Chasing bad draws – not a winning idea!

There are times, when one is playing poker, that a drawing hand is worth playing. The reasons for staying would be to win a large pot if you make your hand. The other reason that you stay in is that you have many outs to win. Say you have two suited cards and two of the three cards on the flop are in your suit. You then have nine possible cards left in the deck to complete your flush. You also have 6 cards left in the deck that could pair your cards as well, giving you more ways to win. The idea here is that now you have more chances. In terms of making a flush, you need to consider your highest card versus that of your opponent. If you have the Ace in your hand, you have the best possible drawing – the nut flush. Anything else, well you are hoping that your opponent has a lower flush than you. And hoping is not the best way to play winning poker.

During my last two sit and go’s and one tourney, I found myself chasing bad draws. I had two cards of the same suit in my hand and two of the three flop cards were of the same suit as well. I called small bets on the flop, the turn and river in an attempt to stay in the hand. Two of the cards I needed would have given me a straight flush but those cards did not come out. I did end up with a flush and when my opponent bet out, I called by putting in about a third of my remaining chips in the pot. Although my opponent did not have the nut flush, the best possible flush, Ace high, his flush was higher than mine. I barely had half of my original starting amount of chips after losing that bet.

The results of these bad decisions made it difficult, if not impossible to recover from and win the games that I was playing in. In the end, I had lost both of the Sit n Go’s and the tourney.  By being more selective about my starting hands and by not chasing after the flop, I might have had more success. If I did chase, I should have chased only if my draw was the best possible one.

Do you chase flush draws? Do you chase straight draws? Are they the nuts or do you just hope that they hold up? What is your approach to drawing out?