Poker Strategy - Drawing Hands

A drawing hand is any pair of cards that have no value immediately, but the potential to become strong hands if the right community cards turn up. There is a lot to review when we break down this last sentence.

First, any pair of cards that have no immediate value. These are two cards that are not impressive yet. A Nine-Eight-suited or a Jack-Nine, for example. You wouldn't bet the farm on a hand like this, but like Stud or Draw, Hold 'Em has more cards coming up...cards that may turn your hand from mediocre into a monster. The key with drawing hands is measuring the hand's potential to improve. There is inherent risk in chasing a drawing hand because more times than not, they will not improve.

Second, the potential to become strong hands. When a drawing hand improves, it typically does so to a straight or a flush. The two examples above have the potential to become a flush (or straight flush) and straight, respectively. These are strong hands, and usually pot-winners.

Put these two points together and you've summed up the significance of drawing hands at the low-limit table: drawing hands need to be measured for their potential, they will not likely improve, but if they do, you will win a nice pot. Small pairs are just like drawing hands, in that they probably don't have what it takes to win the pot on their own, but should they improve to trips, you have a strong hand. In fact, we treat small pairs as drawing hands for this reason: they won't win the pot on their own and the most likely improvement will be to trips.

Drawing hands are the lifeline of low-limit poker. As we will see here and expand upon in our discussion of low-limit mathematics, when a low-limit game is characterized by many players staying in the pot, we need to play the right hands. Big cards lose value against a big field (many players) because the more players, the better the winning hand is going to need to be. Against eight players, a big pair of Aces will likely not cut it, and the player holding that hand better aim to fold as many players as possible.

Against this many players, we need strong hands. And ironically, strong hands are borne of drawing hands, which again are limited in value at the outset. That said, the key to making money at the low-limit table is to correctly chase drawing hands against a large number of players. If done correctly, those few times where your hand improves will pay for the many times that your hand doesn't improve.