Playing draws: Question

I'm curious as to what some of you guys think with this. My best friend and I both got into poker together, and he plays his draws more aggresive than I do. For instance, if I am open-ended on the flop, I will almost always semi bluff by opening with a bet (or raising a bet once), however if I am raised I usually will just call, or 3 bet it (if I think the guy is full of shit, which happens often enough), however my friend will cap the betting if he can on any major draw. So my quesiton is, am I too passive by not reraising my draws (say against 3 opponents, If I am raised)? I see the two different routes here, my friend takes bigger payouts on his draws when he hits, however if he misses, chances are he will be bet out of the pot and will lose the 3 or 4 bets extra he played on his draw, where I will save money and take a smaller payout if I do happen to hit. Which method of play do you guys think is the most effective at building your bankroll in the long run?

Exante,
I maybe stepping out of my league by giving advice, but I'll give it a shot. Any real players advice would be taken a lot more seriously than mine. Anyways, if I have a big draw and there are multiple people in the hand, say four or five, I play it a lot more aggressively with the raises and so on. If it is heads up or two players in it, I usually call down or throw in the occasional raise if I think the players are betting mid or bottom pair. Now, is that correct play? Haven't the slightest clue, but I know if I'm on a big draw and multiple people in it, i'd like to have the pot as big as possible so when I do hit I get paid as im getting about 5 or 6 to 1 on my money. And a lot of times, the players with a decent hand who play weak will fold their semi-strong hands. Again, cant say this is right or fact, but it seems to be working for me. Any of the players here can feel free to rip me apart as this is just my strategy.

IMO it depends on a lot of factors. If you think betting it is gonna make someone fold then by all means bet it. However, if someone is giving you raises back then I would not be capping it unless it was very strong draw like flush plus either gutshot or pair, or you think the guy is full of it. If there are a lot of ppl in the hand and you are drawing to the nuts then ya go crazy with your flush draws. Personally, I like to bet my draws on flop for the possible free card and in case I hit it, then slow down if I miss and see what happens on the turn and river.

I'm in no real position to give advice either on this subject and hopefully a pro will write what they do in these situations. Basically the correct play all depends on the pot odds (how much will be in the pot to the chances of making your hand) If you flop a flush draw you have a 35% chance of making it on the turn or the river. So if you confer that the final pot will have 35% or less of chips that you put in to it you can bet it as hard as you want (this usually means more then heads up or 3 even in 3 way action). If you do get a flush draw on the flop in a situation that is heads up, I like to semi bluff by betting first or raising your opponents bet if you also hold a pair or gutshot. Semi Bluffing will typically only work if you're opponent is somewhat afraid of you and think that you hold something in your hand. If you know you're opponent is going to call you down no matter what with Ace high then it's sometimes better to just play passively and create table image that you will just call on your draws and sometimes call river with absolute crap. This will make players bet against you with bottom or middle pair and then you can reraise them on turn or river with your top pair and get them to pay you off. Making yourself look like a donk is not always horrible if you think the players will stay there for a while. Whenever I enter a live game with unknown players i'll raise something like JQ and play it to the river. You can then play your typical style with your opponents thinking you have never played before and they will call you down with anything. I call this the "cute girl effect" where no one believes that she knows how to play. Hopefully this helps but I would like to see what Druff or Linden has to say about this topic though.

ok ill take a stab

here it my opinion depends on 4 things: the type of draw, the number of players in the pot, your position, and ur and other player's past actions at the table.

so quickly ill show 1 example,

say ur bb and 2 limped in and u have KQ and u check.
board comes J 10 5 (2 suited). here u should come out betting and if u get raised make it 3 and come out betting on the turn. WHY? say ur up against someone with a flu draw and the other guy with a 10 7(middle pair). U are actually a favorite to win the hand Second someone may fold his middle pair and third some could be bluffing and the other one with say A high flu draw. these are scenarios where ur aggresivity will win u the pot. what ir ur way off and the person has AJ. well then no biggie since when u 3 bet ur actually gotta a good shot to win (close to 40-45%) and ur not oging to get raised on the turn and its only gonna cost u the bluff bet on the river. thats a 1 bb for a good chance to win the pot (what if ihe has KQ as well?) The thing about it is u have to be a thinking player what if u did this move and got caught then next time dont play it the same way, instead remember the hand and play 2 pair and trips that way. so that ur opponents puts u on the draw.

other examples might be u have AK suited and 3 rags flop and 2 suited cards give u a flush draw then go ahead and have fun raising on the flop and come out betting on the turn cause ur the favorite agaisnt most hands.

other examplers might be to get a free card on the turn if ur in late position. which is a simple idea but youll be surprised how often it works. specially with a lot of people in the pot.

ON THE OTHER HAND say u have 76 off in the big blind a tight player raises and the everyone folds and u call the flop. A 5 8 (2 suited cards) flops. say u check the tight player bets. Here i gotta say call see the turn and if it doesnt help fold it. WHY? cause simply he probably has an ace or a big pair (which he wont fold) also he will be looking for weak players to try to make a play with the draw since the board is suited. and u are simply not getting enough pot odds to chase this straight draw on the turn to see the river.

so it depends

I hope that was a joke...

While the others' opinions are also true, I think it is very important to mix things up - play big draws aggressively one hand and passively the next.

while you must mix up your play the best times to play draws aggresssivley are when there are a lot of players in the pot, when you are heads up, and when you are in position.
are two of those contradictory? no.
if you are heads up all you have to do is get one player to fold so it is often worth taking an aggressive approach. the essence of a good semibluff is having two ways to win and against only one opponet you should have a resonable chance of him having nothing and/or folding the best hand.
against a lot of opponents it is often correct to raise for value. dont raise if it will knock people out, but if there is a bet and everyone calls, then raise, and build a huge pot. you will be theoretically gaining ev on every bet that goes in the pot. in multiway pots the best draw is often favored over the best hand so get as much money in as you can.
lastly raising in position will often allow you to take a free card if you so desired, which is good .
matty

If you are convinced that your opponent(s) won't fold, it's better NOT to pour a ton of money into the hand, since you're actually the underdog.

If you're going for free card, then raising can be good in any case, but beware of more advanced players who will 3-bet you and bet out the turn if the flush card doesn't hit -- thereby making the card EXPENSIVE instead of free.

If you have multiple draws (pair plus flush draw, flush plus straight draw, etc), you are more justified to keep raising, since your hand can be good in many ways, including some that aren't so obvious to your opponent.

Best scenario: If you have a flush AND open-ended straight draw, you are a FAVORITE to make one of the two by the river. Keep raising the flop endlessly in that case, but you might want to slow down a bit if you miss on the turn.

It all depends on what you think your "share of the pot" is on the flop. After the flop, every player has a certain % chance of winning. Picture the hand like it would be on ESPN. If you know enough about percentages and can put a few people on a range of hands then you can get a pretty good estimate if you have your share of the pot or not. If there are 4 players and you have a strong draw, you most likely have a better than 25% chance of winning thus justifying raising as many times as you can. Just because you think you might only have a 20% chance doesn't mean you shouldn't call (because of pot odds), but it does mean you should want the flop as cheap as possible. This of course is a general statement and neglects all other factors such as

1.) mixing up your play
2.) raising or calling to knock out or keep in players to keep the pot odds optimum for you
3.) the small chance that you can win without a showdown
4.) raising for the "free card"
etc.

cap