A common mistake made by players at the micros is drawing to a non nut hand. This brings up a situation called “reverse implied odds” where you are attempting to hit a hand that might be second best if you make it. This means that your reward for hitting your hand is losing a huge pot!
This happens a lot with straight draws.
Example:
on,
is probably the most classic example.
While it seems like a great spot to hit a rather hidden straight, the king might actually be a disaster card for you. Many low stakes players love to peel in these spots with ace high type hands such as,
Incidentally, they were actually correct to peel with this hand here especially if it is a big multi-way pot with deep stacks. The potential payoff if the king comes is huge.
Here is another common spot.
Example:
In the BB you have,
in a big multi-way limped pot. The flop comes,
This is a spot where you should be really careful about getting involved if there is any kind of significant action. I will sometimes just fold it outright on the flop to a big bet in fact. Oftentimes OOP here the only big action you are going to get when you make your hand is from a higher flush.
So always make sure that you double check your draws before you play them. Make sure that if you hit you can be confident that it will be the best hand. This situation will actually arise quite frequently at the micros due to the large amount of multi-way limped pots.
As a side note, the reverse is true as well. If you had the nut flush draw in the last example for instance, it might be worth sticking around for a big bet or two against several opponents as you might win a monster pot if the heart comes.
