Interesting 5 card draw question....

[stripsqueez]

drawing one to 3 of a kind only halves the odds of making quads - it has no effect on your odds of making a full house - the card you keep with 3 of a kind is the same random non quad card you get first when you draw 2 and make a full house

i draw 1 nearly all the time because i am masking 2 pair and drawing hands - i draw 2 when there is no deceptive value or i think i might need quads

whilst keeping a kicker with a pair isnt an awful play i usually only do it with position against a rabid bluffer who pays attention but not enough to see that i never draw 2 to 3 of a kind - usually therefore my kicker is a lower rank than my pair

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[daveymck]

Dumb beginners question but why are kickers important?

[Tom Bayes]

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Dumb beginners question but why are kickers important?

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I'd only keep a kicker (usually an ace) with a pair for two reasons. The first would be if you were absolutely sure your opponent had two lower pair and you are trying to make aces up (or better) to beat him. The second is for deception, when you are trying to represent trips. If you are going to do this, then you need to bet like you have trips (i.e. no limping) and you need to sometimes draw 2 when you really are dealt 3 of a kind. There are lots of players that often limp in & keep the ace kicker and draw 2 to a pair but always try to hide their 3 of a kinds by drawing one. When these guys bet after the draw, they almost always have aces up or better and it's easy to make the proper play (raise or fold). If the guy changes it up on you, then you are confused postdraw when he draws 2 and you might make a mistake and either call a bet when beat or miss a value bet when ahead or fold to a bluff.

You want to be the guy forcing tough decisions, not making the tough decisions. In online cash games, if there are a few tricky players at the table, it's usually best to just find another table. Unfortunately, tournament guys like me don't get to run from tough players.

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Dumb beginners question but why are kickers important?

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In five-card draw, kickers aren't really that important -- they really only mater very infrequently since you've got to have, matched pairs, matched 2 pairs , or 2 flushes for kicker cards to matter. In community card games such as Hold-em or Omaha they are much more important by comparison, since the shared board cards mean that people are much more likely to end up with the same high hands.

Aside from covering play, the increased likelyhood of drawing a high second pair may be more important than the kicker value if you draw two cards to ace plus pair.