Pat Straight in a Pot-Limit Draw Tournament

[bigpooch]

You definitely have a call here and there is no doubt about
it. Your opponent would have likely raised before the draw
with two pair a small amount just to attempt to get heads
up with the limper in which case it is very likely he has a
draw that he completed. Also, straight draws are very
troublesome hands, especially in PL and you often see them
beaten by better complete hands after the draw. A raise of
any amount will clearly be -EV plus your opponent may not be
playing any straight draw (for example, he may muck small
straight draws since they have almost no chance of winning
by pairing although arguably he may play a hand like AKQJ).

Also, in this case, there is a slight chance if the limper
is a bad player that he may overcall with trips.

[Tom Bayes]

Thanks for the input. This is pretty much what I thought after it was over and I should not have gone broke on that hand. I tend to hate straight draws in pot-limit and avoid them unless they are free or very cheap. My hand was a textbook case of the inherent weakness of straight draws-you are dead if someone hits a better draw and you aren't good enough to get away from your hand.

Flush draws (particularly to the ace-high flush) are much more attractive. I occasionally like to open-raise pre-draw with a strong flush draw in good position against tight players in the blinds. I try to raise just like I would if I had any hand good enough to open with-a big pair or two pair or trips. You have multiple ways to win: you can steal the blinds (which can be significant in the latter stages of a tourney), you can bluff post-draw (very opponent-dependent), you can pair up the ace (or another big card) and sometimes that's enough, or you can actually make the flush.

[DOMIT]

FWIW, I agree, this is a call.. not a raise.