Two Suited on the Flop: Scenario #2

Let's review another "possible flush draw" scenario, this one taken from my personal experience.

I am in late position with pocket fives. There is one limper and one caller before me. I call. The small blind calls and the big blind checks, so there are five of us to see the following flop:

5c Ac 8d

Sweet puffs of wheat. Not only did I hit my trips, but if one of my opponents has an ace, he will be reluctant to fold. There is a chance someone is going for a flush in clubs as well, so I might get some money from them too. Of course it is possible that someone out there might have pocket aces or pocket eights, but I feel pretty confident I have the best hand.

The original limper bets half the pot. Nice. The next guy calls, which is even better. I suspect neither have great hands, otherwise they might be betting more to protect themselves from the flush draw. I want to raise enough to build the pot but I don't want them both to fold, so I double the bet required of me to call. Both my opponents call. Now the pot is four times what it was before the flop.

The turn is a 9s, so the board looks like this:
5c Ac 8d 9s

I'm glad to see that no club hit. The original better seems hesitant, then checks. The next guy bets half the pot. What does he have? Two pair? I have no idea. Only pocket aces or pocket eights beat me, and he is more likely to be holding A8, AK, or AQ all hands he might bet this aggressively. What ever he has, I sense he likes it a lot. I decide to go all-in on the theory that trip 5's will beat a majority of hands he is likely to be holding. The first player folds. The second player calls instantly. I show my trips and he shows: 6d 7d.

It takes a second for it to sink in that my opponent is holding a straight. I didn't even notice there was a straight draw on the board.

How could I have been so stupid?

My attention was drawn away from the straight draw by a number of things. First and foremost, I got too excited by my own hand. When you hit what you are hoping for on the flop, part of your brain goes "Jackpot!" and you stop thinking about everything your opponents could be holding. You just get greedy and think about how much you are going to win. I thought about the ace and I thought about the flush draw, but I was too lazy to look for the straight draw.

I made a very common mistake. Straights tend to catch people by surprise. I think it has something to do with how the human mind works. The brain has a little more difficulty recognizing what straight draws might be on the board.

I have a feeling today's lesson is one you will just have to learn for yourself. Mostly by making the same kind of mistakes I did.

The profitable part of the lesson is that you can reverse the situation. By playing straight draws, particularly against multiple opponents, you put yourself in the position of hitting a straight that is over-looked by an excited opponent holding something like three of a kind.

Two Suited on the Flop: Scenario #1

So here is a very common situation - you are playing no-limit hold 'em and the flop comes with two cards of a particular suit. How common is this? By my calculations it happens more often than not, so figuring out the best way to play all sides of this flop must be crucial to playing winning poker. So lets examine some of the ways a "possible flush draw flop" should be played.

Scenario #1:

You are holding Ah 8h. You call an earlier limp and the button and both blinds call behind you. So five players see the following flop: Kh 9s 6h. Nice! You just flopped a nut flush draw, and the fact the pot is being contested by multiple players increases the chances of someone paying you off, right? You, measure the size of your opponents stacks and see the all have more chips than you do, so you could double-up though any of them. This is good right?

Well, maybe. One of the cruel ironies of poker is that hitting a good flop always doesn't translate into big pots. Your hand is only good if you can hit the flush and if the three suited cards on the board don't scare your opponents away. In my experience these are to very big ifs.


Let's get back to this example hand and I'll show you what I mean:

Kh 9s 6h

Chances are very good one or more of your opponents is holding a king. Why? Because people like to play aces and kings. The original limper and the button are the two most likely to be holding either a king or an ace (remember, you have one of the aces, so that makes the odds kings are being held a little better), because they liked their hand enough to at least put in the amount of the big blind. The two playing out of the blinds could have anything. So, someone at the table probably hit at least top pair, and what is this guy thinking? He or she is thinking "I think I'm ahead but I should worry about those hearts! I can't let some fool suck out a flush on me."


Small blind is the first to act and he checks. The big blind and the original limper also check. Well this really is good news! Unless one of those three are setting a trap (possible, but unlikely), they don't have a king. Why do I say that? Remember what the guy with the king is thinking. Someone with a pair of kings or better at this point is definitely worried about the flush draw, so they are going to almost always bet big to make sure that draw has to fold or pay too much to see the turn. You should feel safe that the first three missed the flop.


With just the button to act after you, you probably should bluff here. Why? Well, it might work. You only have a 32% chance of hitting the flush, so why not try to scoop the pot right here? More importantly, by betting here you send the message that you have a king and that "hides" your flush draw. A bet of about 2/3 of the pot should be enough to look serious. More than that might make it look like you are trying to "buy the pot" - which is exactly what you are doing. So you bet around 2/3 the pot. Smart move, you poker genius!

The button goes all in.

Well, durn it. Now, you feel like an idiot for bluffing. Everyone folds to you. You briefly consider if it is worth calling your whole stack on this draw, but sanity kicks in and you fold.

Normally the next hand would be dealt and in twenty minutes you have forgotten this small loss. But I'm going to show you exactly what happened - why you did everything right and lost and why the button acted foolishly and won.

The Early Limper was dealt a pair of pocket 5's. He figured he'd try to see the flop as cheaply as possible, so he just limped hoping to trigger a bunch of calls and no raises. He got his wish.

You were dealt Ah 8h remember? You were happy to call and were happy to see two others join the big blind behind you.

The Button had Ad Kc - big slick.

Both of the Blinds had rags that missed the flop.

So now you see what the button did. He flopped a pair of kings with an ace kicker. Not a bad hand - in fact he can feel pretty confident he is out in front. But he's worried about those hearts. So he does what a lot of players do in this situation - he grossly over-bets.


The Lesson: Players make this over-bet mistake all the time, and they even think they are doing the right thing by "protecting their hand". If you are in a game and you notice your opponents pushing all in like this, you can set yourself up for a big pot against them. Don't play a lot of suited cards, like the Ah 8h in our example, because guys like that won't let you draw to your flush. Instead play more medium and small pairs. If you are holding a pair, there is about a 12% chance that you will see a third card of that rank hit on the flop. Now 12% may seem pretty thin, but with guys going all-in with only a pair of kings (and they really will do this!) you have a good shot at winning big pots with your trips.


Just remember to make sure your opponents have enough chips to make your three-of-a-kind pay off. Don't make this move if your opponents don't have a lot of chips.


Another great advantage of playing medium and small pairs is that sometimes you will get a full house when an opponent gets a flush. In this situation you will almost always win a huge pot.

We'll look at another scenario tomorrow.