Draw on Full Tilt

Full Tilt, the world’s second-biggest online poker site, introduced draw games last Friday. This potential bonanza had been talked about for a while, but no dates were ever mentioned so I wasn’t exactly holding my breath. Then suddenly, it happened. My intention was never to deposit ever again, but the opportunity to make money from these new games seemed too good to pass up, so I transferred $600 onto the site. Now is a great time for Kiwis and Aussies to deposit (with the NZ dollar at almost 80c and the Aussie at parity against the greenback) and a horrible time to cash out.

So far it hasn’t turned to the cash cow I was hoping, although I had a busy weekend so I couldn’t play many hands. I started with $1-$2 badugi – one of my bread-and-butter games on Poker Stars – but I dumped $42.50 in that game in double-quick time. The play was far more aggressive than I’m used to on Stars – capped pots pre-draw with nobody pat were fairly standard – so it was high-variance stuff. I probably misplayed two or three hands and got a bit unlucky when my pat tens ran into better pats and people hit sevens and eights with their two-card draws.

I’ve also tried KCL (they have that at lower stakes than on Stars) and ace-to-five triple draw, a new game for me. Ace-to-five appears a less interesting game than deuce-to-seven but it has the potential to be profitable because my opponents might not know what they’re doing. There is one major snag however: I might not know what I’m doing either. Here’s my take on strategy so far:

• People tend to overvalue hands in this game. Something like 7643A isn’t as good as it looks. It’s number 14, equivalent to 87632 in 2-7 (in fact it’s even worse than that – see below). So by drawing to fives and sixes, people will pay off multiple big bets when you hit.
  
• Why is an A-5 hand worse than its 2-7 equivalent? Well, you’ll see monster hands more often in A-5 (that’s a scary fact given how often people show up with a wheel in 2-7). Take two-card draws to the nuts for instance. In both games there are ten of these, but in 2-7 some of them (namely 754, 753, 743 and 543) are unplayable unless you’re in position or can get in cheaply from the blinds; they can make the nuts but they can also make disasters. So a lot of these nut draws (and other things like 764 and 653) are folded from the start and never materialise. In contrast, it seems you can open any two-card wheel draw in A-5, from any position (I might be wrong about this). There’s also the fact that flushes count against you in 2-7, although the effect of this would seem to be small.
  
• On the subject of two-card draws, 62A (which can make nos. 2, 3, 4, 12, 13 and 16) appears to be better than 543 (which can make 1, 5, 6, 10, 11 and 21). They both seem playable in any position. Conversely, 72A (which can make 7, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 16) doesn’t look as good as 654 (4, 5, 6, 19, 20 and 21). I don’t think you should play either of those out of position.
  
• I’m still not sure what to do with one-card seven draws like 732A and 762A. I’d be more inclined to break the latter but I guess you should probably break both pre-draw if it’s multi-way. I’d be hard pushed to break a dealt pat seven.
  
• On the last draw in 2-7, a pat jack is a favourite over a one-card draw. In A-5 you need a pat ten to be a favourite. But in both games it can often be close to a coin flip, and if you’ve got a big draw beneath your top card you should probably go for the monster.
  
• In A-5 the likelihood is that someone will hit a hand before the last draw, so there are fewer opportunities to bluff on the end (or to snow) than in 2-7.