for using the 4-2 method. If you have 18 outs, then the possibility that you will make your hand is 36%. In most cases, the odds will be for you to make a draw. But if the odds look a bit bleak, then you might want to consider just folding your hand.