Triple Draw Basics Part 3 - After the First Draw

Playing the First Draw

Now that we have gotten a basic understanding of the different types of hands we are going to encounter before the draw and a basic idea of how we are playing before the first draw, lets venture out to where the hand starts to develop further. The first draw.


The Auto Bet Feature in Triple Draw

Yeah you heard right, the "auto bet feature." What is that? Well it has everything to do with your position, how many you are drawing and how many your opponent is drawing. Say you are heads up and in position. Your opponent draws 2 cards ahead of you and you draw 1 card to an 86. Now your opponent checks to you. You can bet without even seeing what card you just drew! You were ahead before the first draw and he either is a) still on a 2 card draw at which point you are ahead and must make him pay to draw! or b) now on a 1 card draw with you which doesn't even mean he is ahead (remember for all he knows we just caught a wheel!) or c) trapping, but you still must make this automatic bet oh and don't forget, we havn't even seen what we drew yet! Chances are he is drawing! Make him pay!

This goes the other way... If we draw 2 and our opponent draws 1 we can check blind because he should be making his automatic bet. When it is back to us to call we can see what we picked up. If we drew a pat hand we can check raise! If we improved to a 1 card draw we can call and if we are still on a 2 card draw we generally will be folding here before the hand gets any more expensive. There are some times you would still call here but for now we muck when we could possibly be down 2 cards and are definetly down at least one.

So are we grasping this concept? From time to time I see players who give out free cards like candy and this is great! Lets not be that guy! When we are ahead we bet - it really is that simple.


Playing when we improve and when we don't!

Now that we understand the simplicity of betting when drawing less than our opponents lets cover what to do after the draw when we don't improve and what to do when we do!

So you and your opponent both drew 2 going into the first draw and he checks to you. You picked up a J and a K. Do you bet? NO! The only thing betting accomplishes is allowing him to check raise you if he caught good as he has no reason to fold to someone taking as many cards as himself. Don't bet here. There is no value in it.

Now suppose you did improve that 2 card draw and he checks an you see you have picked up a 5 to make your 238 a 2358. Now you bet! His checking indicates weakness and although he will most likely call he is still most likely drawing 2 going into the 2nd draw and you are only taking one! You must assume you pulled into the lead here and bet to make him pay to outdraw you!

So when we draw the same as our opponent and don't improve we check, when we improve we bet! Does this make sense? Hope so, this is how the game is played.. You will be betting.. A lot.

How to play when behind or drawing the same out of position

First off what constitutes being behind? Well obviously drawing more than our opponents! So if we are drawing 2 and our opponent raps pat and bets on the first draw what do you think we do with our hand? We muck! Are we going to call down as he bets for 3 draws and try to get lucky? I didn't think so. When you are behind more than one card this is an easy fold.

Now say we are first to act and us and our opponent drew 2. We check and our opponent bets. What to do? Go ahead and call one if heads up. If we are against 2 or more players out of position we fold but heads up, lets take advantage of our one last cheap betting round and try a call every now and then. Sometimes he may still be drawing the same, sometimes he improved by one card, and sometimes he is rapping pat. On the flipside sometimes he was full of it, sometimes we draw good, and sometimes we draw bad again! In any of these cases we act accordingly after we recieve our 2nd draw.


So here we covered some basics on the first draw. Some key points to remember are the "auto bet" feature, checking when drawing the same, and that after the first draw, if drawing the same, it can be okay to take one more draw from time to time. A lot is happening in the first draw, I can only cover so much in one article but here are a few tips to help you out on the first draw!

I will most likely be coming back to this article at some point to add more but for now I just wanted to get it up for people to give some input and hear some feedback!

2.) cap the pot

"First off what constitutes being behind? Well obviously drawing less than our opponents!"

I think this needs an edit somewhere?

And yeah, cap the pot, lol.

Mondogarage wrote:"First off what constitutes being behind? Well obviously drawing less than our opponents!"

I think this needs an edit somewhere?

And yeah, cap the pot, lol.

oops... I will fix it. Nice catch!