How to Play Draw in Tournament of Poker

If you have been playing tournament draws, you would know it is never particularly easy to play. When you reach the elements of a tournament, the difficulty level is raised a few notches. Let’s find out How to Play Draw in Tournament of Poker.

The differences between playing a draw in a cash game vs. a tournament are amazing. You’ll need to consider the results of your plays a lot more closely. In cash games, aggressive play with a drawing hand can do magic.

You need to take the short term and long term impacts of your decisions into account. Yes, chasing and hitting draws is exciting, but the trouble of bricking and busting out is much more.

There are many different types of draws with varied amounts of strength therein. You could have a straight draw on a clean board, or you could have a flush draw on a board that has three spades on the flop.

The type of your draw as well as the other ongoing and recurring variables is going to largely determine the most optimal route for success. You can never play every draw the same way if only because they have different likely outcomes.

Sometimes you may have to take down a pot right on the spot, but other times you may want to get the money in the middle. Your end game strategy is the most important thing when playing draws in tournaments.

A lot of players will make calls or raises disapproving the fact that more decisions will lie ahead. Right planning will go a long way towards your success with draws in tournaments.

Big pots vs small pots

The current size of the pot that you are playing will help to make out what type of natural value is in place. It’ll make a lot more sense to chase after a draw when there’s tons of dead money in the middle than if you are playing a limped pot.

Similarly, the size of the pot is going to be one of the most important elements in the decision-making process of your opponents. You should consider all of this information together to formulate an optimal game plan.

Pot control cannot be overstated in tournaments, and its relevance is of importance when you are playing a draw.

Numbers games, strong draws vs weak draws

Many players like to chase draws irrespective of their value. Sometimes these players imagine the rush they will get if they are lucky enough to land their 4 out gut shot straight draw. Making such a play is always wrong, but for the sake of this article, just assume that it was a wrong move. You must define yourself as the polar opposite of these action junkie players. Keep things in the right perspective before you ever commit.

Odds and calculations tend to be blown out of proportion in poker. The truth is that knowing the numbers isn’t mandatory to win. Even players like Phil Ivey have openly stated that they have common ideas on the numbers involved, but that a feel for situations is much more valuable. With all that said, however, draws are one of the times where your odds are critical.

The chances of hitting a gutshot are quite slim. This would mean that chasing your hand would need a cheap price relevant to the pot and the amount of money that you could stand to win. On the other end of this pricing spectrum, would be a straight draw, flush draw combo.

You don’t need the right odds to consider this bet, as your worst situation could be a coin flip. Although such situations should be relatively easy to manage, it’s all of the spots in between that tend to cause the problems.

Deception is a big area of concern. You can get paid off with a made draw than it is for you to make one in the first place. The reason being that all of your plays are going to be heavily reliant on implied odds. You are aware of the rough chances of making your hand, but this will hardly matter if no one is going to pay you off.

The true strength of your drawing hands is going to have a lot to do with deceit. The strong and weak dynamics of draws in tournaments are about how likely a draw is to ultimately win you a big pot, and less about the strength of the draw itself.

Comparing draw tournaments with cash games

The risk involved in any play with draws is what differentiates cash games from tournaments. You should be making fewer moves with the idea of fold equity in mind when playing a tournament. Fold equity is there in cash games because it assumes a reasonable losing percentage.

In tournaments, losing in the end. This isn’t to say that making some shoves with draws can’t collect folds and/or be profitable as an aggressive strategy. But it never means that you need to be more careful with each step that you take.

Tournaments are life and death, with your bust being permanent. In cash games, it’s a never-ending cycle of re-birth. Redefine your decisions as per your environment and game type.