Good Poker Hands To Bet On
Posted : admin On 4/14/2022Winning at poker isn’t all about fundamentals.
There are also times when it’s best to check instead of placing a bet. Only one in four poker hands makes it to show down, so being able to bet effectively has never been more important. In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot.
There are a handful of special moves that, when mastered, can make the difference between winning a little and winning a lot.
In this 10-part beginner poker strategy series we’ll show you exactly how to use these powerful poker moves to make more money.
A starting hand with a pair of aces is also referred to as pocket rockets. This hand, which is also referred to as American Airlines is the best starting hand pre flop out of all potential starting hands in Texas Hold'Em Poker. With a hand like this, betting more aggressively is advised. In poker, there are two types of players. The first group are players who take bad odds in hopes of getting lucky. The second group are players who cash in on the good odds that are left by the first group. Calculating Hand Odds and Poker Odds. Calculating hand odds are your chances of making a hand in Texas Hold'em poker. Poker Starting Hands - Comprehensive guide to which poker hands you should play, including a 2020 Texas Hold'em poker starting hands chart.
Today we’re talking about the light three-bet. This is another way to pick up pots even when you don’t pick up a big hand.
By incorporating light three-betting into your pre-flop repertoire you’ll not only exploit loose open-raises, you’ll also balance your range to help you get paid off when you do pick up premium cards.
How to Make a Light 3-Bet
Meet A Poker Bet
The What: Light three-betting refers to putting in a re-raise before the flop with hands that are probably worse than the opening raiser’s hand.
The When: Try to identify and attack loose players who are open-raising too often.
The Where: When you’re three-betting light you’re going to be in one of two spots -- either re-raising in position or from the blinds. It’s important to understand both scenarios.
The Why: Loose players who raise too much before the flop can be exploited because they’ll be forced to fold a lot of their marginal hands to a three-bet.
Light Three-Betting Done Right
To make things easy, just think about a light three-bet as a semi-bluff. You’re raising with a hand that, while not the best hand at the moment, has fold equity and can become the best hand on later streets.
Because one of the first things poker players learn is to be more aggressive, you’ll encounter a ton of players open-raising too much before the flop.
Once you’re able to identify these players you can exploit them by putting in a re-raise, even if you don’t have the cards to back it up.
It’s important to remember, however, that you must harness the power of the light three-bet or it could quickly become a big leak. The biggest risk for beginner players is not understanding how to play the hand post-flop when your opponents do call.
Don’t let the hand get away from you by automatically firing a continuation bet and multiple bullets on later streets. One way to deal with this is by only three-betting very good hands and very marginal hands with good flopability.
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Pro Tip: Polarize your three-betting range to make things easier post-flop
By staying away from hands like weak aces and big paint cards you’ll be faced with easier decisions later in the hand and you’ll cut down on times when you do flop something, but are dominated.
Good Hands to 3-Bet Light
Just because you’re widening your three-betting range doesn’t mean you should be re-raising every hand willy-nilly.
Going back to the analogy of the semi-bluff, you want to choose hands that have a good chance at becoming the best hand on the flop or on later streets.
Small pocket pairs are great hands to three-bet since sets are going to be the best hand the vast majority of the time. The same goes for small and medium suited connectors.
And as we discussed before, when you miss the flop with hands like these you’re less likely to get dragged into a big pot holding the worst hand.
Related Reading:
Light Three-Betting Balances Your Range
Balancing your range is a fancy way of saying that just because you’re raising pre-flop, it doesn’t mean you have a premium hand.
If you’re only three-betting with aces and kings your opponents will catch on and it will be impossible to get paid when you do pick up a monster. By raising with premium hands as well as speculative hands you have a more balanced three-betting range.
Imagine you’ve three-bet light with 8♦9♦ and ended up making a flush on the turn. When you show down that winning hand your opponents will take note that you three-bet with a marginal hand.
Then when you do pick up aces they’ll be much more likely to pay you off.
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Why Light 3-Betting Works
Light three-betting is one of the first intermediate Texas Hold'em moves you should add to your poker skill set because it helps counteract a common problem you'll find in most Hold'em game: aggressive opponents.
It's also especially important in tournaments when the blinds and antes get big and you can't just sit and wait for a premium hand. A lot of players understand that they need to open-raise a lot of pots but when they start doing that too often with weak hands they leave themselves open to getting four-bet.
If you can pick out these profitable spots to 3-bet light you can re-raise and force them to fold regardless of what your cards are. Watch the video below to see how it's done and continue your studies with our more comprehensive article on raising and three-betting before the flop.
