NL Draw Strategy

R

rickroll

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Hi everyone, so I wasn't paying attention and signed up for a nl draw mtt by accident and ended up placing. I then played a few more sngs and mtt and did pretty well as well.

Having said that, I really don't know any of the hard math behind it and I'm often put in an odd spot when I hold the bb with no pair or obvious draw and it's limped to me.

Had someone raised it's an easy fold but since that wouldn't make sense as they limped to me, I'm usually given the option of drawing to a hand vs opponents that are improving their hands or straight up bluffing.

I've searched a bit and most of anything I can find doesn't deal with this. They always assume someone will raise in which case I obviously fold out of position and without a hand.

So it I have 468JQ what do I do?
Discard the 468 and try to pair the Q or J?
Discard all but the Q?
Discard all?
Discard the JQ and pray to hit a miracle straight?
Keep the 3 suited cards and pray that I get two more?

Same with weak pairs with draws. If I have QJT99 am I better trying to improve the 9s or go for the straight? Same with if I had 4 to a flush plus a pair?

Most articles are about dealing with good hands and assuming you'll never be in a position to play rags. However, I've found at least 80% of early stage tournaments my bb will be limped to and even towards the end my bb will be limped to no less than 25% of the time. The majority of these times I'm not going to have an obvious starting hand.
 
detroitjunkie

detroitjunkie

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This is a REALLY tough game to play online. Its a game of reads and ranges. If I was ever to play a hand in this game I would raise every time no matter what. This way you weed out the scrum bums. If they all limp to your bb then raise with anything. Then play the draw round based on your reads.

The math is tricky, but working with pairs is strong, especially if you weed out players. If everyone sees the draw then you have a lot of hands to worry about. Position is very strong in this game as well, use it as a weapon.

NL in this game is very tough, but again you can use it to weed out players. The bully will win this game more often than not.
 
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