Playing The Megadraw
Understanding the power of the megadraw. Many players have vastly different reactions to flopping powerful draws. For the purposes of this article, we're looking at hands that are clearly monster draws, like open ended straight flush draws; J10d on a Q94dd board. Even with just queen jack high as our technical hand right now, we have an incredibly powerful hand that can actually be played multiple ways, depending on the situation and players at hand. Before we go into that, however, let's just take a look at how powerful this hand truly is compared to some of the likely holdings your opponent may have here. Against AQs, your hand stands to be a solid 56.77% favorite over the top pair top kicker hand your opponent has. A hand like 109 is an even greater dog; only a 35.86% chance of winning the pot, even though he has the current best hand.
How to use the megadraw- The beauty of the megadraw lies in its ability to win pots uncontested, as well as be a safety mechanism in case you semi-bluff into a monster. The more of your opponent's chips you can get into the center of the pot without him calling them off, the better. Most of the time, the megadraw will have a flush draw with it, and the flush draw can be hard to get paid off with. This makes the bet/three bet shove or check-raise shove more suitable for getting not only an immediate profit, but a greater overall equity in the hand. If you can get your opponent to commit 35% of his chips and fold with top pair top kicker against your straight flush draw, you actually make more money in the long run than if he calls the shove and you run out a 56/44 for his stack. So, look for the play that allows you to make the last move with the megadraw, especially on the flop; the turn devalues your megadraw significantly if you miss, so you're looking to make your move on the flop as much as possible.
Megadraw in action- Let's take a look at how a player would play a hand like AhQc in the following hand. He raises to $6 in a $1/$2 game from the cutoff, and gets flat called by the button, an aggressive player, with the effective stacks of the players at $100. The flop comes J102hhh, giving us two overs, a gut, and the nut flush draw. Although we're not 100% certain how many outs we have, we can count 12 (hearts and kings) as certain/near certain outs and 6 (aces and queens) as possible outs, giving us a robust drawing hand. The best way to play this, with the effective stacks as they are, is to bet an amount as a continuation bet that induces our opponent to raise, allowing us to three bet shove. I'd bet around $8-$12, letting him raise to $25-$36 and allowing us to make the $100 shove, giving us fold equity and the chance to draw to a hand that crushes his; if he has a hand like J9o or A10c, he'll be hard pressed to call the three bet with little chance to improve his hand.
How to use the megadraw- The beauty of the megadraw lies in its ability to win pots uncontested, as well as be a safety mechanism in case you semi-bluff into a monster. The more of your opponent's chips you can get into the center of the pot without him calling them off, the better. Most of the time, the megadraw will have a flush draw with it, and the flush draw can be hard to get paid off with. This makes the bet/three bet shove or check-raise shove more suitable for getting not only an immediate profit, but a greater overall equity in the hand. If you can get your opponent to commit 35% of his chips and fold with top pair top kicker against your straight flush draw, you actually make more money in the long run than if he calls the shove and you run out a 56/44 for his stack. So, look for the play that allows you to make the last move with the megadraw, especially on the flop; the turn devalues your megadraw significantly if you miss, so you're looking to make your move on the flop as much as possible.
Megadraw in action- Let's take a look at how a player would play a hand like AhQc in the following hand. He raises to $6 in a $1/$2 game from the cutoff, and gets flat called by the button, an aggressive player, with the effective stacks of the players at $100. The flop comes J102hhh, giving us two overs, a gut, and the nut flush draw. Although we're not 100% certain how many outs we have, we can count 12 (hearts and kings) as certain/near certain outs and 6 (aces and queens) as possible outs, giving us a robust drawing hand. The best way to play this, with the effective stacks as they are, is to bet an amount as a continuation bet that induces our opponent to raise, allowing us to three bet shove. I'd bet around $8-$12, letting him raise to $25-$36 and allowing us to make the $100 shove, giving us fold equity and the chance to draw to a hand that crushes his; if he has a hand like J9o or A10c, he'll be hard pressed to call the three bet with little chance to improve his hand.
