Heads up games are the most aggressive form of poker out there. So, when you flop a hand with high equity, there's no point in playing it passively. If our opponents are loose and aggressive, this means that they will not often have strong hands. It also means that they might be capable of two-barrelling us on the flop and the turn. Finally, by playing draws aggressively, it leaves us balanced to play our monsters aggressively and still get action.
Stop folding without a fight.
Let's logically consider our three options when faced with a bet when we have a flush draw. Folding is hardly ever correct, unless the bet is too large or the stacks are too small. Calling the opponents bet would bring a turn which we hit about 15% of the time. That means 85% of the time, we're vulnerable to a measly half-pot 2-barrel which we will have a hard time calling given our pot odds. Since our opponents are loose and aggressive, calling or folding are not nearly as strong as raising. A raise will fold our opponents off everything but their strongest hands. Additionally, it will build a pot that is sizable enough to get our chips in by the river. Put simply, by raising we can win the pot with our fold equity or by hitting our hand.
You Have More Fold Equity Than You Realize!
If your opponent is raising a wide range preflop and cbetting a high percentage of the time, he is going to fold to your raise very often, perhaps as high as 80% of the time. This is a lot of fold equity for risking a relatively small percentage of your stack.
And If It Doesn't Work?
If your raise is called, don't fret. You can fire a second barrel and win the pot a high percentage of the time. This second barrel is almost always profitable, unless you suspect your opponent is purposefully giving you rope to hang yourself. He could have called with a draw or a weak hand, both of which he intends to fold to further action.
And if he goes all in? This is a great outcome for us. We almost always call, because of the overlay in the pot. And now we're taking, at worst, the bad end of a 35/65. If we've got overcard outs or gutshot outs, we could have a monster draw which may have 50/50 equity or more.
The Take-Home Message
I guess the one thing you want to remember is this. If you've got the
A-hi nut flush draw, you've probably got a solid 12 outs. A 12-outer is
something like 48% equity in the pot. If you go all-in, your fold
equity plus the equity of your draw makes this a hugely profitable play.
This article is all about raising with strong draws. What kind of draws do you like to fold and what kind of draws do you like to float? What other considerations go into your decision, like, how does this change with position? Let us know in the comments.
[[ Roll The Dice ]]
