Texas Hold’em

Drawing in Limit Hold’Em Poker

Drawing dead is one of the worst mistakes that a limit Texas Hold’Em poker player can make at the poker table and yet it happens frequently. Too many online poker players end up wasting significant amounts of poker chips/money at the poker table by drawing on hands that would not even be the nut poker hands if the player hit his draw.

One of the biggest and most obvious poor draws that a player can make is drawing for the “ignorant” or “low” end of a straight. Let’s take a player that draws pocket hands such as 6-5 and limps in with it from late position. If the flop comes 8-7-6 this player has made a pair of sixes with a draw to the straight. Such hands sound good at first until you dig a little deeper. If the 9 does arrive on fourth street/the turn to make the straight this player still faces many hands at the table that can beat him including a player holding 10-9 in his pockets. The player with the pocket hand of 6-5 suddenly gets all excited about making his straight without taking into account that it is not the nut poker hand at the table and several hands can beat his straight and thus he is jamming the pot for nothing except a painful defeat.

This is a great example of the importance of reading the flop, turn and river community cards along with the acts of the other players at the table. A limit Texas Hold’Em poker player that pays attention to the board and analyzes what the real nut hands can be and puts that analysis in sync with the acts of the other players can get a real good read at which players have which hands at the table. To put this another way if a poker player stays calm and cool and pays attention to his reads at the poker table he will have most of the vital information necessary in order to make the correct poker chip bets.

Another skill to playing Texas Hold’Em poker is to know when to fold Some poker hands are not worth drawing for, or on.