Combination draw

A combination draw combines more than one draws. A hand with multiple draws enjoys more pot equity than any particular one of its draws.

Some common hold 'em combo draws

 * Flush draw plus OESD
 * Flush draw plus gutshot
 * Flush draw plus bottom pair or middle pair

General considerations
You will want to carefully consider two countervailing factors: fold equity before you hit your draw, and implied odds if you hit your draw.

The case where you might play for implied odds would be if you had a combo draw and expected your opponent to pay off REALLY big (i.e., deep stacked) if you hit the hidden portion. You also would have to have virtually zero fold equity to win the pot right away through your aggression. Then you might elect to pass up a small edge for a shot at a huge edge.

If


 * your opponent will hardly ever fold on the flop no matter how many bets go in,
 * you think your opponent will rarely fold AA to a made flush or a 9876 board here,
 * metagame against this opponent doesn't matter
 * you don't think your opponent will sense what's up and make a huge flop overbet denying you 2:1 odds to see the river.

then you could play passively and try to make your hand before getting all the money in.

Open-end straight draw plus flush draw
This is one of the strongest draws available. You're a slight favorite against top pair or an overpair.

It may seem weird to play a drawing hand this aggressively. If you have problems with thinking this way, consider this: Against anything but a set or two pair, you're really not on a draw. Your opponent with an overpair has to get one of 31 out of 46 favorable cards, not once, but twice. Your opponent is on a runner-runner blank draw, and if either blank fails to come in you win.

However, in some cases you might want to pass up pushing your 4% flop edge to get a huge edge if the hidden part of your draw comes in.

Discussion threads

 * - SSNL


 *