Online Poker Forum - Need a few tips

romanbellic7 · High Card Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 8

After becoming stuck in a bog playing Texas Holdem, I dusted off the copy of Super System and began playing stud high/low. I now find myself enjoying poker now more than ever. So I have a few questions ,if some of the more experienced players wouldn't mind answering?
If you have a 3 straight hand or a three flush starting hand, but see that the board has quite a few of your cards out(i.e.,cards that would make your straight or flush)should you go ahead and play it and see what happens on fourth street? And finally, I know it's best to play a hand that plays strong both ways, but just how strong of a high hand would you suggest going with? Thanks in advance for any input you can give me.

vectorspace · Royal Flush Joined: 17 Dec 2007 Posts: 918 Location: Texas

I'll try to tackle this one.

First, the general idea is to go for the low part of the pot and possibly backdoor into a high hand. Starting with hands that have high only potential is generally bad. There are exceptions to this though, which I'll talk about later. The hands considered to be monsters are rolled up hands (just as in stud hi) and also 3 suited babies. The more connected the suited babies are, the stronger the hand is. Ac2c3c for example is a very powerful hand. This hand can brick out on you by 5th street if you catch say Jh, Td and might have to give it up. If you instead catch the 5c, then you now have a monster drawing hand and should raise at every opportunity. You won't be tossing a rolled up hand until at least 6th and that's only if you have very good reason to believe someone has you beat.

As for cards being out and whether or not to play, that depends on a lot of thing. Say you have 643 and an A, 5, 6, 6, J, Q, and 8 are out against you. You're going to have a difficult time making a straight, but with 25/32 low cards still in the deck you've got a decent chance at making a low and it's likely to be the best low so I would take a card off in this hand. If instead, you had 875 and 3 6's were out, I'd chunk the hand. Even if you make a low it probably won't be best. With that kind of hand, you're just throwing money away by playing it.

Can you play high only hands? Yes, but carefully. With 99+ and only 1 or 2 hands to beat, you can raise. Since you'll likely only have to beat one hand, the med-high pairs rise in value. Do not play 99-KK if the pot looks like it's going to be contested multiway. If you don't improve to trips or even a fh, there's a good chance you won't even get 1/2 of the pot. Rolled trips, especially 999 can be played straightforward most of the time. Most people will think you just have a pair and are stupid for raising with a 9 showing. I'll take a card off on 4th if it's cheap with strong drawing high hands like KdQdJd or QQJ sometimes, but not if it's been 2 or 3 bet and I've got to make a cold call.

SS2 is a great read btw. Todd Brunson't Stud hi/lo section has the best advice on that game that I have read.

romanbellic7 · High Card Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 8

Thanks for the help Vector

DforDissent · Royal Flush Joined: 30 Mar 2009 Posts: 669

Crucial to your decision re. 3rd street play is, how many people will be seeing 4th street with you.

If you are at a HU or 3handed table, then it's not that important how many of your desired cards are gone, since often you won't be seeing a showdown, it will be all about representing a made low with a potentially scary board that might also have a high already (which means you will get them to fold on 6th often, and on 5th even sometimes) ... but fullring, you've only invested the ante, and even if you are the bringin, if you think your draw is damaged (let alone crippled) by 3 or more of your "need this to make a hand" cards, then it's a good idea to just fold outright, since at fullring you often are going to just take down half the pot, so you want to make sure you will actually WIN it when you get there.

Same reason you should like fold an unsuited 87x 3-low hand where "x" is a 5 or low, because you have a HORRIBLE straight draw, no flush draw, and yor low draw is the worst possible... again, nothing but the ante invested, even in a tournament and short-stacked you're gonna get a better hand to put chips in soon enough...

PS:

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