One of the most exciting situations in poker is when you hit a flush or straight as you are generally a lock to win a substantial pot. However, many players struggle with how they should play their draws, that is before they have actually hit their flush or straight but this article should give you some insight of how to do so.

There is no correct or incorrect way to play a draw of any type although you should mix up your game to keep your opponents guessing. If you always play a draw in the exact same way then you make yourself easy to read and you will not be paid off as much as you would be if you altered your approach to chasing draws.

If you play online Texas Holdem, especially at the lower levels, then you will not need to mix up your play as often as you would think as your opponents generally pay less attention compared to players in a live environment. This is because online players often play more than one table at a time and have a number of distractions around them.

One common approach is to play draws passively so that you lose the minimum amount of money if you miss your draw. As a rule it is the weaker players who do this as you should be thinking of maximising the money you can win, not minimising the money you could lose. If you continually play Texas Holdem passively you will not progress very far.

The main drawbacks to playing draws passively is that they become very easy to spot and you do not win as much money when you make your flush or straight. Imagine you have AsQs on a board reading 6s5sTc giving you a draw to the nut straight and your opponent bets and you flat call. The turn is a 2d, your opponent bets and you call again. The river is a Js giving you the nut flush. Now you opponent checks, if you bet then you are basically telling him you have the flush and he is unlikely to pay you off.

However, if you used some aggression in the hand you may get your opponent to pay you off handsomely despite the flush coming in. You could flat call on the flop as in the passive example but instead of just calling on the turn you could make a raise. Your opponents will generally expect you to play a draw passively so if they call your turn raise and the flush comes in on the river they are less likely to give you credit for it and could make a bet, or better still a raise, with a much weaker second-best hand to your nut flush.

There are situations where aggressive plays are better than passive ones and vice versa, it is all player dependent. It is your job as a poker player to make the right play for the right opponent so that you maximise your profits in the long term.