Gut Buster
A time honored adage in online poker is “never bet on an inside straight.” The reasoning behind this principle is sound – there are only four cards in the deck that complete your hand. That makes it a long shot to win by 11-1. With those odds, you’ll only make the inside straight or “gut shot” once out of every 12 times you draw for it. When the pot is paying more than 12 times the bet you have to call, then you can consider drawing to your gut shot inside straight, but most often you should fold. Favorable pot odds are the only reason you can call for an inside straight. If you bet this poker hand every time it happens, you will lose over the long run. Sometimes you’ll be holding a made hand, like a high pair, when the gut shot opportunity materializes. In this case, you are now have more outs, since your pair could complete to trips, and your kicker could pair too. If you hit a flush draw with a gut shot too, then you have 13 outs, which gives much better odds of completing your hand. Betting to an inside straight is poor play. The only two time to go for it is when you have great pot odds, are holding a smaller made online poker hand, or have outs to other draws too, like a flush.
