Hey Lovers and Friends, we’re back at it again. Looking back at my losses from the last couple of months, a chunk of it was from playing combo-draws... which I seem to NEVER hit. Perhaps that’s just my way of saying, “I don’t what the hell I’m doing.”

Typically when I flop a combo-draw OOP, I immediately wet my panties and go for the check-raise (no matter how strong or weak the draw is or who my opponent is). Apparently this line of thinking and play has gotten “my panties in a bunch”, so to speak. Also, it has accrued more losses than profits in the past few months.
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Example Hand (weak combo-draw)

$2/5
Casino
9-Handed

Hero
BB: 5♦️7♦️
Stack: $450

PreFlop: 4 Players Limp. You CHECK in BB.

Flop: 5♥️2♦️3♦️

BB: CHECK
EA: BET $25
CO (NIT old Asian): RAISE $75
BB: FOLD or ALL-IN?
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Recently, I’ve been reading “Exploitative Plays in Live Poker” by Alexander Fitzgerald (by no means am I advertising or endorsing the book), the author vaguely touches up on this topic. He suggests to “Donk-BET” weak combo-draws. I quote a section from the book:

“Donks-bets are best reserved for situations where your hand has EV, but not strong enough to check-raise all-in or you DON’T want to blow up pots OOP with check-raising.

Hands that are good to Donk:

♦️Hands you want to bet for three streets of value (sets, two-pair, especially small two-pairs, and top pair top kicker combinations that are likely to remain top pair).
♦️Small flush draws (that can’t be check-raised all-in).
♦️Small straight draws (that can’t be check-raised all-in).”
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I know the example hand I wrote, isn’t a “Donk-Bet” situation specifically... but it certainly is relatable.

So my questions are:

* What is your line of thinking in these situations?
* Do your plays differ if you play against different playing styles: NITs, LAGs, Maniacs, etc.? If so, how?
* How do your plays differ with different stack sizes?
* How do you play combo-draws in similar situations that have been successful?
* Do you agree/disagree with the author? How so?

Any advice, opinion, wisdom added are all appreciated.

Full disclosure, I don’t play any higher than $2/5

Mix of call and raise in this exact hand. Calls keep a 4 and overs with a diamond in your range too (image helps here if u are seen as splashy or loose).

Issue is that a raises here that get one fold behind you must be followed up with a turn bet on a lot of bricks. Realize that a diamond turn can still be trouble so proceed with caution on those if it’s still 3 way.

In a lot of low stakes games your opponent’s raise is trips or an overpair, so if your opponent is the type to never fold an overpair, following through with turn and river bluffs may not be the best course.

Obviously never fold here but just calling invites the player behind you to call with over cards.


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Why not BET, CALL as a poll option?


You can call AP, but raise isn’t bad given 3ways. If you raise at this decision point all-in is your only size.

There isn't a single best line because there are too many other factors. Just how good your draw is matters a lot, both in terms of how many ways you can hit and how strong your hand is if you hit. How many opponents are you facing? How sticky are they? What was the preflop action? How deep are stacks? What is your image? All of these matter.

In general multi-way you really need to look at how strong your outs are. If your drawing a low flush and the bottom end of the straight it's often better to give up even if you have a good number of outs. Heads up it matters more how sticky your opponent is, if they are weak you can push your draws more, if they are sticky then chase passively more.

As for the specific example, fold unless you really think you can push them out with a shove. In general the nit probably has a better made hand that isn't going away and the other player is too likely to have a better flush draw. The risk of a better flush draw makes flatting too expensive relative to the risk.