How to play flush draws on the flop

A flush draw is a type of hand where you need one card of a certain suit to make a flush. Many beginner poker players face the question: how best to play such hands - aggressively or passively?

In fact, the correct answer depends on a variety of circumstances. In this article, we will focus on situations where you call an open raise preflop and face a bet on the flop. We will consider key factors that will help you make the best decision holding a flush draw.

Table of Contents:

- Playing against unknown opponents

- Aggressive play with a combo-draw

- Playing nut flush draws

- Board texture

- Number of players on the flop

- Opponents’ tendencies

Playing against unknown opponents

Optimal play with a flush draw will often depend on your opponent’s style. But what if the opponent is unknown and you don’t have enough information on them in your HUD?

In such situations, a good starting point is understanding which line brings you more money on average. This can be found in Hand2Note 4 reports.

Using a custom filter, I selected the hands in which I had a flush-draw on the flop:

Then I compared the Action Profit indicators for calling and raising in situations where I faced a continuation bet from an opponent on the flop:

As we can see from the screenshot, on average, a call brings me 5.6 bb per hand, while a raise only brings 4.3 bb.

Therefore, in situations where there is a lack of information, I will tend to follow a more conservative line and call with my flush draws, until I gather more data on the opponent and understand their style of play.

Aggressive play with a combo-draw

If calling with a flush draw is more profitable by default than raising, why then not always play it passively, simplifying the game, and what is the need for an aggressive draw play at all?

First of all, draws differ in strength. If your hand has the potential not only to make a flush but also a straight, this significantly increases its value because it more often improves to a strong combination than just a bare flush-draw.

With such hands, an aggressive semi-bluff raise can be very profitable. By raising, you apply pressure on the opponent and may force them to fold a better hand. Also, you increase your potential winnings if your hand improves on subsequent streets.

Let’s return to the report obtained in the previous point, and in the custom filter, we specify that on the flop we had not just a flush-draw, but a combo-draw:

We can note that now the Action Profit of a raise exceeds the similar indicator for a call. When playing, follow a simple principle: the stronger your draw, the more profitable it is to play it aggressively.

Playing nut flush draws

The main value of a nut flush-draw lies in the fact that when you complete your flush, it will be the highest, and if your opponent also has a flush, you can win a very big pot.

When choosing a line with a nut flush draw, you can rely on the highness of your kicker.

In Hand2Note 4 reports, we can see how often these or those hands win at showdown.

In the preflop matrix, I selected Ace hands with a high kicker, from AK to AT.

Then, using the custom filter, I selected situations where on the river I had a hand weaker than one pair.

Even without making any combination, with such hands I won at showdown in 36% of cases.

Now let’s select hands from A5 to A2 and compare the indicators.

With weak aces, my frequency of winning at showdown has decreased to 27%.

Based on this data, with a nut flush draw and a weak kicker, it’s more reasonable to play aggressively, applying a semi-bluff raise. With such hands, you are behind against stronger ace-high hands of your opponent, and by raising, you can fold them out.

If both your cards are high, you can comfortably call, trying not only to make a flush but also to reach showdown, as now you will more often be ahead of your opponent’s unmade hands.

Board texture

When playing a flush draw, the texture of the board plays an important role.

If the board is high and contains an Ace, the preflop aggressor’s range will be very strong, especially if you are playing against a regular player who raised from early positions.

This is because many strong starting hands contain an Ace and high cards. On such textures, opponents rarely fold to a raise, and it’s better for you to play more conservatively.

On low boards, conversely, in the range of the aggressor, there will be more weak hands, and by raising with a flush draw, you can often take the pot right away on the flop. We’ll consider this regularity in multi-player reports in Hand2Note 4.

For analysis, I selected tight regular players with VPIP below 25% and PFR less than 20%, who have at least 1000 hands in my database. Next, I filtered situations where they made an open raise from an Early Position and then made a continuation bet on the flop:

In the ‘Flop Board’ report, we can analyze their tendencies on different board textures. As expected, on low boards with potential flush draws, these players fold to a raise significantly more often than on high textures with an Ace and a King.

Thus, on low boards, you should attack more often with raises, while on high boards, it is better to play your flush draw more cautiously.

Number of players on the flop

The number of players involved in the pot on the flop also greatly affects your strategy. Firstly, with more players, the likelihood increases that someone has a strong hand. Secondly, in multiway pots, players usually prefer to bet with stronger hands.

For the report, I applied the same sample as in the previous point and modeled a scenario where players made a continuation bet on the flop against one opponent.

In the ‘Hand Strength’ tab, we can examine their betting range in more detail:

In this situation, weak hands make up 41% of their range, which is quite significant. Now let’s pin the obtained report, indicate in the report on the right that there were at least 3 players on the flop, and compare the reports side by side:

In a multiway pot situation, the portion of weak hands in the continuation bet range of these players significantly decreased to just 26%. Consequently, the more players there are in the pot on the flop, the more cautiously you should play your draws.

Opponents’ tendencies

When you have a reliable sample size on an opponent, the first thing to always do is analyze their statistics. If you see a vulnerability in the HUD that you can exploit, act accordingly, pushing aside all previous concepts. This way, you can maximize your profit.

Example:

A tight regular player made a raise from the Small Blind preflop, and we defended our big blind with a call holding T6 suited. On a flop of Q85 with two cards of the same suit, we caught a flush draw and faced a continuation bet from our opponent.

Obviously, folding our hand is not an option. From the first point of this article, we know that on average, calling with a flush draw is more profitable than raising. However, in the dynamic HUD of Hand2Note 4, we can spot a weakness in our opponent’s strategy.

He too frequently makes continuation bets out of position, specifically in 67% of cases. This indicates that his range includes many weak hands and bluffs. Moreover, when facing a raise, he folded 4 times out of 5.

Against such a player, a semi-bluff raise with a flush draw will be very profitable, and we will most likely take the pot with an unmade hand already on the flop.

Hand2Note 4 provides all the necessary tools to ensure that each of your decisions is well-informed and profitable.

You can analyze and improve your game, study statistics of your opponents, identify and exploit their weaknesses, and play your flush draws on the flop most profitably.