Finally, we’ll continue with the discussion of how nut-low/straight draw hands fare against high hands with little or no chance for low. You’ll remember we are playing 2345. Your low hands will, of course, not always be this good, but if it’s against only one low card showing (the 8♦), you’ll play any low draw every time!
First, 2345 is of four different suits. The results are shown in Table 10.14.
The main theme of this hand is that the 2345 hand that started off so well will now only win around 1/6 of all money. Of course, because it was so large a favorite earlier in the hand, the holder would likely have raised so much there will be enough in the pot to get 5:1 pot odds to stay in! The bad news is that a lot of it is your money. Pot equity will dictate that you stay in, though, as you will have put in around 25 percent of the pot your- self, which means you need to stay in for your 16.1 percent chance, because if you fold, it will be inefficient by 8.9 percent. Compounding the problem is that you now have no chance for the high side of the pot, as you can’t beat the Queen-high straight held by the second player.
TIP:
Remember, having two and even three suited cards does you negligible good. As you go for your low, how- ever, if you can get to four suited cards, with one or even two cards to go, your winning percentages will go up dramatically.
Bonus! Remember that a pair does not need to be showing for someone to have a full house. It would necessarily have to come on the river because, with only two cards unseen, the most there could be is three of one rank. Keep that in mind.
Conclusion
Most of your losses will come from making inefficient plays on the flop and fourth street, where the possible outcomes make memorizing all combinations difficult. On the turn and on fifth and sixth streets, a player above a rank amateur should begin to see what is pos- sible and what is probable with their hands. The main thing to realize is that a player does not master the situations all at once. Instead, over time the sheer repetition of seeing the same and similar situations over and over again will ingrain them in your head. The next chapter talks about the river, when the dealin’s done.
