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Of all the draws you can have in Texas Hold’em, straight draws are possibly the most difficult to play.  That’s because you have two different types of them in inside and open-ended straight draws.  Open-ended straight draws are obviously the most favorable to play since they give a person 8 outs while inside draws only offer 4 outs.  Since these two draws differ greatly from each other, it can be very difficult to decide what to do in each instance.  Here is a look at what to do when you have each draw.

Open-Ended Straight Draw

As mentioned before, open-ended straight draws definitely give you the better shot at hitting your hand by the river.  So you should almost always be drawing for a straight when you have this kind of hand since your pot odds will be correct.  However, you should watch out for a couple of things before you fully commit to your open-ended draw.

One of these things is when there is a pair on the board and other players are betting heavily; this means there is the potential for a full house on the board.  Another thing to beware of is when you’re only using one of your hole cards to make the straight because it’s likely someone else will be drawing for a higher straight.

Inside Straight Draw  

With an inside straight, your odds are cut in half so you will rarely call just based on this hand.  However, it makes sense to draw for the inside straight if you’ve got additional value in your hand such as overcards, a flush, etc.  You can also draw in this instance if there were several limpers before you since your pot odds will increase significantly.