Light Three-Betting in Action
If you’re still not convinced about the power of the light three-bet check out this video featuring Phil Ivey, Lex Veldhuis and Barry Greenstein. This hand takes the concept to the absolute extreme with a light three-bet, cold four-bet and a massive five-bet bluff jam.
Learn More Essential Texas Hold'em Moves:
In our poker math and probability lesson it was stated that when it comes to poker; “the math is essential“. Although you don’t need to be a math genius to play poker, a solid understanding of probability will serve you well and knowing the odds is what it’s all about in poker. It has also been said that in poker, there are good bets and bad bets. The game just determines who can tell the difference. That statement relates to the importance of knowing and understanding the math of the game.
In this lesson, we’re going to focus on drawing odds in poker and how to calculate your chances of hitting a winning hand. We’ll start with some basic math before showing you how to correctly calculate your odds. Don’t worry about any complex math – we will show you how to crunch the numbers, but we’ll also provide some simple and easy shortcuts that you can commit to memory.
Basic Math – Odds and Percentages
Odds can be expressed both “for” and “against”. Let’s use a poker example to illustrate. The odds against hitting a flush when you hold four suited cards with one card to come is expressed as approximately 4-to-1. This is a ratio, not a fraction. It doesn’t mean “a quarter”. To figure the odds for this event simply add 4 and 1 together, which makes 5. So in this example you would expect to hit your flush 1 out of every 5 times. In percentage terms this would be expressed as 20% (100 / 5).
Here are some examples:
- 2-to-1 against = 1 out of every 3 times = 33.3%
- 3-to-1 against = 1 out of every 4 times = 25%
- 4-to-1 against = 1 out of every 5 times= 20%
- 5-to-1 against = 1 out of every 6 times = 16.6%
Converting odds into a percentage:
- 3-to-1 odds: 3 + 1 = 4. Then 100 / 4 = 25%
- 4-to-1 odds: 4 + 1 = 5. Then 100 / 5 = 20%
Converting a percentage into odds:
- 25%: 100 / 25 = 4. Then 4 – 1 = 3, giving 3-to-1 odds.
- 20%: 100 / 20 = 5. Then 5 – 1 = 4, giving 4-to-1 odds.
Another method of converting percentage into odds is to divide the percentage chance when you don’t hit by the percentage when you do hit. For example, with a 20% chance of hitting (such as in a flush draw) we would do the following; 80% / 20% = 4, thus 4-to-1. Here are some other examples:
- 25% chance = 75 / 25 = 3 (thus, 3-to-1 odds).
- 30% chance = 70 / 30 = 2.33 (thus, 2.33-to-1 odds).
Some people are more comfortable working with percentages rather than odds, and vice versa. What’s most important is that you fully understand how odds work, because now we’re going to apply this knowledge of odds to the game of poker.
The right kind of practice between sessions can make a HUGE difference at the tables. That’s why this workbook has a 5-star rating on Amazon and keeps getting reviews like this one: “I don’t consider myself great at math in general, but this work is helping things sink in and I already see things more clearly while playing.”
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Counting Your Outs
Before you can begin to calculate your poker odds you need to know your “outs”. An out is a card which will make your hand. For example, if you are on a flush draw with four hearts in your hand, then there will be nine hearts (outs) remaining in the deck to give you a flush. Remember there are thirteen cards in a suit, so this is easily worked out; 13 – 4 = 9.
Another example would be if you hold a hand like and hit two pair on the flop of . You might already have the best hand, but there’s room for improvement and you have four ways of making a full house. Any of the following cards will help improve your hand to a full house; .
The following table provides a short list of some common outs for post-flop play. I recommend you commit these outs to memory:
Table #1 – Outs to Improve Your Hand
The next table provides a list of even more types of draws and give examples, including the specific outs needed to make your hand. Take a moment to study these examples:
Table #2 – Examples of Drawing Hands (click to enlarge)
Counting outs is a fairly straightforward process. You simply count the number of unknown cards that will improve your hand, right? Wait… there are one or two things you need to consider:
Don’t Count Outs Twice
There are 15 outs when you have both a straight and flush draw. You might be wondering why it’s 15 outs and not 17 outs, since there are 8 outs to make a straight and 9 outs for a flush (and 8 + 9 = 17). The reason is simple… in our example from table #2 the and the will make a flush and also complete a straight. These outs cannot be counted twice, so our total outs for this type of draw is 15 and not 17.
