Jonathan Little's Weekly Poker Hand: Two Pair vs. Open-Ended Straight Draw
Poker pro and coach Jonathan Little has been producing a wide variety of strategy content for poker players for some time, including authoring multiple books and sharing videos and articles on his website and elsewhere, much of which is free to players of all levels seeking to improve their games.
Little started his popular "Weekly Poker Hand" series on YouTube several years ago, and recently he decided to switch up the format to begin featuring footage from live small- and medium-stakes cash games and tournaments.
In the episode shown below, Little is back at Stones Gambling Hall to analyze a $5/$5/$10 cash game hand that provides a handy lesson in how to play drawing hands from out of position.
Action begins with everyone folding to Baysy in the cutoff — a loose, active player — who raises to $35 with 4♥2♥. Little points out the potential problems with playing such a hand, then watches as the Dave O on the button calls with Q♠6♥ (another play Little doesn't recommend) and The Wolf calls from the big blind with Q♣10♠.
With $120 in the middle the flop comes 4♦J♣9♥. The Wolf checks, Baysy bets $80 with bottom pair (essentially a semi-bluff, Little explains), Dave O folds, and with his open-ended straight draw The Wolf snap-calls. Here Little suggests a check-raise to have been a better choice for The Wolf than calling.
With the pot up to $280, the turn brings the 2♠ to give Baysy two pair, and The Wolf checks again. Baysy is certainly going to bet again, but how much should he bet? And how should The Wolf proceed? Fold? Call? Check-raise?
Little continues to analyze the players' choices and the situation from there, covering the following topics as he does:
- starting hand selection (and preflop strategy)
- semi-bluffing
- check-raising
- value betting
- implied odds
Take a look:
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,900,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. Sign up to learn poker from Jonathan for free at PokerCoaching.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
