How to Play Combo Draws on the Flop in Texas Hold’em

Take Advantage of Fold Equity

Any time you’re making a bet or a raise, you always benefit from fold equity. Simply put, fold equity refers to the equity you gain from the chance that your opponent will lay his hand down and forfeit the pot to you.

Obviously, calling has zero fold equity. Fast-playing combo draws will not only give you excellent equity in the pot from your draw – you’ll also gain fold equity.

Example: You defend your big blind with 7 6 after a late-position raise. The flop comes 8 9 2 . You check, and your opponent bets. You have an open-ended straight draw plus a flush draw. Instead of simply calling, check-raising fast builds the pot and leverages fold equity. Even if called, you still have many outs to hit a winning hand.

Say you flop an open-ended straight-flush draw. You bet the flop and your opponent raises. Now you’re getting more than the required odds to call (you’re actually a favorite here versus any one-pair hand), but you shove instead.

At this point you can win the pot by hitting one of your numerous outs or you can win by having your opponent fold. 

How much do you like getting one pair all-in on the flop? Not a very appealing prospect, right?

So you can exploit tight players by fast-playing your draws. They are in a lose-lose situation. If they call, they’re a slight favorite at very best. If they fold, they forfeit all of their equity in the pot.

This is a situation where you make both folding and calling incorrect for your opponent! Don’t believe me?

The Power of Redraws in Poker

Poker is a game of choices and mistakes. You make money by making the correct choices and capitalizing on the mistakes of your opponents.

The more mistakes you can encourage your opponents to make, the more opportunities you’ll have to make some serious money at the tables.

If your opponent knows what you’re playing and how you’re playing it, they will never make a mistake; for this reason it’s crucial for you to disguise your hands and to play deceptively.

Related Reading:

• How to Fix Your Poker Mistakes

2 Types of Made Hands in Poker

There are two main types of made hands: hidden and obvious. The more hidden your hand is, the more likely your opponents are to make mistakes. There are two circumstances in which your hand qualifies as hidden:

• The hand is naturally disguised.
• You played the hand in a deceptive manner.

A Naturally Disguised Poker Hand

A naturally disguised hand is a hand that your opponents don’t see as a possibility or one they assume it’s improbable for you to be holding.

Example:

• Board:9 4 K 5 7
• Hand:8 6

In this example your opponent may have been astute enough to have put you, correctly, on a flush draw on the flop. What was completely hidden was your double inside runner-runner gut-shot. There is no way for a decent player to ever see a river with a naked 6-8.

For this reason any player with a marginal to large hand (you’re really hoping to be up against a set here) won’t think twice before paying you off. More often than not your opponent here will be convinced that they’re the one value betting you.

This example is disguised in both ways as there is no logical way to put you on the hand and it’s even hard to see that a straight is even possible on this board. Many players without a few thousand hours of experience in the game will miss this possibility completely.

A Powerful Idea in Hold’em

The hand above is an example (albeit a very loose one) of a redraw. A redraw is an extremely powerful idea in Hold’em and a critical part of playing Omaha. You always want your hand to have the ability to improve on later streets.

The stronger a chance your hand has of improving, the more value the hand holds on earlier streets. This flop:

Flop:K 9 8

Hand:A K

is an example of a typical flopped redraw.

Your flopped top pair, top kicker is most likely the best hand (giving you a large amount of equity in the pot), while you have a nine-out redraw to the nut flush. The equity lost against better hands and strong draws against you is partially recouped by the redraw.

A redraw hand is the most common way to be holding a strong, or even nut, hidden hand. If you changed the cards around in the previous example to you holding top pair, top kicker with a backdoor flush draw, you’re now in a position to play for the hidden hand value.

It doesn’t make sense to be betting on the come of a naked backdoor flush draw. For this reason, if you’re betting your TPTK with the backdoor draw, your opponents will assume you’re betting top pair and typically ignore any possibility of you holding the backdoor flush.

The ideal situation is for your opponent to be drawing against your pair with a straight draw, or some other hand such as a two pair. If your opponent misses you win a small to medium-sized pot.

If your opponent hits, you lose a small to medium-sized pot, while if your opponent hits his hand on a card to bring your backdoor draw, chances are you win a very large pot.

Deceptive Play in Poker

When your hand doesn’t naturally lend itself to being hidden, the only other option you have is to play your hand deceptively. Even if the hand you hold is the most likely and obvious choice, if you play it deceptively enough to confuse your opponent, you’re able to achieve hidden status.

Betting on the come, check-raising draws or even exercising pot control with a big single pair are all examples of potential deceptive plays.

Anytime you pick a line that opponent believes you’re unlikely to take with the hand you actually have, you’re being deceptive.

Sometimes the most deceptive play is the most straightforward. If you have an opponent reading too much into you, trying to be far too tricky, sometimes doing the obvious ABC correct move will be subterfuge enough.

When playing against beginners, they are prone to stick to reasoning like “If he has a monster, it makes no sense for him to make large bets, since he wants the call.” So by making large bets, you’re convincing them you’re weak.

If your opponent’s image of you is that of a straightforward player, checking the obvious best hand can be deceptive enough to force a mistake by them.

If your opponents always know how you will play when you hold different types of hands, they will always know what hand you’re holding. Playing with your cards faceup will allow your opponents to play a mistake-free game. If your opponents make zero mistakes against you, you’re playing a game you cannot beat.

Take Hidden Hands into Consideration

When evaluating your hand selection you want to take hidden hands into consideration, but only after remembering the basics. Oftentimes being deceptive, or playing hands known to be likely to flop a hidden draw, can cost more money than it will earn.

If everything you do is hidden and deceptive then your opponents will assume you’re doing just that and will adjust their play accordingly. You need to play a mix of straightforward and deceptive poker, allowing you to maximize your earnings on most hands while using others to set up future plays.

Just remember that being deceptive should never take the place of adhering to solid poker fundamentals. If your deception is always building small pots with big hands and big pots with small hands, it’s hurting your game and your profits more than it’s helping you.

It’s a fine line to walk between deceptive and straightforward profitable. Once you can manage it, though, chances are you’ll be crushing your regular game in no time.

Utilizing Solver Insights with Combo Draws

Modern solvers show that hands like flush draws with additional straight potential (for instance 8 7 on a 9 6 2 board) often become mixed strategies of calling or raising, depending on factors such as stack depth, position, and opponent tendencies. At shallower stacks, immediate fold equity can be more valuable, while at deeper stacks, calling to exert pressure on future streets might gain more EV.

In many solver outputs, premium combo draws retain enough equity and fold equity to justify fast play most of the time, but small adjustments, such as raising smaller on the flop or waiting until the turn, can exploit players who fold too frequently at certain bet sizes. For experienced players, analyzing opponents’ turn continuation tendencies can be the key to unlocking these subtle edges.

Incorporating Future Street Simulation

Some professionals now use sophisticated poker tools that simulate multiple streets ahead, factoring in both your equity and the fold equity you can generate. These simulations consider how often each turn and river card improves your hand or your opponent’s range. By modeling these branches, you can identify specific spots to apply extra pressure with combo draws and spots to pot control when your implied odds look weak.

For instance, if a turn card completes a high-card flush or an obvious straight, a good simulation might reveal that continuing aggression is more profitable when stacks are still deep enough for your opponent to fold. Meanwhile, if the turn card is unlikely to help your perceived range, a check might be more optimal for pot control, even with a strong draw.

All of these advanced approaches build on the fundamental principle of fast-playing combo draws. They simply refine the process further, helping you adapt to tougher opponents and higher stakes.