Online Pot-Limit Draw - Part I

My new favorite game online is pot-limit draw, which features subtlety and much more opportunity to make plays than the limit variety. The games are proliferating, and are offered at four different groups (detailed in "Where to Find Online Draw" in Vol. 18/No. 25). One site often has 10 and more games going, with several blind sizes to choose from. The others also have many games. You can play in games with blinds as low as 1¢-2¢ and as high as €25-€50. Minimum buy-ins are usually 40 times the small blind and maximum buy-ins 100 times the big blind.



Several players have written requesting strategy for pot-limit draw. "Online Draw Poker Strategy" in Vol. 16/No. 16, cover date of Aug. 1, 2003, offered a strategy for the limit game. Several follow-up columns discussed refinements of the strategy. All of those columns are viewable in the magazine archives at CardPlayer.com.



Pot-limit draw is a slightly different beast. The basic guidelines remain the same, but you have more choices in how to play an individual hand. You can come into a hand initially for varying amounts, and a raise can encompass a spectrum of amounts rather than a single fixed figure. You also can play some hands that you would not play in the limit game, while you would be well-advised not to play some that you would in the limit game.



I number positions before the draw by how many act after the current position. Thus, the button is called position 2 because the small and big blinds have not yet acted. This allows guidelines for all game configurations. You will find eighthanded, sixhanded, and fivehanded games on different sites. In the eighthanded game, the under-the-gun position, just to the left of the big blind, is position 7, while in the fivehanded game, the under-the-gun position, just to the left of the big blind, is position 4. In all three variants, the cutoff (one position to the right of the button) is position 3.



The guidelines to follow, generally, are:



Opening Hands

• In positions 7, 6, and 5, your minimum opening hand is a pair of aces. And you rarely limp; usually come in for a raise. You may think this a bit tight, but it's based on what hand figures to have positive expectation against the remaining players. A pair of kings is likely beat against seven unseen hands. Unlike hold'em, a hand does not have three more rounds in which to improve. In draw poker, the best starting hand almost always has a huge edge, particularly against only a few other players. So, most of the time you try to avoid situations in which you have the worst of it.



In the sixhanded or eighthanded game, you can sometimes limp in from these positions with one pair if you also sometimes limp in with better hands. Neither should occur often.



• In position 4, add kings.



• In position 3, add queens and jacks.



• In position 2 – that is, on the button – come in with tens.



• The small blind gets a little tricky. How you play depends on what you know about the player in the big blind. Lacking any information, limp in with A-Q to a pair of sixes. This is one of the few times that you can limp. Raise-open with anything better. This means, come in for a raise with sevens or better. If the big blind is aggressive, do not play no-pair hands and play small pairs cautiously. If the big blind always raises when you limp, limp and reraise with good hands perhaps one-fourth of the time. Sometimes also limp and call with a big pair. But be careful, because the larger the pot gets, the larger the potential next bet. By trying to get "cute," as many players do, you can cost yourself a lot when a big hand gets beat.



• Play your big blind dependent on the opener's position and whether he came in for a raise. If two or three limpers – or more! – come in, raise with a pair of kings or aces, or anything better. With two or three players already in for a small raise, call with about a pair of tens or higher, any come draw, or any two pair. With a larger raise, you probably need a pair of kings or better to call. Dependent on the size of the raise, reraise with about jacks up or better, and, of course, trips or better.



Notice that where I said to come in for a raise, I did not specify how much. This depends on both your hand and the texture of the game. If there is a lot of calling and not too much reraising of raises, when you open with one pair, generally open for twice the blind. This is because big pairs are hands that like volume, and you want other players to come in incorrectly with smaller pairs. You will see this a lot in pot-limit games, and it's wonderful for you. In any variety of poker, when someone calls with a worse hand than yours, four outcomes are generally possible:



• Neither hand improves and the better hand wins.



• You improve and your opponent doesn't.



• You both improve.



• Your opponent improves and you do not.



In only one of those situations does your opponent sometimes end up with a better hand. Even there, in the last option, you may be so far ahead of your opponent that he can improve and still lose. And sometimes when you both improve, your opponent improves more than you do. That happens much more in draw poker than in other games. But, generally, in three out of the four possible outcomes, the better starting hand wins. In two of those, the better hand generally wins the betting before the draw and not much else, because there usually is no betting after the draw. This neglects value-betting and catching bluffs, but they can be neglected for this discussion.



The third outcome is the interesting one, because that is the one in which you make the most money. If you make three of a kind against an opponent who also does, and the opponent started with a smaller pair, because of the larger potential bets, you make far more than when this happens in a limit game. Let's say, for example, that you open for $4 with a pair of aces in a pot-limit game that has blinds of $1-$2 and someone calls behind you with jacks. You each make three of a kind. If the big blind called the opening bet, the pot contains $12 (the $1 for the small blind will get raked). When the big blind checks, you bet $8. The player who made three jacks raises $10. (He might raise more, or if he is typical of many players, he might raise just $8.) The big blind folds. If he started the hand with $50 or so, he now has approximately $30 left. Your best move at this point is to reraise him all in. Most players call in this spot, and your only danger is if he has made a miracle three-card draw, and the odds against that are worse than 75-to-1. You can see that a play that is bad in limit – calling with a hand that is most likely worse than the opener's – is catastrophic in a pot-limit game.



Next time, I'll continue with how to play when others are already in.

Michael Wiesenberg's The Ultimate Casino Guide, published by Sourcebooks, is available at fine bookstores and at Amazon.com and other online book purveyors. Send inquiries, imputations of incorrectness, and incantations to [email protected].