There’s no better hand to catch when you’re up against a potential monster hand than a combo draw, a hand where you have more than one type of draw to go with your hand. These are hands like nut flush draw with an open ended straight draw, top set with the nut flush draw on a three flush board, top pair with an open ended straight draw, and so on. With hands like these, you’ll be favored against many hands that normally would feel like strong hands, like overpairs or sets. But the actual play with these hands may be tricky for some players to comprehend, and they stick with one way of playing them; there are a few different ways to play combo draws, and we’ll discuss them briefly here.
To understand how to play the combo draw, you have to understand how the player you’re up against in the hand will react to the potential draw you’re aiming for. Let’s say you’re playing poker online – with rakeback, of course – and you have top pair and an open-ended straight draw on a 976 board with the 98. A 10 or 5 on the turn gives you a straight, but it also puts a four card straight out on the board, which may make it difficult to be properly paid off, and making two pair puts a different four card straight out on the board; this combo draw needs to be played fast and aggressively to maximize the potential value it entails.
A hand that’s a bit more deceptive, like top pair with the nut flush draw on the flop (A8c on a 823cc board) may not need to be played quite as quickly, as the potential for being paid off with the hand is higher when you make the two pair or flush; the board isn’t quite as obvious when you bet out on the flop and make your hand on the turn. The less obvious the potential draw you hold is, the more likely you can slowplay it and use it as a tool for getting paid when you make instead of pushing an inferior hand out of the pot. That’s one of the beautiful things about playing combo draws; you never mind getting your stack in with them on the flop, and you can manipulate pots to where you’re either the one making the all-in play (and possibly getting someone to fold a coin flip type of hand against you after investing a significant amount of chips into the pot) or being forced to call the all-in.
But, no matter how you play the combo draw, never overestimate the power of your hand on the TURN. On the flop, with combo draws, your hand may be a favorite over a better hand, but on the turn, that edge is halved, the pot is inflated, making it harder for players to fold – especially soft poker players – and your hand may be tipped off a bit more than it was on the flop. That’s why most of the play you’ll make with your combo draws will be done on the flop, and not later; it’ll be straightforward from that point on. You can read more strategy articles like this at www.pokersite.org.
