How to Play After Flopping a Big Draw in a Multi-Way Pot
DECISION POINT: In a no-limit hold'em tournament, the player sitting under the gun raises preflop, the next two players call, and you call as well from the hijack seat with J?8?. Everyone else folds and it's four to the flop which comes A?K?10?. UTG checks, MP1 bets, and MP2 calls. Action is on you...
PRO ANSWER: When holding a draw and facing a bet, the first step you should take is to calculate your pot odds. In this case, there is 5,500 in the pot already and it costs us 1,500 to call. If we choose to call, there will be 7,000 total in the pot going to the turn. Without taking into account any future betting, if we hit our draw 1,500 / 7,000 or about 21 percent of the time, this call will show a profit.
We have a flush draw and gutshot straight draw, so we have 12 outs. Using the "Rule of Two," we have about a 24 percent chance of hitting on the turn (12 x 2 = 24). Even if we discount the king of diamonds as an out (since it pairs the board), we still have a 22 percent chance of hitting on the turn.
Since our chance of hitting is greater than our break-even equity given the pot odds, calling with our draw is profitable. This eliminates folding as an option.
What about raising?
One of the primary benefits of raising would be to induce folds from your opponents. Since this is a multi-way pot (four players on the flop), the chance of getting all of our opponents to fold is very low. Therefore raising would simply put more money into the pot when we are behind.
We should take the profitable pot odds we are getting and call the flop bet with our draw.
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