Poker Strategy – Evaluating the Flop

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1. What have you hit?

You entered the pot with a good hand in accordance with the starting hands chart, or perhaps were in the big blind, and did not have to invest any more money to see a flop. So far, so good. Now the first three community cards, also known as the flop, are dealt. The first question to ask is: what hand have I made?

There are basically three types of hands – hands which are already good, hands which could become a good hand if certain cards come in the future, and worthless hands. We call these made hands, draws (or incomplete hands) and trash.

• Made Hands

We give this name to those hands which are already very strong and most likely the currently best hand. A three of a kind, for example, is almost certainly the best and will not need to improve to win, but also pairs fall into this category. These hands do not necessarily have much of a chance to improve.

• Unfinished Hands / Draws

Hands which have yet to improve, but are still a good hand. For instance, suppose you have two spades. You do not hit a pair or something better on the flop, but two of the flop cards include two spades. If either the turn or the river is a spade, you will have a flush. We call this hand a flush draw.

• Hands with little value/ Trash

A trash hand is neither a good made hand, nor does it have much chance of improving to the best hand. You will rarely win a showdown with such hands, but you may still win with a bluff.

The following chapters will show you the various possible card combinations. These will ultimately decide how you play, so you should just memorize these.

2. What are made hands?

You already know most hands from the articles on the rules of Texas Hold’em: to the article.

In the case of two-pair, three of a kind, straights, flushes or better, we call the hand a monster, since it is very often the case that you have the best hand. If played correctly these could potentially win you lots of money.

Single pairs also fall into the category of made hands. There are only two very good types of single pair, however, which will now be extensively explained. These are Top pairs and Overpairs.

TOP-PAIR
If you have a pair which has been made using one of your two starting cards and the highest community cards, then you have top pair.

The situation may arise that you had top pair on the flop, but the turn or river brings a higher card. For instance, you have a pair of jacks on the flop and the turn is a king. You no longer have top pair – anyone with a king would now have it.

OVERPAIR
This is the situation where your two starting cards form a pair, and this pair is higher than any community card. There is no ‘top pair’ hand that is better.

NOTE: Having two pairs is different to having two pair

When we refer to having “two pair“, we mean that both of your pairs are made using one of your starting cards (hole cards). This needs to be differentiated from when you simply have two pairs, due to there already being a pair on the board (thus one of the pairs is in the community cards – meaning everyone has that pair). In this situation your opponents might already have three of a kind or a full house.

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3. What are unfinished hands/ Draws?

Draws are those hands which are not good made hands, but that can develop into made hands if a helpful community card is dealt. There are strong and weak draws, depending on the number of helpful cards which would improve your hand. If you have a flush draw, then there are 9 cards which could complete it. If you have a pair, there are only two cards which will improve it to a three of a kind.

If your two cards, combined with the community cards, contain 4 cards of consecutive rank, then you have an OESD. This is short for open ended straight draw. You do not currently have a straight – this would require 5 consecutive cards, yet an extra card at the top or bottom end would complete your straight. In the example below, there are 8 cards which complete your straight – any ace and any 9.

FLUSH DRAW
If you have four cards of the same suit, you have a flushdraw, since an extra community card of that suit will give you a flush.

MONSTER DRAW
A monster draw is a flush draw and a straight draw combined. There are cards which can give you a flush, and ones which give you a straight. With 9 outs for the flush and 6 outs for the straight you have a total of 15 outs to a strong made hand.

GUTSHOT
The gutshot is the smaller brother of the OESD. You have a chance of hitting a straight but you are missing an internal card, hence the name gutshot, or belly buster. The straight is missing a middle card – the stomach so to speak. In the example below, a jack is required to make the straight, so there are only 4 cards in the deck which can complete our draw. A gutshot draw is therefore much weaker than an OESD.

DOUBLE GUTSHOT
There is a third type of straight draw which is more difficult to recognise. We call this a double gutshot (or double belly buster) and it is the combination of two gutshot draws. In the example below, the two gutshot draws are (ace, queen, jack, ten) and (queen, jack, ten, eight). As you can see, any king and any nine give us a straight, so there are 8 cards which complete our draw. This is the same number of helpful cards as an OESD, so the two draws are of the same strength.

OVERCARDS Suppose you have no made hand and none of the above draws, but both your cards are higher than any community cards, then you have what are called overcards. This is admittedly not a strong draw, but if you hit a pair, then it will become top-pair.

OVERCARDS + GUTSHOT It may be the case that you have two weak draws, but together these form a strong draw. A classic example of such a combination is having overcards and a gutshot draw.

4. What are worthless hands/ Trash?

Hands other than those described above will rarely be able to win a showdown. They have little opportunity to improve and are not good made hands.

5. Summary

That was a lot of poker knowledge you just took in. Don’t worry if there are card combinations which arise that you cannot immediately recognise and react properly to. This is how we all started, and with time you will automatically recognise situations and be able to decide what to do.

It is important that you note the three main types of hand:

• Made hands
• Unfinished hands / draws
• Worthless hands / trash

You know the main representatives for the three types of hand. Top-pairs and overpairs are made hands. You know that two pair or better are known as monsters. You know the most important types of draw, that is, flush draws, monster draws, overcards and the three straight draws – OESD, gutshot and double gutshot.

The next step on your journey to becoming a successful player is to learn the article on playing the flop. In the article Flop play you will learn how to play your hand after seeing the first three community cards. Further articles will teach you how to play the fourth card (the turn) and the fifth card (the river).

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