Anti-Outs and Blockers
There are outs that will improve your hand but won’t help you win. For example, suppose you hold on a flop of . You’re drawing to a straight and any two or any seven will help you make it. However, the flop also contains two hearts, so if you hit the or the you will have a straight, but could be losing to a flush. So from 8 possible outs you really only have 6 good outs.
It’s generally better to err on the side of caution when assessing your possible outs. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that all your outs will help you. Some won’t, and they should be discounted from the equation. There are good outs, no-so good outs, and anti-outs. Keep this in mind.
Calculating Your Poker Odds
Once you know how many outs you’ve got (remember to only include “good outs”), it’s time to calculate your odds. There are many ways to figure the actual odds of hitting these outs, and we’ll explain three methods. This first one does not require math, just use the handy chart below:
Table #3 – Poker Odds Chart
As you can see in the above table, if you’re holding a flush draw after the flop (9 outs) you have a 19.1% chance of hitting it on the turn or expressed in odds, you’re 4.22-to-1 against. The odds are slightly better from the turn to the river, and much better when you have both cards still to come. Indeed, with both the turn and river you have a 35% chance of making your flush, or 1.86-to-1.
We have created a printable version of the poker drawing odds chart which will load as a PDF document (in a new window). You’ll need to have Adobe Acrobat on your computer to be able to view the PDF, but this is installed on most computers by default. We recommend you print the chart and use it as a source of reference. It should come in very handy.
Doing the Math – Crunching Numbers
There are a couple of ways to do the math. One is complete and totally accurate and the other, a short cut which is close enough.
Let’s again use a flush draw as an example. The odds against hitting your flush from the flop to the river is 1.86-to-1. How do we get to this number? Let’s take a look…
With 9 hearts remaining there would be 36 combinations of getting 2 hearts and making your flush with 5 hearts. This is calculated as follows:
(9 x 8 / 2 x 1) = (72 / 2) ≈ 36.
This is the probability of 2 running hearts when you only need 1 but this has to be figured. Of the 47 unknown remaining cards, 38 of them can combine with any of the 9 remaining hearts:
9 x 38 ≈ 342.
Now we know there are 342 combinations of any non heart/heart combination. So we then add the two combinations that can make you your flush:
36 + 342 ≈ 380.
The total number of turn and river combos is 1081 which is calculated as follows:
Good Poker Hands To Bet On Demand
(47 x 46 / 2 x 1) = (2162 / 2) ≈ 1081.
Now you take the 380 possible ways to make it and divide by the 1081 total possible outcomes:
380 / 1081 = 35.18518%
This number can be rounded to .352 or just .35 in decimal terms. You divide .35 into its reciprocal of .65:
0.65 / 0.35 = 1.8571428
And voila, this is how we reach 1.86. If that made you dizzy, here is the short hand method because you do not need to know it to 7 decimal points.
The Rule of Four and Two
A much easier way of calculating poker odds is the 4 and 2 method, which states you multiply your outs by 4 when you have both the turn and river to come – and with one card to go (i.e. turn to river) you would multiply your outs by 2 instead of 4.
Best Poker Hands To Bet On
Imagine a player goes all-in and by calling you’re guaranteed to see both the turn and river cards. If you have nine outs then it’s just a case of 9 x 4 = 36. It doesn’t match the exact odds given in the chart, but it’s accurate enough.
What about with just one card to come? Well, it’s even easier. Using our flush example, nine outs would equal 18% (9 x 2). For a straight draw, simply count the outs and multiply by two, so that’s 16% (8 x 2) – which is almost 17%. Again, it’s close enough and easy to do – you really don’t have to be a math genius.
Do you know how to maximize value when your draw DOES hit? Like…when to slowplay, when to continue betting, and if you do bet or raise – what the perfect size is? These are all things you’ll learn in CORE, and you can dive into this monster course today for just $5 down…
Conclusion
In this lesson we’ve covered a lot of ground. We haven’t mentioned the topic of pot odds yet – which is when we calculate whether or not it’s correct to call a bet based on the odds. This lesson was step one of the process, and in our pot odds lesson we’ll give some examples of how the knowledge of poker odds is applied to making crucial decisions at the poker table.
As for calculating your odds…. have faith in the tables, they are accurate and the math is correct. Memorize some of the common draws, such as knowing that a flush draw is 4-to-1 against or 20%. The reason this is easier is that it requires less work when calculating the pot odds, which we’ll get to in the next lesson.
Related Lessons
By Tom 'TIME' Leonard
Tom has been writing about poker since 1994 and has played across the USA for over 40 years, playing every game in almost every card room in Atlantic City, California and Las Vegas.