Hiding Monster Hands

Winning $100 with pocket 7's is better than winning $10 with a royal flush. When players tell me nice hand, I think to myself, so what. Getting the hand is purely down to the luck of the deal, what I do with the cards and how I play them is what I concern myself with.

Every player, at some time or another will get a hand they feel is unbeatable. The difference between a winning and losing session can come down to how you play these monster hands.

What is a Monster hand?

For arguments sake we will call a monster hand a straight flush. Anything less and you can be in for a bit of a bumpy ride if the betting turns into a full scale war. I have lost with a straight flush before although it was when I was playing Omaha. When you possess a monster hand, you want everyone and their dog in the hand, you want others to have a strong hand, and you want to extract the maximum possible value from your hand.

Hiding a Straight Flush

You cannot really hide a pat hand so with a straight flush I would recommend a flat call from the early position. Your aim is to keep everyone in the pot. If you flat call, you are hoping for someone to raise over the top of you before the draw. Once the draw has taken place the full table should know you have a pat hand (or figure you on a bluff). So you want to get as much money into the center of the table as possible, pre-draw. You are also hoping that someone lands a pat hand after the draw.

Hiding 4 of a Kind

If you ever get dealt 4 of a kind, always remember to discard one card. That's a no-brainer really. Since we are talking about no-brainer's make sure it's the spare card you throw away. I've known people who get that excited they tossed away the wrong card and lost the hand, it does happen so make sure it doesn't happen to you.

Hiding Pat Hands

There’s not much you can really do about hiding a pat hand other than pretend you did it out of haste. This method is extremely well known and is usually seen as someone trying to hide a pat hand.

Pat Hand v Pat Hand

If you are up against another player with a pat hand you are assuming that you are still ahead, a good position to be in. Now you have to read your opponent. If he has a flush, he will be confident; he will also feel confident with a strong full-house. If your opponent has a straight he will be hesitant, he will be hoping for the split pot option to bail himself out of trouble.

Your Job

You should try to keep as many players as possible in the pot.

You want to get as much money as possible into the pot pre draw.

You want to give the other players the opportunity to improve on their hand.

If you are playing against a pat hand, you want to feign weakness.

If at all possible, you want others to think it is a bluff.

To Sum Up

Remember, unless you have a royal flush with the Ace of Hearts it is possible to lose. You are unlikely to fold the hand unless you are telepathic.

Monster hands mean monster bad beats and can be a bad blow to your bankroll. If you have been applying bankroll management you will recover, if not you may be back to the play money tables wondering where it all went wrong. In that case the blame lies firmly on your shoulders, you can always be excused for a bad beat, that’s just down to bad luck, you can never be excused for poor bankroll management.

Where can I play 32 Draw Poker?

32 card draw is exclusively played on the Entraction network. probably the most famous and reputable site on the network is devilfishpoker.com I suggest you stick with established sites when choosing somewhere to play.

As a result of the U.I.G.E.A. , players based in American cannot play real money games on the Entraction Network, this means they cannot play this form of draw poker online. For real money US players, I suggest either pokerstars.com or fulltiltpoker.com Although you won't be able to play 32 Card draw, you have some great alternatives.