Thread: THE FLUSH
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Old 09-17-2007, 01:36 PM
Frosteater Frosteater is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 130
Default Re: THE FLUSH

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My opponent-reading is not excellent yet, but as a strict rule I don't go for a flush unless it is Ace-high.

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I started out with the same mindset, but you should work on changing this. A few points that might help:

<ul type="square">[*]Watch a few videos from forum members. I assume you're playing with scared money in regards to flushes and probably had your fair share of flush over flush beats. You'll often encounter the "well, if he has a higher flush, there's nothing I can do about it" mindset in the vids. Let it brainwash you into ticking the same way.
[*]Monotone boards look quite intimidating, but try to approach these as rationally as you can. After all, you're not assuming your opponent hit a set on every board you play with him, do you? This means, just because the possibility of a flush is there it doesn't mean your opponent actually has made one. Quite the contrary, as long as you have a hand it's often a good idea to keep the pressure up since a flush draw is more likely here than a made flush. The more you accept to play lower flushes the more often you'll encounter this scenario by the way. Just be aware that your flush isn't the nuts, so if you face heavy resistance (especially if the board is four to a flush), be ready to give it up, if you have to.
[*]Most importantly by just playing ace high flushes you're actually neglecting suited connectors, which is a huge mistake. They're pretty good hands and to tell you the truth I'd much rather 3bet 98s than AJs. The reason is that SCs are much less likely to get you in trouble than suited aces (since top pair, while looking pretty, often doesn't cut it with the latter), your opponent doesn't really expect you to have them in the micros and to top it off there are a few spots where you can play your suited connectors extremely strong. For example whenever you have an open-ended straight draw in addition to your flush draw.
[*]An option to make your weaker flushes more profitable would be to raise more. I don't know how you are playing your suited hands preflop, but let's say you limp 87s on the button, then you're letting in hands like K4s and the like in for cheap. If you raise these hands preflop, you are drastically cutting back crap hands that would dominate you draw-wise postflop. Once you're playing a raised pot you're usually ahead once you made your flush.[/list]