No Limit Texas Hold’em Strategy Hitting a Set with Flush Draw on Board
If I have said it once, I have said it 1,000 times, internet Texas Hold em players will play ANY two suited cards. I have seen it over and over again, players playing cards like 6-2 suited, 9-4 suited, 2-3 suited. I don’t know why they do it, I just know that they do it. You need to be constantly vigilant, but particularly when you hit a set and the board has a flush draw on it.
I was just playing a Full Tilt multi table tournament when I saw for aproximately the 10 millionth time, a player hit a set with a club draw on the board. He slow played his set and he slow played himself right out of the tournament when his opponent sucked out a flush on the River.
First of all, slow playing is always risky when you are playing online No Limit Texas Hold’em simply because many players will play virtually any two cards. This means that there are large number of possible hands that can beat you. But, when you have a pocket pair and flop a set, you must at least try to protect your hand.
Sure, you may get sucked out on anyway, but you have to at least take a shot, especially if you are up against a big chip stack. This is another internet phenomenom, big stacks (usually inexperienced players) will play way more hands than they should and will turn into call-stations trying to chase their hand down just because they have the chips to waste.
Here is a rule of thumb: if I flop a set and I see a flush draw, I will come out with a minimum of a 1/2 pot sized bet. I may adjust this according to the size of the chip stacks of the players left in the hand, but I will seldom, if ever, check in this position. You just cannot allow your opponents any free cards if you see a flush draw on the board. It is essential that you make them pay to chase down their draws.
Yes, you may not maximize your potential win in certain hands, but it is far better to take down small to medium size pots than it is to lose huge ones that you were hugely favored to win.
The other thing that I would add to this, is that you will notice more “suck-outs” and more players playing suited hands, the lower the dollar level games you play in. If you move up in value, you will find that the players are better, understand pot odds more, and therefore, you can adjust your bet amounts accordingly. You still need to protect your hand in a situation where you have flopped a set, but you will need to be less aggressive about it as you progress to higher dollar games with better players.
The next time you play online No Limit Texas Hold’em, remember this and you will find that you encounter less suck outs and you will stick around longer in tournament play as well.
