Playing Suited Cards
Many players treat suited cards like a small pocket pair. However, the odds of making a flush on any given hand is not nearly as high as most players would think, yet they’ll continue to call big bets on the flop and turn in order to try and catch that final heart or spade. Flushes can payoff big when you hit them, but the goal is to draw at them for the right price without getting overly invested in a pot.
Like any two cards, you should prefer that your suited cards be face cards, like QJ, KQ, etc. Small suited cards like 97 are hard to play even if you do make a flush, because there’s a chance that you can be crushed by a player with a higher flush. And in general, remember that having suited cards before the flop only adds 2% extra to the strength of your starting hand.
Flushes, if you have big suited cards, are great to catch against multiple opponents. If the flop comes with two suits that match your hole cards and one player bets an average amount and 2-3 players call, this is a hand worth drawing at. However, if it’s heads up on the flop against just you and one other guy and he moves all-in for a large amount and all you have is the flush draw, the correct play is probably to fold. Yes, your chip and stack and type of poker game your playing (cash or tournament) does play a factor, but during the beginning stages of your poker hobby, you want to play most situations the same.
Pre-flop, especially against a raise, whether or not your cards are suited shouldn’t play a factor unless you’re looking at AQ or similar hands. Calling a pre-flop raise with J9 suited or K10 suited maybe look tempting, but in the long run you will end up folding your hand a lot more than you will be raking in chips with it.
