Hi everyone!

I have been playing in a friendly 5-card Draw poker game for a while now, and I'm starting to get the hang of it, one thing that I still struggle with is playing pat hands, ie when dealt a great hand like a flush or a straight, you presumably take no extra cards. The problem is, this shows such strength that it's almost impossible to get value from hands worse than a big two pair basically.

When my opponent is tight, I usually try to get value from other hands, by taking no extra cards and repping strength which usually gets them to fold, but against a player that often calls, that can be very risky.

So how do you get value from your pat hands? Thanks

pst every single hand

As someone who's played 5card draw all of 3 times, my advice would be to pat occasionally as bluffs/semibluffs. For example, pat some of your two-pairs, trips, etc. Doing so balances your patting range so it isn't obvious when you pat that you have an actual pat hand like a flush or straight.

I wouldn't go so far as to pat every hand because I think that would miss out on significant drawing equity. However, I will stand pat often in heads up spots if I'm in a steal position with a bad hand that has little chance of improving to a value betting hand.

For the most part, I think you just gotta hope that they have a decent hand or a good draw from which to get value. Remember that there's always money in the pot and sometimes you should be happy that your ev is near (pot) in these situations.

Don't take it from me though as I hardly ever play 5cd.

Hi.

Bet.

Also bet hands you normally would fold without drawing. (I'm assuming you normally would fold hands like K8732 without drawing). Bet these hands the same as you would bet a dealt flush.

Do this until you get caught bluffing. Then stop bluffing.

Never show your hand unless your bet gets called. The idea is to not let your opponents know how you're playing.

Buzz

Pick your spot to pat bluff. One wonderful spot to do it is when you 3bet a preflop raiser and they draw 1 or 2 and you have garbage.

Biggest part of the value is the bets you collect pre-draw, no?

Also, as others have said playing a little tricky by occasionally snowing and patting some strong but non-pat hands.

Playing well in pat vs pat and pat vs big draw spots is also important in nl/pl games.

Could be, I suppose. But if that's the case, I think your opponents are all folding to a bet from your pat hand after the draw.

And if they're doing that, I think you want to take advantage of it. The way you take advantage of your opponents folding when you bet a pat hand is by playing some bust hands like pat hands. (In other words by bluffing).

If your opponents are going to give you credit for always having a pat hand when you don't draw and then come out swinging on the post-draw betting round, you may be able to get away with bluffing in this manner for a long time, perhaps forever.

If and when you finally get caught bluffing, stop bluffing... just play actual pat hands in this fashion... for a while anyhow.

Buzz