All too often I find myself chasing straights and all too often, the hand fails and I lose a large amount of chips.

With a 1 in 6 chance of hitting a gutshot straight draw, the odds are not in my favour. With an openended straight, the odds are slightly improved to 1 in 3. A gutshot straight draw is where you may have cards like 5679 and you are chasing the 8. An openended straight draw is where you have 4 consecutive cards like 5678 and you need either the 4 or the 9 to hit your straight.

With odds that are not so good, why do so many players chase these hands? Cheap bets are one reason. If your opponent makes a small bet, you are more than likely going to call. What if you miss? What if your opponent bets huge on the next card - will you stay in the hand? At some point you are going to be pot committed and you are not going to want to throw away your hand after putting so much cash into the pot. So what do you do?

The only way is to learn when to chase and when not to chase and how to play the hand.

Lets say you have 78 in your hand, you are the big blind and nobody raises. The flop is 56J. You now have an openended straight draw with the turn and river to come. You may think the best action is to check as techinically, you only have Jack high but if you do this, you will show you have a weak hand, the pot will remain the same size and you are also giving your opponent valuable information by checking. The only move with a hand like this, is to bet a reasonable size to show a bit of aggression. You could win the hand there and then or you could get a couple of callers. If you get callers, they may well just check to see what you will do and if you didnt hit on the turn, you can check and get a free card. This way you have given the impression you have a great hand and you gave yourself two chances to make your straight plus you upped the pot size too.

Words of caution - watch out if you have the bottom end of a straight. Example. You have 89 and the flop comes 10 J Q. Your opponent could be holding K A and you lose. Watch out for pairs on the board - someone could be holding a full house and again, you lose.

With gutshot straight draws, if you can see a cheap turn and river, by all means stay in the hand but dont call huge bets and dont come out with all guns blazing as the odds are you will lose.
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